[i] Ward, Lester Frank: “The Psychic Factors of Civilization.” Boston, U.S.A.: Ginn & Company, Publishers, 1893 THE PSYCHIC FACTORS OF CIVILIZATION BY LESTER F. WARD AUTHOR OF “DYNAMIC SOCIOLOGY” --------------------- BOSTON, U.S.A. GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 1893 [ii] COPYRIGHT, 1892 BY LESTER F. WARD ------------------ ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Athenæum Press GINN & COMPANY, BOSTON, U.S.A. [iii] The true place which mind fills in the scheme of nature is the most important truth to be learned in the study of philosophy. ... The true order of development is from the non-psychic to the psychic, and from the less psychic to the more psychic, and not as is popularly supposed, from the highest toward the lowest manifestations of this property. This great psychic paradox lies at the base of philosophy, and has ever been its fundamental bane. - Dynamic Sociology, II, 76. Le véritable esprit général de la sociologie dynamique consiste à concevoir chacun de ces états sociaux consécutifs comme le résultat nécessaire du précédent et le moteur indispensable du suivant, selon le lumineux axiome du grand Leibnitz: Le présent est gros de l’avenir. – AUGUSTE COMTE: Philosophie Positive, IV, 263. [iv] [v] PREFACE. ------------- What is writ is writ – Would it were worthier! BYRON. J’ai seulement faict icy un amas de fleurs estrangieres, n’y ayant fourny du mien que le filet à les lier. – MONTAIGNE: De la Physionomie, p. 47. I have sought in this book to set forth two aspects of mind - its cause and its use. But these two are really but one, since its use is its cause. Since I put the finishing strokes, ten years ago, upon a system of social science which I called Dynamic Sociology my mind at least, if not my pen, has been at work along two lines suggested by the recognized imperfection of that scheme. I have been prompted, on the one hand, to build the superstructure higher, and on the other, to lay the foundations deeper. In the first of these directions I have not only been impelled by my own inward sense, but I have been quite strongly urged by others who thought it was my duty to make a direct application of the principles of dynamic sociology to the living issues of the times, and who believed it better that this be done by one who had them in his grasp than left to others who might never fully feel their true significance. In the opposite direction, that of strengthening the foundations, the pressure has been entirely from within, and yet it is to this that I have yielded, partly because it was much stronger, and partly because I realized that it properly belonged to me to do, while the other more properly belongs to that trained army of social economists, now so rapidly increasing, who are studying and teaching by the inductive method. [vi] The object of the present work is to determine the precise rôle that mind plays in social phenomena. In the preface to the former one I enumerated five of the comprehensive principles embodied in it to which attention had not previously been specially directed. Three of these related to the domain of mind. As I ain still, so far as I am aware, alone in insisting upon the reality and importance of these principles, I will repeat them here: - “2. The theory of the Social Forces, and the fundamental antithesis which they imply between Feeling - and Function. 3. The contrast between these true Social Forces and the guiding influence of the Intellect, embodying the application of the Indirect Method of Conation and the essential nature of Invention, of Art, and of Dynamic Action. 4. The superiority of Artificial, or Teleological, Processes over Natural, or Genetic, Processes." I then recognized, and so stated in the same preface, that there had been "adumbrations" of most or all of these principles, but the reader of the present work will perceive that all I said of them in the earlier one was itself only an adumbration of the full truth as I have here sought to present it. I need not say, however, that I have undertaken considerably more than merely to expand the various conceptions vaguely hinted at or somewhat clearly set forth in 1883; I have joined others with them and constructed out of all the data that lay at my hand what may without exaggeration be regarded as a practically distinct system, albeit closely connected with and directly affiliated upon the other. Partly to show this affiliation and enable the reader to appreciate, and if desired, to follow out the intimate relations and connections that bind the two systems together, and partly to indicate to what extent the leading tenets of the new were foreshadowed in the old scheme, I have introduced as preludes to all chapters and parts for which they could be found, passages from Dynamic Sociology embodying, [vii] if not the central thought, at least some collateral or subordinate idea involved in the discussion to follow. In a few cases I have borrowed such passages from some of the numerous contributions of a more or