If at first we have two groups the members of which are all
differentiated from one another, then any one member of the one group
can be co-ordinated with any one member of the other group. This means
that we determine that the same should be done with every member of the
second group as is done with the corresponding member of the first
group. That such a rule may be carried out we must be able to do with
the members of all the groups whatever we do with the members of one
group. In other words, no properties peculiar to individual members may
be utilized, but only the properties that each member possesses as a
member of a group. As we have seen, these are the properties of
_association_.
First, the co-ordination is _mutual_, that is, it is immaterial to which
of the two groups the processes are applied. The relation of the two
groups is reciprocal or symmetrical.
Further, the process of co-ordination can be extended to a third and a
fourth group and so on, with the result that what has been done in one
of the co-ordinated groups must happen in all. If hereby the third group
is co-ordinated with the second, the effects are quite the same as if it
were co-ordinated directly with the first instead of indirectly through
the second. And the same is true for the fourth and the fifth groups,
etc. Thus, co-ordination can be extended to any number of groups we
please, and each single group proves to be co-ordinated with every
other.
Finally, a group can be co-ordinated with itself, each of its members
corresponding to a certain definite other member. It is not impossible
that individual members should correspond to themselves, in which case
the group has _double members_, or _double points_. The limit-case is
_identity_, in which every member corresponds to _itself_. This last
case cannot supply any special knowledge in itself, but may be applied
profitably to throw light on those observations for which it represents
the extreme possibility.
=28. Comparison.= If we have two groups A and B, and if we co-ordinate
their members severally, three cases may arise. Either group A is
exhausted while there are members remaining in B, or B is exhausted
before A, or, finally, both groups allow of a mutual co-ordination of
_all_ their members. In the first case A is called, in the broader sense
of the word, _smaller_ than B, in the second B is called smaller than A,
in the third the two groups are said to be of _equal magnitude_. The
expression, "B is greater than A," is equivalent to the expression, "A
is smaller than B," and inversely.
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