The Elements of Sociology; A Text-Book for Colleges and Schools

by Franklin Henry Giddings

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898 edition. Excerpt: ...traits are concerned, no particular resemblance, but the amount of resemblance, --the number and variety of points of resemblance, --is characteristic of the component society. Of course, the apparent amount of resemblance that we find among the members of a component society depends upon the standard of measurement that we adopt. Likeness and unlikeness, it is not useless to repeat, are purely relative terms. As compared with the difference between an Englishman and a Chinaman, the Englishman and the German are alike; while as compared with the difference between two Englishmen, the Englishman and the German are unlike. For scientific purposes, there are two standards of1 comparison that should be referred to in observing the amount of resemblance among the members of a component society. It will be remembered that a component society is always a part of a larger community which has been called an integral society. The city is merely one part of the state or commonweath, and the commonwealth, merely one part of the nation, If, then, we take the amount of resemblance existing among all members of the integral society as a basis of comparison, we discover that the members of the component society have a greater amount of resemblance. The members of the small group are on the whole more alike than are all the members of the group of groups taken together. There is more resemblance among the people of Ohio, or of Illinois, or of Minnesota than there is among all the people of the United States collectively. From this point of view, then, the members of a component society have a relatively greater amount of resemblance. Let us, however, make another comparison. Forming as well as we can a mental image of the entire people of a certain town in a.

174 pages, Paperback

First published January 12, 2010

About the author

American sociologist and economist.
1855 - 1931