Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/255

 THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 243

Human groups, then, begin early to be conscious of distinct group-ends. The lowest in the scale is that of the horde, and then presently of the race. Each may be hard pressed in the struggle for food. It has, consequently, an intense group-desire to keep the group intact, as the means of defending the sources of food ; and, for the same reason, to weaken and beat off or destroy all rival hordes or races.

The ends which the groups pursue, as they develop from the horde, vary in two ways, which we may call extension and content. The former is represented somewhat ideally by the rising scale in the left-hand column. The latter may be repre- sented by combinations of terms in the other columns.

We may find a group at Stage III of conflict-development, for instance. Suppose we take Sparta or Athens as our illustra- tion. The society leads a very close and exclusive life. Its purposes are bounded by its own political confines. People beyond these boundaries are slightly esteemed. When accident brings the Spartans or Athenians into intercourse with outside individuals or states, the standard of conduct toward them is distinctly less sympathetic and humane than the public and private standards which the state or the population shows in domestic intercourse. Thus the social end, as such, is restricted in its extent. Meanwhile, in Athens, at the age of Pericles, many individuals have desires which we might represent as

follows :

Desire = a x +b vi + c v + d xi + e xiv + f vii.

Accordingly, the social end of Athens, compounded of many individual desires, might be symbolized, as to its content, in this way:

Social end = a vii +b m +c u +d viu +e xii +f iv.

/. e., every society whatsoever will have, in addition to its primary social end of self-existence, a qualitative end, which is the algebraic sum, so to speak, or, better, a chemical compound, of the desires cherished by its individual members within the realm of the several great interests.

Having thus pointed out the meaning of the phrase "social ends " in general, and having indicated that every human