THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 351
men is partly a consequence of physical conditions which are primarily outside the category "social." It is partly individual action. It is, however, in great part a function also of the asso- ciation in which it occurs. Thus our economic conduct is a function of the domestic, artistic, scientific, ethical, political, legal, and theological order and tradition, organized in the asso- ciation of which we are parts. So of each of our activities in turn ; they are all functions of each other. The means by which this coordination is procured are both natural and artificial. They have partly gravitated into operation, partly come to have their present efficiency by voluntary adaptation of devices invented without far-reaching purpose, and partly grown out of deliberate intention to organize association. They have been expounded in part by Professor Ross in his series of papers on social control. 1 The single fact to be insisted on here is that human associations of all grades are contacts of individuals correlated by a system of coordinating agencies, not a jumble of individuals free to trans- form their association by extemporary volition. The correlation of the units is a phase of association as distinct and significant as any incident in our schedule.
VIII. Individualization. In dealing with this schedule of incidents, our method is to state and illustrate in each case the fact that the incident exists, not to enter upon discussion of rea- sons for its existence. Upon mention of the present detail there is at once provocation to join issues with the collectivistic or the individualistic philosophy, and to struggle for mastery in the name of one of these conceptions. That, however, would be far from our present program. Our concern in this analysis is not with individualism or collectivism as an idea, but with individu- alization as a fact. There are views of human association which make it the same sort of resultant that occurs when the fat of a herd of swine is boiled down and cooled off as a mass of lard. But human associations are not homogeneous masses ; they are heterogeneous collections. Diversity of individuals is no less actual than community of relation of individuals to the uni- versal conditions. Human associations are invariably composed
1 About to appear revised and enlarged in book form.
