THE RATIONALIZING AND SOCIALIZING AGENCIES IN EARLY SOCIETY
Sec. 1. THREE LEVELS OF CONDUCT
A young man may enter a profession thinking of it only as a means of
support. But the work requires foresight and persistence; it broadens
his interests; it develops his character. Like Saul, he has gone to
search for asses, he has found a kingdom. Or he may marry on the basis
of emotional attraction. But the sympathies evoked, the cooperation made
necessary, are refining and enlarging his life. Both these cases
illustrate agencies which are moral in their results, although not
carried on from a consciously moral purpose.
Suppose, however, that children are born into the family. Then the
parent consciously sets about controlling their conduct, and in
exercising authority almost inevitably feels the need of some standard
other than caprice or selfishness. Suppose that in business the partners
differ as to their shares in the profits, then the question of fairness
is raised; and if one partner defaults, the question of guilt. Or
suppose the business encounters a law which forbids certain operations,
the problem of justice will come to consciousness. Such situations as
these are evidently in the moral sphere in a sense in which those of the
preceding paragraph are not. They demand some kind of judgment, some
approval or disapproval. As Aristotle says, it is not enough to do the
acts; it is necessary to do them in a certain way,--not merely to get
the result, but to intend it. The result must be thought of as in some
sense good or right; its opposite as in some sense bad or wrong.
But notice that the judgments in these cases may follow either of two
methods: (1) The parent or business man may teach his child, or practice
in business, what tradition or the accepted standard calls for; or (2)
he may consider and examine the principles and motives involved. Action
by the first method is undoubtedly moral, in one sense. It is judging
according to a standard, though it takes the standard for granted.
Action by the second method is moral in a more complete sense. It
examines the standard as well. The one is the method of "customary"
morality, the other that of reflective morality, or of conscience in the
proper sense.
=The Three Levels and Their Motives.=--We may distinguish then three
levels of conduct.
1. Conduct arising from instincts and fundamental needs. To satisfy
these needs certain conduct is necessary, and this in itself involves
ways of acting which are more or less rational and social. The conduct
may be _in accordance with_ moral laws, though not directed by moral
judgments. We consider this level in the present chapter.
2. Conduct regulated by _standards of society_, for some more or less
conscious end involving the social welfare. The level of custom, which
is treated in Chapter IV.
3. Conduct regulated by a standard which is both social and rational,
which is examined and criticized. The level of conscience. Progress
toward this level is outlined in Chapters V. to VIII.
The motives in these levels will show a similar scale. In (1) the
motives are external to the end gained. The man seeks food, or position,
or glory, or sex gratification; he is forced to practice sobriety,
industry, courage, gentleness. In (2) the motive is to seek some good
which is social, but the man acts for the group mainly because he is
_of_ the group, and does not conceive his own good as distinct from
that of the group. His acts are only in part guided by intelligence;
they are in part due to habit or accident. (3) In full morality a man
not only intends his acts definitely, he also values them as what he can
do "with all his heart." He does them _because_ they are right and good.
He chooses them freely and intelligently. Our study of moral development
will consider successively these three levels. They all exist in present
morality. Only the first two are found in savage life. If (1) existed
alone it was before the group life, which is our starting-point in this
study. We return now to our consideration of group life, and note the
actual forces which are at work. We wish to discover the process by
which the first and second levels prepare the way for the third.
=The Necessary Activities of Existence Start the Process.=--The prime
necessities, if the individual is to survive, are for food, shelter,
defense against enemies. If the stock is to survive, there must be also
reproduction and parental care. Further, it is an advantage in the
struggle if the individual can master and acquire, can outstrip rivals,
and can join forces with others of his kind for common ends. To satisfy
these needs we find men in group life engaged in work, in war or blood
feuds, in games and festal activities, in parental care. They are
getting food and booty, making tools and houses, conquering or enslaving
their enemies, protecting the young, winning trophies, and finding
emotional excitement in contests, dances, and songs. These all help in
the struggle for existence. But the workmen, warriors, singers, parents,
are getting more. They are forming certain elements of character which,
if not necessarily moral in themselves, are yet indispensable requisites
for full morality. We may say therefore that nature is doing this part
of moral evolution, without the aid of conscious intention on man's
part. To use the terms of Chapter I., we may call this a rationalizing
and socializing process, though not a conscious moral process. We notice
some of the more important agencies that are operative.
