The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-11-02

An in. crest ing cont ritu, ion 10 sociology
will toe found in he volume entitled Human
Nature and the Social order (Scribners), by
CHARLES HoRroN COOLEY, instructor in
sociology n the University OF Michigan.
y he tells W. in an int foduct DRY chapter,
the authors aim il 10 sc, forth from various
points of view what the individual II, con-
,idercd a. a member Of social whole
He recognize the necessity Of beginning
with definitions A separate individual.
he -av-. j. an abstraction unknown TO ex-
p,ricnco: 50. litewi-.. il society, when II is
regarded III something apart from indi-
viduais Human life may be considered
either in an individual aspect, or in a social,
l. @ a general, aspect; hut as matter Of
tact il il always both individual and general.
In other words, SOCIETY" and individuals"
do not denote separable phenomena but
are simply collective and disirihulive
ASPECTS of the same thing, the relation be-
tween them being like that bet wCen other
expressions. one of which denotes a group
a. "A whole, and the other the members Of
the group such as the army and the sol
diers, the elias, and the students, the Cahi-
net and its separate members
If those dcfinit ions ba accepted. MIR.
Cooley il right in detecting "a fallacy in the
current manner of speaking which sets the
social and the individual over Against each
other a. dist met and antagonistc We
are reminded that the word social seems
10 be- used in at least three diverse senses:
in none of those, according 10 our author,
does II mean something that can properly
be regarded as opposite To individual or
personal. In The largest sense, for instance,
the term social" denotes hat which per-
tains To the collective aspect of mankind,
to society in it's widest and Vaguest mean
ing In this sense the individual and all
his attributes are social nee they are con-
nccted with the general life in one way or
anoi her and are part OF "A collective de-
vrlopment Again, social" may mean what
pertains TO immediate intercourse, to the
life of conversation and facet o-faCe SYM
pathv-s oCiahe, in short. This - some
hing quite different, but no more anti
,hotical to individual than was the other:
il j.. indeed, in these relations that indi-
yiduality most obviously exists and oX-
presses itself Ia a third sense the word
"sorial" means conducive to the collective
welfare, and thus becomes nearly equiva-
lent TO moral, as when We say that crime or
srns,iality il unsocial, or anti-soCial Here,
again, the word cannot properly he made
the an,i,hesis of individual since wrong
il no more individual than right-but must
I've con,ras,cd with immoral, brutal, selfish
or some other word that has an ethical
indicat ion,
Mr.. Cooley recalls number Of express
sions which In common usage are closely
associated with the antithesis to which he
objects; such words for example, as in
dividualism socialism, particularism and
collect ivism, TO which in a footnote are
added free will, determnism, egosm and
altruism. which. in his opinion, involve
kindred misconception, Ar regards the
first four terms in part ocular, attention is
directed to the vagueness with which they
are used Our author cannot see, he says,
that life presents two distinct and opposing
tendencies that can properly lie called in
dividuasm and socialism, any more than
there are two dist met and opposing entities,
society and the individual, TO cmhody these
tendencies. The phenomena usually called
individualistic are always socialistic in the
sense that they are expressive of tendencies
growing out Of the general life, and ICON
trari. Use the o-callcd socialistic phenomena
have always an obvious individual aspect.