Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/218

 204 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Social life reveals a variety of processes which arise from diverse conditions, obey different laws, and have dissimilar effects.

The appearance of planes of thought or feeling, as well as the formation of groups, is conditioned by certain preliminary processes, which do not involve the action of man on man, and are not, strictly speaking, social. These may be termed socializ- ing processes. All the denizens of a given geographical area, inasmuch as they are being insensibly molded by the same physical surroundings, are thereby being fitted to receive the same culture, or to draw together into one society. All persons of the same calling are assimilated by the impressions and experiences connected with their work, and are thus qualified to embrace the same class ideal or to unite in defense of their class interests. Those who have the same manner of life, or receive the same education, become by that fact potential socii. Ante- rior to all these assimilations there goes on in childhood the "dialectic of personal growth" (Baldwin) by which the thought of the other person is built into the very foundation of the thought of oneself.

The chief ways in which the potentially social become actually associated are the collision of groups and the congregating of individuals. In the former case a series of processes is set up which leaves a rich sediment in the way of institutions and groupings. These have been fully described by Gumplowicz, Vaccaro, Ratzenhofer, and Ward. The processes that follow upon the pacific association of strangers have been described by Sighele, Rossi, Le Bon, Tarde, Giddings, and Cooley.

Whatever the mode in which grouping takes place, the inter- actions do not long remain on the psychic plane. Co-operation, either voluntary or compulsory, is instituted, and ranges from the simplest cases of mutual aid to the highest organization of industry and exchange. All these processes have been copiously treated by the economists and by such writers as Spencer, Schaffle, Lilienfeld, Durkheim, and Kropotkin.

An incidental effect of nearly every social process is that it renders men more unlike. If they do not compete with equal vigor, combine with equal promptness, or imitate with equal