Sec. 2. RATIONALIZING AGENCIES
=1. Work.=--The earlier forms of occupation, hunting and fishing, call
for active intelligence, although the activity is sustained to a great
degree by the immediate interest or thrill of excitement, which makes
them a recreation to the civilized man. Quickness of perception,
alertness of mind and body, and in some cases, physical daring, are the
qualities most needed. But in the pastoral life, and still more with the
beginning of agriculture and commerce, the man who succeeds must have
foresight and continuity of purpose. He must control impulse by reason.
He must organize those habits which are the basis of character, instead
of yielding to the attractions of various pleasures which might lead him
from the main purpose. To a certain extent the primitive communism acted
to prevent the individual from feeling the full force of improvidence.
Even if he does not secure a supply of game, or have a large enough
flock to provide for the necessities of himself and his immediate
family, the group does not necessarily permit him to starve. The law
"Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap" does not press upon
him with such relentless grasp as in the modern individualistic struggle
for existence. Nevertheless it would be an entirely mistaken view of
primitive group life to suppose that it is entirely a lazy man's
paradise, or happy-go-lucky existence. The varying economic conditions
are important here as measuring the amount of forethought and care
required. It is the shepherd Jacob whose craft outwits Esau the hunter;
and while the sympathy of the modern may be with Esau, he must remember
that forethought like other valuable weapons may be used in a social as
well as a selfish fashion. The early Greek appreciation of craft is
probably expressed in their deification of theft and deception in
Hermes. Agriculture and commerce, still more than preceding types of
occupation, demand thoughtfulness and the long look ahead.
The _differentiation of labor_ has been a powerful influence for
increasing the range of mental life and stimulating its development. If
all do the same thing, all are much alike, and inevitably remain on a
low level. But when the needs of men induce different kinds of work,
slumbering capacities are aroused and new ones are called into being.
The most deeply-rooted differentiation of labor is that between the
sexes. The woman performs the work within or near the dwelling, the man
hunts or tends the flocks or ranges abroad. This probably tends to
accentuate further certain organic differences. Among the men, group
life in its simplest phases has little differentiation except "for
counsel" or "for war." But with metal working and agricultural life the
field widens. At first the specializing is largely by families rather
than by individual choice. Castes of workmen may take the place of mere
kinship ties. Later on the rules of caste in turn become a hindrance to
individuality and must be broken down if the individual is to emerge to
full self-direction.
=2. The Arts and Crafts.=--Aside from their influence as work, the arts
and crafts have a distinctly elevating and refining effect. The
textiles, pottery, and skilfully made tools and weapons; the huts or
houses when artistically constructed; the so-called free or fine arts of
dance and music, of color and design--all have this common element: they
give some visible or audible embodiment for order or form. The artist or
craftsman must make definite his idea in order to work it out in cloth
or clay, in wood or stone, in dance or song. When thus embodied, it is
preserved, at least for a time. It is part of the daily environment of
the society. Those who see or hear are having constantly suggested to
them ideas and values which bring more meaning into life and elevate its
interests. Moreover, the order, the rational plan or arrangement which
is embodied in all well-wrought objects, as well as in the fine arts in
the narrow sense, deserves emphasis. Plato and Schiller have seen in
this a valuable preparation for morality. To govern action by law is
moral, but it is too much to expect this of the savage and the child as
a conscious principle where the law opposes impulse. In art as in play
there is direct interest and pleasure in the act, but in art there is
also order or law. In conforming to this order the savage, or the child,
is in training for the more conscious control where the law, instead of
favoring, may thwart or oppose impulse and desire.
=3. War.=--War and the contests in games were serving to work out
characteristics which received also a definite social reenforcement:
namely, courage and efficiency, a sense of power, a consciousness of
achievement. All these, like craft, may be used for unmoral or even
immoral ends, but they are also highly important as factors in an
effective moral personality.
