Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/28

 16 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

there would evidently have been no possibility of bringing together the special regulations of the parts into a higher whole. Perhaps the connection between the enlargement of the circle and the negative character of its determinations shows itself most decisively in the following : The more generally, that is, for the greater circle, the norm is applicable, the less is its observance characterizing and significant for the individual ; while the failure to observe it is usually accompanied by especially severe and notable consequences. This is particularly the case : in the first place, in the intellectual realm. The theoretical understanding, without which there could be no human society, rests upon a small number of generally recognized, although of course not abstractly conscious, norms which we designate as logical prin- ciples. They constitute the minimum of that which must be recognized by all who want to hold commerce with each other. Upon this basis rests the most fleeting consensus of individuals least acquainted with each other, as well as the daily association of the most intimate. Intellectual observance of these simplest norms, without which there could be no reckoning with experi- enced reality, is the most inexorable and most universal condi- tion of all sociological life ; for with all variety of the subjective and objective world-view, logic produces a certain common ground, departure from which must destroy all intellectual com- munity in the broadest sense of the term. But logic, however, strictly speaking, neither means nor produces any positive pos- session whatever. It is only the norm against which we may not sin, while at the same time obedience to it does not afford any distinction, any specific good or quality. All attempts to win a specific cognition with the help of mere logic fail, and their sociological significance is conse- quently quite as negative as that of the criminal statute book. On the other hand, only failure to observe pro- duces a special and classified situation, while remaining within the norm affords to the individual nothing else than the possibility of remaining, theoretically or practically, in the generality. To be sure, from thousandfold divergence of con- tent, the intellectual nexus itself may fail, even with strict obser-