Human Nature And Collective Behavior

Tamotsu Shibutani is professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Social Processes: An Introduction to Sociology and Improvised News: A Sociological Study of Rumor.

Challenging basic assumptions about human nature, while considering individual and collective behavioural patterns, this text reflects on ways in which a new world view could end current difficulties, to create a more Utopian society.

Publication of this abridgement returns to intellectual commerce a major statement by one of the founders of exact social research. An early attempt to effect an integration of the social sciences, the massive original of 1940 exceeded the attention span of many readers, and it is hoped that this more readable edition will spark a renewal of the debate over its ideas. These excerpts from the editor's introduction underline some of the main ideas: "In Thorndike's own belief, individual salvation and public welfare lay most securely in the recourse to facts, a more trustworthy base than is character-building, given Thorndike's essentially pessimistic views of human nature in the abstract." Most social thinkers "could not accept Thorndike's hereditarian conclusions. Their own professionalism, however, caused them to agree with the position that he accorded to trained leadership, to expert judgment—another of the key ideas of Human Nature and the Social Order..." "Good genes, plus the scientific habits of the mind learned and powers trained, he believed to be the superior predictors of those who would function best as the impartial, objective benefactors of mankind—if only the men in power would share their monopoly on leadership, or at least consult seriously with them.... With the student radicals' demand that the professors do morethan describe and investigate society—that they engage their knowledge in efforts to improve society—E. L. Thorndike would agree." The guiding principle in abridging Human Nature and the Social Order(a work which in the original numbered over one thousand pages) was that the repetitive exposition and excessive illustration be eliminated without depriving the reader of that opportunity to understand the workings and qualities of Thorndike's mind and the revealing aspects of his personality that obtained in the original volume. Many long quotations were removed altogether and the rest was drastically shortened; but so that the reader might be informed of all the authors and works originally quoted or referred to by Thorndike, the Bibliography has been left unaltered.

This work remains a pioneer sociological treatise on American culture. By understanding the individual not as the product of society but as its mirror image, Cooley concludes that the social order cannot be imposed from outside human nature but that it arises from the self. Cooley stimulated pedagogical inquiry into the dynamics of society with the publication of Human Nature and the Social Order in 1902. Human Nature and the Social Order is something more than an admirable ethical treatise. It is also a classic work on the process of social communication as the "very stuff" of which the self is made.

Charles Horton Cooley's account of human beings, their behavior, and how they organize themselves has been praised for its originality, and remains an underappreciated and much-cited classic of sociology. Human Nature and the Social Order is a logically composed book which straddles and to a degree transcends the boundaries between philosophy, psychology and sociology. Cooley wished to clarify the behavior of human beings, how they come to interact and socialize with one another, and how they arrive at a definition of themselves that is in harmony with their own well-being and that of others. Later in the book, Cooley discusses qualities which have been promoted or felt as necessary for humans in civilized society. Good, conscientious and beneficent leadership, the possession of a moral compass and conscience, and the excellent values of freedom receive their own discussions with positive and negative elements comprising the well-rounded analyses.

The Anthem Companion to Robert Park comes to terms with Robert Park’s legacy. This companion focuses largely on the work rather than the man, a major figure in American sociology during the first half of the past century, and encourages readers to consider the virtue of rethinking—and rereading—the much maligned and frequently misunderstood Park. Despite the fact that he wrote with exemplary clarity, Park’s work has often been ignored by contemporary sociologists. The contributions in this companion embrace no singular response to Park, but rather present a broad range of responses, generally appreciative but also critical.

Reputable scholars have long charged that symbolic interactionism, which is based on the principle of "sociality," discounts the importance that subordination plays in human groups. Emphasizing dominance and power, Athens explains how subordination operates in human group life from a new interactionist's perspective, aptly dubbed by him, "radical interactionism."Expanding on the work of sociologist Robert E. Park, Athens explains the nature and operation of super-ordination and subordination, which he believes affects all social interaction between human beings and groups. He then develops a generic framework and a common terminology to help explain all forms of social conflicts. Athens argues that a radical interactionism disentangles the nature of domination, power and force, as well as the relationship among them, in a manner consistent with the basic premises of the Chicago school of pragmatism.This book offers a provocative and intelligent outline of the development and evolution of radical interactionism, a perspective interactionists can add to their toolbox with profit.