Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/746

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73 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

development in these terms : " Progressive social formation is the highest result of the perfecting selections of the human struggle for existence " (p. 55 sq.). Schaeffle is here quite on Darwinian ground. He insists that society is advancing toward constantly improved adaptations, that the higher human types are constantly transmitted and extended, while the lower spe- cies are in course of extinction. In short, Schaeffle holds fast to belief in the intellectual and moral progress of the human race. He has not demonstrated it, as no belief can be demonstratively established.

Another incomparably profounder sociologist, Ferdinand Tonnies, disbelieves in this progress. 1 As a basis for his theory Tonnies constructs a new psychological terminology. He dis- tinguishes between "essential will" (Wesenwilli) and "arbi- trariness" (Wilkur]. "Essential will is the psychological equivalent of the human body, or the principle of unity of life, in so far as the same is contemplated under that form of reality to which the thinker himself belongs (quate?ms sub attributo cogitationis concipitur)" (p. 99). "Arbitrariness" is a fabric of thought itself, to which, therefore, proper reality can be attrib- uted only in relation to its originator, the agent of the thought, in case the arbitrariness becomes known to others and is recog- nized as such by them" (p. 100). In other words "essential will" is, on the one side, generic will, on the other side, instinc- tive will ; arbitrariness is individual, and, so to speak, willed will. With the former men enter natural, with the latter artificial relationships. Natural relations and circumstances of men are called by Tonnies "community" ( Gemeinschaft) ; artificial rela- tionships he calls "society" ( Gesellschafi) . The former is divis- ible into three kinds : (i) blood relationship ( Verwandtschaft) ; (2) neighborship 2 (Nachbarschaff]\ (3) friendship. 3 In the case of each the following laws prevail : (i) Relatives and mates love

1 Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft. Abhandlung des Kommunismus und des Socialismus als empirischer Kulturformen. Leipzig, 1887.

2 This form of the word is needed in sociology. Tr.

3 Preference for Latin forms might dictate the alternative translation : I. Consan- guinity. 2. Proximity. 3. Amity. Tr.