Sec. 3. SOCIALIZING AGENCIES
=Cooperation and Mutual Aid.=[19]--Aside from their effects in promoting
intelligence, courage, and ideality of life, industry, art, and war have
a common factor by which they all contribute powerfully to the social
basis of morality. They all require cooperation. They are socializing as
well as rationalizing agencies. Mutual aid is the foundation of
success. "Woe to him who stands alone, e'en though his platter be never
so full," runs the Slav proverb. "He that belongs to no community is
like unto one without a hand." Those clans or groups which can work
together, and fight together, are stronger in the struggle against
nature and other men. The common activities of art have value in making
this community of action more possible. Cooperation implies a common
end. It means that each is interested in the success of all. This common
end forms then a controlling rule of action, and the mutual interest
means sympathy. Cooperation is therefore one of nature's most effective
agencies for a social standard and a social feeling.
=1. Cooperation in Industry.=--In industry, while there was not in
primitive life the extensive exchange of goods which expresses the
interdependence of modern men, there was yet much concerted work, and
there was a great degree of community of property. In groups which lived
by hunting or fishing, for instance, although certain kinds of game
might be pursued by the individual hunter, the great buffalo and deer
hunts were organized by the tribe as a whole. "A hunting bonfire was
kindled every morning at daybreak at which each brave must appear and
report. The man who failed to do this before the party set out on the
day's hunt was harassed by ridicule."[20] Salmon fishery was also
conducted as a joint undertaking. Large game in Africa is hunted in a
similar fashion, and the product of the chase is not for the individual
but for the group. In the pastoral life the care of the flocks and herds
necessitates at least some sort of cooperation to protect these flocks
from the attacks of wild beasts and from the more dreaded forays of
human robbers. This requires a considerable body of men, and the
journeying about in company, the sharing together of watch and ward, the
common interest in the increase of flocks and herds, continually
strengthens the bonds between the dwellers in tents.
In the agricultural stage there are still certain forces at work which
promote the family or tribal unity, although here we begin to find the
forces which make for individuality at work until they result in
individual ownership and individual property. Just as at the pastoral
stage, so in this, the cattle and the growing grain must be protected
from attacks by man and beast. It is only the group which can afford
such protection, and accordingly we find the Lowland farmer always at
the mercy of the Highland clan.
=2. Cooperation in War.=--War and the blood feud, however divisive
between groups, were none the less potent as uniting factors within the
several groups. The members must not only unite or be wiped out, when
the actual contest was on, but the whole scheme of mutual help in
defense or in avenging injuries and insults made constant demand upon
fellow feeling, and sacrifice for the good of all. To gain more land for
the group, to acquire booty for the group, to revenge a slight done to
some member of the group, were constant causes for war. Now although any
individual might be the gainer, yet the chances were that he would
himself suffer even though the group should win. In the case of blood
revenge particularly, most of the group were not individually
interested. Their resentment was a "sympathetic resentment," and one
author has regarded this as perhaps the most fundamental of the sources
of moral emotion. It was because the tribal blood had been shed, or the
women of the clan insulted, that the group as a whole reacted, and in
the clash of battle with opposing groups, was closer knit together.
"Ally thyself with whom thou wilt in peace, yet know
In war must every man be foe who is not kin."
"Comrades in arms" by the very act of fighting together have a common
cause, and by the mutual help and protection given and received become,
for the time at least, one in will and one in heart. Ulysses counsels
Agamemnon to marshal his Greeks, clan by clan and "brotherhood (phratry)
by brotherhood," that thus brother may support and stimulate brother
more effectively; but the effect is reciprocal, and it is indeed very
probable that the unity of blood which is believed to be the tie binding
together the members of the group, is often an afterthought or pious
fiction designed to account for the unity which was really due
originally to the stress of common struggle.
=3. Art as Socializing Agency.=--Cooperation and sympathy are fostered
by the activities of art. Some of these activities are spontaneous, but
most of them serve some definite social end and are frequently organized
for the definite purpose of increasing the unity and sympathy of the
group. The hunting dance or the war dance represents, in dramatic form,
all the processes of the hunt or fight, but it would be a mistake to
suppose that this takes place purely for dramatic purposes. The dance
and celebration after the chase or battle may give to the whole tribe
the opportunity to repeat in vivid imagination the triumphs of the
successful hunter or warrior, and thus to feel the thrill of victory and
exult in common over the fallen prey. The dance which takes place before
the event is designed to give magical power to the hunter or warrior.
Every detail is performed with the most exact care and the whole tribe
is thus enabled to share in the work of preparation.
