CHAPTER VI THE SOCIAL FORCES Desire the Stimulus to Action. In the preceding outline of social evolution it has been shown that the course of evolution is towards higher forms of life; and that this development is brought about through the processes of adaptation. It remains now to consider the ultimate cause of change in society. Why does the individual make any attempt to perfect his adaptation to the environment? To say that an individual would die if he did not adapt himself is not a satisfactory answer to the question. Why does he exert himself to keep alive? The lower animals at least have no calculations concerning life and death with an accompanying regulation of action to attain the one and avoid the other. The answer to the question is to be found in the fact that nature has implanted certain desires in the human organism, those desires being accompanied by feelings of pleasure and pain. Sensations are normally pleasurable when the actions producing them are for the welfare of the organism, and they are painful when the actions are detrimental to the organism. And the individual tries to regulate his activities so as to avoid painful and experience pleasurable sensations. In the last analysis then progress is brought about through the attempts of individuals to satisfy desires, the steps in the process being as follows: desire produces effort, effort brings about adaptation, and continuous adaptations lead to higher forms of life. Tracing the cause of progress back to the incentive for activity in the individual is as far as the sociologist needs to go. It is the task of the psychologist and the biologist to analyze the character and origins of the desires themselves. Desire of one sort or another is always the motive which causes the individual to act. As Ward says: 1 “ The cause, not 1 Outlines of Sociology, p. 144. only of the primary fact of association itself, but of all other human activities, is appetite. Whether looked at from the standpoint of function or from that of feeling, i.e., whether we consider the end of nature or that of the teacher, it comes to the same thing. Every act proceeds from motive, and the motive can be none other than the satisfaction of some want. The capacity to want is implanted in the organic structure. It is the necessary concomitant of the capacity to feel. . . . In short, desire, taken in its widest sense, both positive and negative, is the real force in the sentient world. It is the dynamic agent in the animal world including the human sphere, and therefore constitutes the social force.” In the lower organisms desires may be comparatively few and their satisfaction accomplished by direct action. Among human beings desires are complex and pleasures aimed at may require much calculation and foresight, and the immediate stages to their attainment may be painful rather than pleasurable; still the action is stimulated by desire and carries with it the hope of a final stage of greater happiness. Although desire is always accompanied by feeling, and the satisfaction of the higher desires is accompanied by a stronger and a more enduring pleasure than the satisfaction of the lower desires, still the pursuit of pleasure itself would be an extremely unreliable goal for the attainment of superior forms of activity. Emotions of pleasure or of pain were not evolved as ends, but as guides to conduct; and the physical desires served this purpose fairly well. But desires are easily perverted, pleasures are elusive; and with the higher activities, the sensations of pleasure and pain are not always sufficiently acute and accurate to guide conduct unerringly. It is perfectly logical to admit that the highest form of life will be accompanied by the highest happiness, and at the same time to deny that a pursuit of happiness will lead to the highest form of life. Classification of the Desires. Progress therefore originates in the satisfaction of desire; but continued progress is not a matter of one desire nor of a few desires, but of a multitude of desires succeeding one another. If the satisfaction of a few inherited instincts were the only motives for activity, progress would soon cease, for actions wouid become habitual and unvarying. The situation would be the same as that of adaptation to a single environment. Continued progress requires a changing environment and successive adaptations; and the chief ; method of producing the change is through the multiplication of desires. Although specific desires among progressive peoples come to be indefinite in number, they may all be reduced to a few fundamental types. And an analysis of the primary desires will be of assistance in making a systematic arrangement of complicated social processes and institutions. I have made the following classification, not so much with the intention of analyzing all the instincts and desires which may be considered fundamental, as to get at those basic desires out of which great social institutions and activities arise. I. Physical a. Desire for self-preservation. b. Desire for race continuance. II. Mental a. Desire for approbation. Morality The desires may be classified conveniently according to man's twofold nature. Man is first an animal, and in common with other animals possesses certain inherited instincts essential to the well-being of the species. But man is also a thinking and reasoning animal, and he possesses other desires specially characteristic of his superior intellectual faculties, which are either lacking or rudimentary in animals of inferior intelligence. The former may be classed as the physical and the latter as the mental desires. Physical Desires. Physical desires may be reduced to two, - the desire for self-preservation, and the desire for race continuance. The desire for self-preservation is a comprehensive term, used to include such instincts and desires as hunger, thirst, desire for warmth and shelter, and the instinct to shun danger. In fact it includes all those elemental instincts which contribute to the preservation of individual life. The desire for race continuance bears the same relation to the race that the desire for self-preservation bears to the individual. It includes the sex instinct and the parental desire, which together ensure the preservation of the species. The Desire for Approbation. The mental desires are more difficult to analyze, as they are derived from man's complex mental life. I have separated them into two, which are fundamentally distinct, and have called them the desire for approbation, and the consciousness of life. In the first of these desires the term approbation is employed in a broad sense. The desire for approbation grows out of the psychological development of the personality through association with others, resulting in a tendency on the part of the individual to accept the opinions of others as guides to conduct. From an early period of infancy the mental growth of the individual is two-sided. On the one side, it is represented by an increasing consciousness of self, the growth of the ego; and on the other side, it takes the form of an increasing knowledge of others, the development of the alter. The infant arrives at self-consciousness through consciousness of other individuals; and his growing consciousness of himself, as a personality, in turn helps him to understand and respect the personalities of others. The recognition and understanding of personality is derived from the association of individuals with one another. From these facts the nature of the desire for approbation may easily be inferred. If one individual develops through increasing comprehension of other individuals, each seeks a standard for his own actions in the actions and opinions of others. To a very large extent every individual is influenced in his conduct by the sentiments of others. When his actions gain the approval of the group, he is satisfied; when they arouse the disapproval of others, he hastens to alter his conduct. The desire for approbation is preeminently the social desire. The perfectly socialized individual is the one who conforms entirely to his group and regulates his conduct wholly from the opinions of others. The manifestation of the desire for approbation is shown most obviously in what is called social life; that is, social intercourse carried on for its own sake; but it is not confined to that limited part of our social relations. This desire is a directing factor in all association carried on for any purpose whatsoever. Consciousness of Life. The limits to the action of the desire for approbation may be best comprehended by contrasting this desire with the second psychological desire. While it is true that most of our acts are influenced by the opinions of others, it is also a matter of common observation that some of our conduct is not. There are individuals who are continually departing from the established modes of action, even when it arouses the opposition of their group; while others are inventing and promulgating new methods and ideas, which, although they may finally be approved and accepted, may be started with no thought of gaining the commendation of others. If all departures from custom were examined, it would be found that they originated from a variety of motives, but among them would be found variations that could be traced to the fact that their authors had a definite realization that one line of conduct was really superior to another. It is the perception that one act is inherently superior to another that I have called consciousness of life. The term consciousness is used instead of desire in order to emphasize the real line of division between this motive and the desire for approbation. The important point is whether an individual acts because of a consciousness of the superiority of his act or because of the opinions and criticisms of other individuals. A complete realization of the superiority of a particular line of conduct is always accompanied by the desire to follow it. The term life is used here to conform to the statement of the individual ideal. The lower or physical side of man's development is brought about through natural or blind forces of evolution, without any consciousness of the process on the part of the individual; but the higher, or mental, side is accomplished through the initiative of individuals who realize that certain courses of action will lead to a higher plane of life. Therefore they consciously adapt themselves to those forces which are working towards higher levels; and they receive that satisfaction |