Introduction to the Science of Sociology Part 79

72-75. (Henry Holt & Co., 1910.)

[185] Adapted from Charles Darwin, _The Origin of Species_, pp. 50-61.

(D. Appleton & Co., 1878.)

[186] Adapted from Charles Darwin, _The Origin of Species_, pp. 97-100.

(D. Appleton & Co., 1878.)

[187] Adapted from George W. Crile, _Man: An Adaptive Mechanism_, pp.

17-39. (Published by The Macmillan Co., 1916. Reprinted by permission.)

[188] Adapted from F. E. Clements, _Plant Succession_. An a.n.a.lysis of the development of vegetation, pp. 75-79. (Carnegie Inst.i.tution of Washington, 1916.)

[189] Adapted from Carl Bucher, _Industrial Evolution_, pp. 345-69.

(Henry Holt & Co., 1907.)

[190] From William Z. Ripley, _The Races of Europe_, pp. 537-59. (D.

Appleton & Co., 1899.)

[191] Adapted from Francis A. Walker, _Economics and Statistics_, II, 421-26. (Henry Holt & Co., 1899.)

[192] Adapted from John B. Clark, "The Limits of Compet.i.tion," in Clark and Giddings, _The Modern Distributive Process_, pp. 2-8. (Ginn & Co., 1888.)

[193] Adapted from Adam Smith, _An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations_, I (1904), 419, 421. (By kind permission of Messrs. Methuen & Co., Ltd.)

[194] Translated from Frederic Bastiat, _Oeuvres completes_, tome VI, "Harmonies economiques," 9e edition, p. 350. (Paris, 1884.)

[195] Translated from Georg Simmel, _Philosophie des Geldes_, pp.

351-52. (Duncker und Humblot, 1900.)

[196] Henry S. Maine, _Village-Communities in the East and West_, pp.

192-97. (New York, 1889.)

[197] Henry Higgs, _The Physiocrats_, p. 142. (London, 1897.)

[198] Adam Smith, _Wealth of Nations_ (Cannan's edition), I, 342.

London, 1904.

[199] _Ibid._ I, 148.

[200] Thomas Mackay, _A Plea for Liberty_. An argument against socialism and socialistic legislation, consisting of an introduction by Herbert Spencer and essays by various writers, p. 24. (New York, 1891.)

[201] _Lectures on the Relation between Law and Opinion in England, during the Nineteenth Century._ 2d ed. (London, 1914).

[202] _The Principles of Taxation._ Everyman's Library. Preface by F. W.

Kolthamer, p. xii.

[203] _Soziologie_, p. 686. (Leipzig, 1908.)

[204] John Stuart Mill, _On Liberty_. (London, 1859.)

[205] _Criminality and Economic Conditions._ (Boston, 1916.)

CHAPTER IX

CONFLICT

I. INTRODUCTION

1. The Concept of Conflict

The distinction between compet.i.tion and conflict has already been indicated. Both are forms of interaction, but compet.i.tion is a struggle between individuals, or groups of individuals, who are not necessarily in contact and communication; while conflict is a contest in which contact is an indispensable condition. Compet.i.tion, unqualified and uncontrolled as with plants, and in the great impersonal life-struggle of man with his kind and with all animate nature, is unconscious.

Conflict is always conscious, indeed, it evokes the deepest emotions and strongest pa.s.sions and enlists the greatest concentration of attention and of effort. Both compet.i.tion and conflict are forms of struggle.

Compet.i.tion, however, is continuous and impersonal, conflict is intermittent and personal.

Compet.i.tion is a struggle for position in an economic order. The distribution of populations in the world-economy, the industrial organization in the national economy, and the vocation of the individual in the division of labor--all these are determined, in the long run, by compet.i.tion. The status of the individual, or a group of individuals, in the social order, on the other hand, is determined by rivalry; by war, or by subtler forms of conflict.

"Two is company, three is a crowd" suggests how easily the social equilibrium is disturbed by the entrance of a new factor in a social situation. The delicate nuances and grades of attention given to different individuals moving in the same social circle are the superficial reflections of rivalries and conflicts beneath the smooth and decorous surfaces of polite society.

In general, we may say that compet.i.tion determines the position of the individual in the community; conflict fixes his place in society.

Location, position, ecological interdependence--these are the characteristics of the community. Status, subordination and superordination, control--these are the distinctive marks of a society.

The notion of conflict, like the fact, has its roots deep in human interest. Mars has always held a high rank in the hierarchy of the G.o.ds.

Whenever and wherever struggle has taken the form of conflict, whether of races, of nations, or of individual men, it has invariably captured and held the attention of spectators. And these spectators, when they did not take part in the fight, always took sides. It was this conflict of the non-combatants that made public opinion, and public opinion has always played an important role in the struggles of men. It is this that has raised war from a mere play of physical forces and given it the tragic significance of a moral struggle, a conflict of good and evil.

The result is that war tends to a.s.sume the character of litigation, a judicial procedure, in which custom determines the method of procedure, and the issue of the struggle is accepted as a judgment in the case.

The duello, as distinguished from the wager of battle, although it never had the character of a judicial procedure, developed a strict code which made it morally binding upon the individual to seek redress for wrongs, and determined in advance the methods of procedure by which such redress could and should be obtained. The penalty was a loss of status in the particular group of which the individual was a member.

It was the presence of the public, the ceremonial character of the proceedings, and the conviction that the invisible powers were on the side of truth and justice that gave the trial by ordeal and the trial by battle a significance that neither the duello nor any other form of private vengeance ever had.

It is interesting in this connection, also, that political and judicial forms of procedure are conducted on a conflict pattern. An election is a contest in which we count noses when we do not break heads. A trial by jury is a contest in which the parties are represented by champions, as in the judicial duels of an earlier time.

In general, then, one may say compet.i.tion becomes conscious and personal in conflict. In the process of transition compet.i.tors are transformed into rivals and enemies. In its higher forms, however, conflict becomes impersonal--a struggle to establish and maintain rules of justice and a moral order. In this case the welfare not merely of individual men but of the community is involved. Such are the struggles of political parties and religious sects. Here the issues are not determined by the force and weight of the contestants immediately involved, but to a greater or less extent, by the force and weight of public opinion of the community, and eventually by the judgment of mankind.

2. Cla.s.sification of the Materials

The materials on conflict have been organized in the readings under four heads: (a) conflict as conscious compet.i.tion; (b) war, instincts, and ideals; (c) rivalry, cultural conflicts, and social organization; and (d) race conflicts.

a) _Conscious compet.i.tion._--Self-consciousness in the individual arises in the contacts and conflicts of the person with other persons.

It manifests itself variously in pride and in humility, vanity and self-respect, modesty and arrogance, pity and disdain, as well as in race prejudice, chauvinism, cla.s.s and caste distinctions, and in every other social device by which the social distances are maintained.

It is in these various responses called forth by social contacts and intercourse that the personality of the individual is developed and his status defined. It is in the effort to maintain this status or improve it; to defend this personality, enlarge its possessions, extend its privileges, and maintain its prestige that conflicts arise. This applies to all conflicts, whether they are personal and party squabbles, sectarian differences, or national and patriotic wars, for the personality of the individual is invariably so bound up with the interests and order of his group and clan, that, in a struggle, he makes the group cause his own.