In the act of song the same uniting force is present. To sing with
another involves a contagious sympathy, in perhaps a higher degree than
is the case with any other art. There is, in the first place, as in the
dance, a unity of rhythm. Rhythm is based upon cooperation and, in turn,
immensely strengthens the possibility of cooperation. In the
bas-reliefs upon the Egyptian monuments representing the work of a large
number of men who are moving a stone, we find the sculptured figure of a
man who is beating the time for the combined efforts. Whether all rhythm
has come from the necessities of common action or whether it has a
physiological basis sufficient to account for the effect which rhythmic
action produces, in any case when a company of people begin to work or
dance or sing in rhythmic movement, their efficiency and their pleasure
are immensely increased. In addition to the effect of rhythm we have
also in the case of song the effect of unity of pitch and of melody, and
the members of the tribe or clan, like those who to-day sing the
Marseillaise or chant the great anthems of the church, feel in the
strongest degree their mutual sympathy and support. For this reason, the
Corroborees of the Australian, the sacred festivals of Israel, the
Mysteries and public festivals of the Greeks, in short, among all
peoples, the common gatherings of the tribe for patriotic or religious
purposes, have been attended with dance and song. In many cases these
carry the members on to a pitch of enthusiasm where they are ready to
die for the common cause.
Melodic and rhythmic sound is a unifying force simply by reason of form,
and some of the simpler songs seem to have little else to commend them,
but at very early periods there is not merely the song but the recital,
in more or less rhythmic or literary form, of the history of the tribe
and the deeds of the ancestors. This adds still another to the unifying
forces of the dance and song. The kindred group, as they hear the
recital, live over together the history of the group, thrill with pride
at its glories, suffer at its defeats; every member feels that the
clan's history is his history and the clan's blood his blood.
Sec. 4. FAMILY LIFE AS AN IDEALIZING AND SOCIALIZING AGENCY
Family life, so far as it is merely on the basis of instinct, takes its
place with other agencies favored by natural selection which make for
more rational and social existence. Various instincts are more or less
at work. The sex instinct brings the man and the woman together. The
instinct of jealousy, and the property or possessing instinct, may
foster exclusive and permanent relations. The parental instinct and
affection bind the parents together and thus contribute to the formation
of the social group described in the preceding chapter. Considering now
the more immediate relations of husband and wife, parents and children,
rather than the more general group relations, we call attention to some
of the most obvious aspects, leaving fuller treatment for Part III. The
idealizing influences of the sex instinct, when this is subject to the
general influences found in group life, is familiar. Lyric song is a
higher form of its manifestation, but even a mute lover may be
stimulated to fine thoughts or brave deeds. Courtship further implies an
adaptation, an effort to please, which is a strong socializing force. If
"all the world loves a lover," it must be because the lover is on the
whole a likable role. But other forces come in. Sex love is intense, but
so far as it is purely instinctive it may be transitory. Family life
needed more permanence than sex attraction could provide, and before the
powerful sanctions of religion, society, and morals were sufficient to
secure permanence, it is probable that the property interest of the
husband was largely effective in building up a family life, requiring
fidelity to the married relation on the part of the wife.
But the most far-reaching of the forces at work in the family has been
the parental instinct and affection with its consequences upon both
parents and children. It contributes probably more than any other
naturally selected agency to the development of the race in sympathy; it
shares with work in the development of responsibility. It is indeed one
of the great incentives to industry throughout the higher species of
animals as well as in human life. The value of parental care in the
struggle for existence is impressively presented by Sutherland.[21]
Whereas the fishes which exercise no care for their eggs preserve their
species only by producing these in enormous numbers, certain species
which care for them maintain their existence by producing relatively
few. Many species produce hundreds of thousands or even millions of
eggs. The stickleback, which constructs a nest and guards the young for
a few days, is one of the most numerous of fishes, but it lays only from
twenty to ninety eggs. Birds and mammals with increased parental care
produce few young. Not only is parental care a valuable asset, it is an
absolute necessity for the production of the higher species. "In the
fierce competition of the animated forms of earth, the loftier type,
with its prolonged nervous growth, and consequently augmented period of
helplessness, can never arise but with concomitant increases of parental
care." Only as the emotional tendency has kept pace with the nerve
development has the human race been possible. The very refinements in
the organism which make the adult a victor would render the infant a
victim if it were without an abundance of loving assistance.[22]
Whether, as has been supposed by some, the parental care has also been
the most effective force in keeping the parents together through a
lengthened infancy, or whether other factors have been more effective in
this particular, there is no need to enlarge upon the wide-reaching
moral values of parental affection. It is the atmosphere in which the
child begins his experience. So far as any environment can affect him,
this is a constant influence for sympathy and kindness. And upon the
parents themselves its transforming power, in making life serious, in
overcoming selfishness, in projecting thought and hope on into the
future, cannot be measured. The moral order and progress of the world
might conceivably spare some of the agencies which man has devised; it
could not spare this.
