The Basis of Social Theory |
From inside the book
Try this search over all volumes: infre
Results 1-0 of 0
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abstract action activities adjustment alterations animal aptitude aspects assertion basis becomes behavior biological bodily body-mind capacities cerned changes character classification components concerning concrete conduct connection consciousness consequences constitution defined differences differential discussion disposition distinction doctrine drive dualism dynamic society effects elements emotional encies endowment existence experience expression factor faculty psychology function Gabriel Tarde given Graham Wallas habits human nature ideal ideas imagination implies important impulse inherited tendencies instinctive tend instinctive tendencies intel intelligence interests involves limits material matter means ment mental mind modified organism original nature ovum physical physiological plasticity possess possible principle problem Progress psychical reaction reflexes regarded relation response sense significance situation social environment social fact Social Psychology social system sociology specific spermatozoon standpoint statement stimulus structure subject-matter suggests things thought tion tive tradition uniformity unity universe of discourse utility variant individual variations
Popular passages
Page 192 - We may say, then, that directly or indirectly, the instincts are the prime movers of all human activity; by the conative or impulsive force of some instinct (or of some habit derived from an instinct), every train of thought, however cold and passionless it may seem, is borne along towards its end, and every bodily activity is initiated and sustained.
Page 123 - We may, then, define an instinct as an inherited or innate psycho-physical disposition which determines its possessor to perceive, and to pay attention to, objects of a certain class, to experience an emotional excitement of a particular quality upon perceiving such an object, and to act in regard to it in a particular manner, or, at least, to experience an impulse to such action.
Page xiv - There is also a further implication. The process must be the necessary outcome of the psychical and social nature of man ; it must not be at the mercy of any external will ; otherwise there would be no guarantee of its continuance and its issue, and the idea of Progress would lapse into the idea of Providence.
Page 192 - The instinctive impulses determine the ends of all activities and supply the driving power by which all mental activities are sustained; and all the complex intellectual apparatus of the most highly developed mind is but a means towards these ends, is but the instrument by which these impulses seek their satisfactions, while pleasure and pain do but serve to guide them in their choice of means.
Page 124 - Such a definition may be worded thus:—As a factor determining the behaviour of living organisms, Instinct, physiologically regarded, is a congenital predisposition of the nervous system, consisting in a definite, but within limits modifiable, arrangement and coordination of nervous connections, so that a particular stimulus, with or without the presence of certain cooperating stimuli, will call forth a particular action or series of actions; this predisposition, biologically regarded, is apparently...
Page 82 - The natural conclusion to draw from this transiency of instincts is that most instincts are implanted for the sake of giving rise to habits, and that, this purpose once accomplished, the instincts themselves, as such, have no raison d'etre in the psychical economy, and consequently fade away.
Page 251 - Pensions 8vo, Cloth, XVI 352 pages This book offers a scientific examination of the social and economic problems presented by the aged. Frankly a plea for social action, it presents in a most thoro and lucid manner the latest available data bearing upon this interesting and important question. I2mo, Cloth, 280 pages OUR WAR WITH GERMANY By John Spencer Bassett, Professor of American History in Smith College Large 8vo, Cloth, 398 pages This is a compact but complete account of the part played by the...
Page 51 - ... constitution of these two germs, that under certain circumstances he will see and hear and feel and act in certain ways. His intellect and morals, as well as his bodily organs and movements, are in part the consequence of the nature of the embryo in the first moment of its life. What a man is and does throughout life is a result of whatever constitution he has at the start and of all the forces that act upon it before and after birth. I shall use the term 'original nature' for the former and...
Page 51 - Any man possesses at the very start of his life — that is, at the moment when the ovum and spermatozoon which are to produce him have united — numerous well-defined tendencies to future behavior.* Between the situations which he will meet and the responses which he will make to them, pre-formed bonds exist.
Page 156 - The instinctive reactions become capable of being initiated, not only by the perception of objects of the kind which directly excite the innate disposition, the natural or native excitants of the instinct, but also by ideas of such objects, and by perceptions and by ideas of objects of other kinds.