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
The unity of the social mind consists not in agreement
but in organization, in the fact of reciprocal
influence or causation among its parts, by virtue of
which everything that takes place in it is connected
with everything else, and so is an outcome of the
whole. Whether, like the orchestra, it gives forth
harmony may be a matter of dispute, but that its sound,
pleasing or otherwise, is the expression of a vital
cooperation, cannot well be denied.[112]
Professor Cooley stresses the unconscious character of many of these social
relations. "Although the growth of social consciousness is perhaps the
greatest fact of history, it has still but a narrow and fallible grasp of
human life." Cooley objects to the Cartesian postulate, which makes
"_cogito_," "I think," the fundamental and most absolutely certain fact in
the world. He holds that it grows out of the idiosyncrasy of a highly
specialized, introspective philosopher's mind, and that, for the normal
mind, "_cogitamus_," "we think," is just as obvious.[113] The "I" feeling,
and the "we" feeling are differentiated together out of the inchoate
experience of the child. And "I" and "we" are alike social in their nature.
The self, for Professor Cooley, is not a scholastic "soul-substance" or
transcendental ego, but simply a relatively differentiated portion of the
social mind. "'Social organism' using the term in no abstruse sense, but
merely to mean a vital unity in human life, is a fact as obvious to
enlightened common sense as individuality."[114]
I pause here to contrast this view of the "social mind" with that of some
other writers, of whom I may take Professor Giddings as representative. I
quote from page 134 of the 1905 edition of Professor Giddings' _Principles
of Sociology_:--
The social mind is the phenomenon of many individual
minds in interaction, so playing upon one another that
they simultaneously feel the same sensation or emotion,
arrive at one judgment and perhaps act in concert. It
is, in short, the mental unity of many individuals, or
of a crowd.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account