Sec. 5. MORAL INTERPRETATION OF THIS FIRST LEVEL
On this first level we are evidently dealing with forces and conduct,
not as moral in purpose, but as valuable in result. They make a more
rational, ideal, and social life, and this is the necessary basis for
more conscious control and valuation of conduct. The forces are
biological or sociological or psychological. They are not that
particular kind of psychological activities which we call moral in the
proper sense, for this implies not only getting a good result but aiming
at it. Some of the activities, such as those of song and dance, or the
simpler acts of maternal care, have a large instinctive element. We
cannot call these moral in _so far as_ they are purely instinctive.
Others imply a large amount of intelligence, as, for example, the
operations of agriculture and the various crafts. These have purpose,
such as to satisfy hunger, or to forge a weapon against an enemy. But
the end is one set up by our physical or instinctive nature. So long as
this is merely _accepted_ as an end, and not compared with others,
valued, and _chosen_, it is not properly moral.
The same is true of emotions. There are certain emotions on the
instinctive level. Such are parental love in its most elemental form,
sympathy as mere contagious feeling, anger, or resentment. So far as
these are at this lowest level, so far as they signify simply a bodily
thrill, they have no claim to proper moral value. They are tremendously
important as the source from which strong motive forces of benevolence,
intelligent parental care, and an ardent energy against evil may draw
warmth and fire.
Finally, even the cooperation, the mutual aid, which men give, so far as
it is called out purely by common danger, or common advantage, is not in
the moral sphere in so far as it is instinctive, or merely give and
take. To be genuinely moral there must be some thought of the danger as
touching others and _therefore_ requiring our aid; of the advantage as
being common and _therefore_ enlisting our help.
But even although these processes are not consciously moral they are
nevertheless fundamental. The activities necessary for existence, and
the emotions so intimately bound up with them, are the "cosmic roots" of
the moral life. And often in the higher stages of culture, when the
codes and instruction of morality and society fail to secure right
conduct, these elementary agencies of work, cooperation, and family life
assert their power. Society and morality take up the direction of the
process and carry it further, but they must always rely largely on these
primary activities to afford the basis for intelligent, reliable, and
sympathetic conduct.
LITERATURE
Bagehot, _Physics and Politics_, 1890; Buecher, _Industrial Evolution_,
Eng. tr., 1901, _Arbeit und Rythmus_, 3rd ed., 1901; Schurtz,
_Urgeschichte der Kultur_, 1900; Fiske, _Cosmic Philosophy_, Vol. II.,
_The Cosmic Roots of Love and Self-sacrifice_ in Through Nature to God,
1899; Dewey, _Interpretation of the Savage Mind_, Psychological Review,
Vol. IX., 1892, pp. 217-230; Durkheim, _De la Division du Travail
Social_, 1893; P. Kropotkin, _Mutual Aid, a Factor in Evolution_, 1902;
ROSS, _Foundations of Society_, 1905, Chap. VII.; Baldwin, Article
_Socionomic Forces_ in his Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology;
Giddings, _Inductive Sociology_, 1901; Small, _General Sociology_, 1906;
Tarde, _Les Lois de l'Imitation_, 1895; W. I. Thomas, _Sex and Society_,
1907, pp. 55-172; Gummere, _The Beginnings of Poetry_, 1901; Hirn, _The
Origin of Art_, 1900.
FOOTNOTES:
[19] P. Kropotkin, _Mutual Aid a Factor in Evolution_; Bagehot, _Physics
and Politics_.
[20] Eastman, _Indian Boyhood_.
[21] _The Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct_, Chs. II.-V.
[22] _Ibid._, p. 99.