Human nature and the social order
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| Human nature and the social order |
Excerpt:
" Society and the Individual " is really the subject of this whole book, and not merely of Chapter One. It is my general aim to set forth, from various points of view, what the individual is, considered as a member of a social whole; while the special purpose of this chapter is only to offer a preliminary statement of the matter, as I conceive it, afterwards to be un-folded at some length and variously illustrated. A separate individual is an abstraction unknown.
This holds true of any social aggregate, great or small; of a family, a city, a nation, a race; of mankind as a whole: no matter how extensive, complex, or enduring a group may be, no good reason can be given for regarding it as essentially different in this respect from the smallest, simplest, or most transient.
So far, then, as there is any difference between the two, it is rather in our point of view than in the object we are looking at: when we speak of society or use any other collective term, we fix our minds upon some general view of the people concerned, while when we speak of individuals we disregard the general aspect and think of them as if they were separate.
Thus " the Cabinet " may consist of President Lincoln, Secretary Stanton, Secretary Seward, and so on; but when I say " the Cabinet " I do not suggest the same idea as to when I enumerate these gentlemen separately, r^ocifity, or any complex group, may, to ordinary observation, is a very different thing from all of its members viewed one by one as a man who beheld General Grant's army from Missionary Ridge would have seen something other than he would by approaching every soldier in it. In the same way, a picture is made up of so many square inches of painted canvas; but if you should look at these one at a time, covering the others, until you had seen them all, you would still not have seen the picture:
This is something quite different, but no more antithetical to an individual than the other; it is in these relations that individuality most obviously exists and expresses itself. Injijiurd sense the word means conducive to the collective welfare, and thus becomes nearly equivalent t.ojnoral, as when we say that crime or sensuality is unsocial or anti-social; but here again, it cannot properly be made the antithesis of the individual is surely no more individual than right but must be contrasted with immoral, brutal, selfish, or some other word with an ethical implication.
Some contents:
CHAPTER I
SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL
Are Aspects of the Same Thing The Fallacy of Setting Them in Opposition Various Forms of this Fallacy ... 1
CHAPTER II
SUGGESTION AND CHOICE
The Meaning of these Terms and their Relation to Each Other Individual and Social Aspects of Will or Choice Suggestion and Choice in Children The Scope of Suggestion Commonly Underestimated Practical Limitations upon Deliberate Choice Illustrations of the Action of the Milieu The Greater or Less Activity of Choice Reflects the General State of Society Suggestibility . . 14
CHAPTER III
SOCIABILITY AND PERSONAL IDEAS
The Sociability of ChildrenImaginary Conversation and its Significance The Nature of the Impulse to Communicate There is no Separation between Real and Imaginary Persons Nor between Thought and Intercourse The Study and Interpretation of Expression by Children The Symbol or Sensuous Nucleus of Personal Ideas Personal Physiognomy in Art and Literature In the Idea of Social Groups Sentiment in Personal Ideas The Personal Idea is the Immediate Social Reality Society must be Studied in the Imagination The Possible Reality of Incorporeal Persons The Material Notion of Personality Contrasted with the Notion Based on a Study of Personal Ideas Self and Other in Personal Ideas Personal Opposition Further Illustration and Defence of the View of Persons and of Society Here Set Forth ...... .45
CHAPTER IV
SYMPATHY OR COMMUNION AS AN ASPECT OF SOCIETY
The Meaning of Sympathy as here Used Its Relation to Thought, Sentiment, and Social Experience The Range of Sympathy is a Measure of Personality; e.g. y as Regards Power, Goodness or Badness, Sanity or Insanity A Man's Sympathies Reflect the Social Order Specialization and Breadth Sympathy Reflects Social Process in the Mingling of Likeness with Difference Also in that it is a Process of Selection Guided by Feeling The Meaning of Love in Social Discussion Love in Relation to Self The Study of Sympathy Reveals the Vital Unity of Human Life. .102
CHAPTER V)
THE SOCIAL SELF 1. THE MEANING OF " I "
The "Empirical Self " " I" as the State of Feeling Does Not Ordinarily Refer to the Body As a Sense of Power or Causation As a Sense of Speciality or Differentiation in a General Life The Reflected or Looking-glass "I" "I" is Rooted in the Past and Varies with Social Conditions Its Relation to Habit To Disinterested Love How Children Learn the Meaning of " I " The Speculative or Metaphysical " I " in Children The Looking-glass " I " in Children The Same in Adolescence"!" in Relation to Sex- Simplicity and Affectation Social Self- feeling Universal. 136
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