Social Value: A Study in Economic Theory, Critical and ConstructiveAnderson, Benjamin M. (Benjamin McAlester)
General
Social Value: A Study in Economic Theory, Critical and Constructive
Anderson, Benjamin M. (Benjamin McAlester)
Value
[89] It is easy for "analysis" to separate society into "individual"
monads, and impossible for "synthesis"--once the validity of the analytic
process is accepted--to put society together again. In fact, once the
analytic process is begun, and once its results are accepted as anything
more than matters of logical convenience, all unity and all organic
connections, whether in the social or in other fields, seem to vanish like
a dissolving show. There is a psychological doctrine of monadism, quite as
logical as the sociological monadology here criticized, which finds it
impossible to link together even the elements in a single individual's
mind. (See William James, _Principles of Psychology_, 1905 ed., vol. I, pp.
179-80.) Into what inextricable difficulties one falls, in pursuing the
monadistic logic, is more dramatically illustrated than by anything else I
know by Bradley's _Appearance and Reality_, esp. chaps. II and III. The
most useful viewpoint seems to be as follows: unity is as much an object of
immediate knowledge as is plurality,--both being, in fact, the products of
reflective thought. And unity is no more called upon to justify itself,
before we recognize its existence, than is plurality. _Cf._ William James,
_The Meaning of Truth_, New York, 1909, p. xiii; and also his _Psychology_,
vol. I, pp. 224-25. _Cf._ also the writings of Professor John Dewey.
[90] Jevons, _Theory of Pol. Econ._, 3d ed., p. 14.
[91] _Principles_, 1907, p. 15 (1898 ed., p. 76). See also Marshall's
criticism of Cairnes' conception of supply and demand, in the 1898 edition
of the _Principles_, p. 172.
[92] "Professor Clark's Economics," _Q. J. E._, 1908, p. 170.
[93] Davenport, _op. cit._, p. 300, n. It may seem somewhat unfair to hold
a man responsible for the view of another writer which he throws into a
footnote of his own book. One who has read Professor Davenport's book,
however, will recognize, I think, that this quotation does express
Professor Davenport's view. His discussion in the text on pages 300-301
affirms virtually this same doctrine, as a proposition of psychology. See
also his discussions in small type on pages 336-37. His whole system is
based upon this doctrine.
[94] See, especially, William James, _Pragmatism_, and _The Meaning of
Truth_; John Dewey, _Essays in Logical Theory_; and F. C. S. Schiller,
_Humanism_.
[95] The utter impossibility of adequately summing up a philosophic
doctrine in two or three sentences will excuse this statement to those
pragmatists who would prefer a somewhat different formulation.
[96] I am indebted for suggestions here to Professor H. W. Stuart's article
on "Valuation as a Logical Process," in Dewey's _Studies in Logical
Theory_, pp. 322-23.
[97] _Cf._ Baldwin, _Social and Ethical Interpretations_, _passim_, and
Cooley, _Human Nature and the Social Order_, _passim_.
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