less popular character which I have made since the appearance of that work. Some chapters, however, there are which have had such a modern origin in my own mind that no such earlier expressions could be found. In addition to passages of this class, designed to indicate the growth within me of the general scheme, and thus by historical associations to aid the reader in his endeavor to travel with me along the same road, I have hoped not merely to embellish the work but in a certain way to strengthen it by putting at the heads of the chapters in the form of mottos the thoughts of others that seem to embody or foreshadow the principles involved. These utterances of the poets, prophets, and wise men of all ages show that there is scarcely a thought or a truth that has not found expression in some form, and that no scheme can hope to do more than organize ideas already expressed, and focalize the scattered light that pervades the intellectual world. At the same time the rarity of such utterances - the search required to find an expression of truths so vitally important - is more a matter of surprise than their actual discovery, and abundantly proves the need of systematic efforts to collect them together, arrange them in logical order, and bring their combined weight to bear upon the thought and action of the age. I have thus sought to make this work something more than the product of a single brain; I have sought to make it embody the wisdom of the world so far as it relates to this theme. Those who prefer may regard it as a collection of exotic flowers of thought for which I have only furnished the thread of logic that ties them together. L. F. W. WASHINGTON, June 18, 1893. [viii] [ix] CONTENTS. --------- INTRODUCTION. Nature of the social forces and mode of controlling them. - The present work devoted to the expansion of these two principles. - Both aspects of the subject psychological. - Mind popularly restricted to intellect and the feelings ignored. - Subjective and objective psychology. - Illogical classifications. - The causational factor ignored. - Practical side of objective psychology also ignored. - An undiscovered faculty. - A new psychology. - Theorems to be established. ------------------------- PART I. SUBJECTIVE FACTORS. CHAPTER I. TWO KINDS OF PHILOSOPHY. Cosmology and psychology. - Leading cosmologies. - Metaphysical speculation. - Twofold revolution in philosophy. - Modern psychology as the basis of sociology. CHAPTER II. THE DUAL NATURE OF MIND. The most difficult problems the first to be attacked. - Laws of thought studied before the senses. - Will and soul. - Epistemology. - Descartes, Berkeley, Hume, Locke. - Kant's division of mind into sense and intellect. - Reid and Stewart. - Connection between the departments of mind. [x] CHAPTER III. THE PSYCHOLOGIC PROCESS. Indifferent sensation. - Perception. - Subjective and objective psychology. - Specialization of the finger tips for perception. - Sense of touch more specialized objectively than other senses. - Taste and smell subjectively specialized. - Prof. Clarke's theory of odors. - Sense of hearing. - Sense of sight. - Material mediums of the senses. CHAPTER IV. SUBJECTIVE PSYCHOLOGY. Deals with sensations and their combinations. - Intensive sensations. - Pain and pleasure senses. - Auditory and visual pleasure emotional. - The emotional sense. - External and internal sensations. - The sympathetic system the seat of the emotions. - Sensation and emotion distinguished. CHAPTER V. OBJECTIVE PSYCHOLOGY. Deals with perceptions and their elaboration. - Registration of perceptions. - Elaboration of perceptions. - Conception. - Judgment. - The Platonic idea. - Generalization. - Reason. - Memory and imagination. - The creative faculty. - The primary intellectual process, intuition. CHAPTER VI. THE CONATIVE FACULTY. The motor apparatus of the nervous system. - Only responds to intensive sensations. - Reflex action. - The sensori-motor apparatus. - Of the sympathetic system. - The nervous system a compound individual. - Supreme and subordinate centers. - How connected. - The ideo-motor apparatus. - Rational actions. - Why often unsafe. - Will. - Mental physics. - The popular fallacy. CHAPTER VII. ORIGIN AND FUNCTION OF PLEASURE AND PAIN. The mission of science to dispel mystery. - The origin of evil. - Pleasure a greater mystery than pain. - Neither necessary. - Death not neces- [xi] sary. - Immortal germs. - Pleasure and pain the conditions to existence. - Primary sensations intensive. - Sense of feeling a means of warning. - Pain protective. - Purpose of pleasure. - Pleasure and pain not opposites. - Each has its specialized nervous apparatus. - Both positive. - Nature has no concern for either. - Pleasure means life; pain, death. - Fallacy of asceticism. CHAPTER VIII. NATURE OF THE SOUL. Reasons for retaining the word soul. - Immortality. - Always made capable of pleasure and pain. - Defined as the feelings taken collectively. - The full definition. - Why not critically studied by philosophers.