Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/523

 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY 503

In the second volume of the Introduction, which is devoted especially to social functions and organs, we have proceeded, there- fore, to a new but incomplete synthesis. We have especially described the structure and the functioning of each of the social organs considered separately; however, we then strongly insisted that first the organs, next the groups of organs, and finally the systems of groups, always and necessarily present a correlative and simultaneous organization and functioning, and that all of these, including the systems of groups, which are the most extensive and the most complex forms of special social organog- raphy, are always agencies with a view to the service of the ensemble, which regulates their particular activity and acts upon their individual structure.

In our study, which has been at once both static and dynamic, of the organs, of the groups of organs, and of the systems of groups relating to the different classes of social phenomena, we have also recognized a certain order, which is both logical and natural. We have based this classification upon the degree of complexity and of specialty of the organization and functioning of the phenomena, and not, as in former classifications, upon the complexity and specialty of the phenomena themselves.

Accordingly, the economic system in its entirety is divided into three distinct but connected branches. The simplest and most general of these is that of circulation ; next in order is that of consumption; last, most complex and special of all, that of production. This is an important fact; for if, as we believe, the economic life is the foundation of the entire social life, it is the circulatory system that constitutes the lower story, the foundation, the basis of the entire structure and not produc- tion, nor the technique of production, as the school of Karl Marx maintains.

The circulatory branch of the system, likewise, according to a natural and logical order, includes: (i) the transportation of men and of utilities (a] land, maritime; (2) the transmission of offers and orders; (3) the circulation of signs representative of values ; (4) the circulation of public and private instruments of credit.