Orderly Careers and Social Participation: The Impact of Work History on Social Integration in the Middle Mass

Abstract

tude are tremendous, and he himself did not bring them fully out. But there is one important conclusion which he did draw. If social conduct is learned conduct, if it arises in and through education and experience, then there is nothing pre-determined about social life, then the measureless variety of social forms ceases to be a matter for surprise,14 as it must be if it is regarded as a fixed pattern like an organism or an equally fixed pattern like an equilibrium system. Spencer moves to the very brink of the realization that a society is an order underlaid by comparative freedom, not an order dominated by comparative necessity. Not all the seeds he has sown blossom under his hands; but they are there all the same. In the history of sociological thought, Spencer's third theory has played a far more significant part than either of the other two. To prove this, it is necessary to mention only one name-William Graham Sumner. Sumner's folkway concept is directly inspired by, and based on, Spencer's concept of egoaltruistic sentiments. It was through Sumner that what is most vital in Spencer's sociology entered into American sociology, and through American sociology into world sociology. In this case, the son was probably greater than the father; but we who are the son's sons, do well to remember our father's father. His inspiration is still with us, and so it will remain, a treasured possession, even in days to come. 14 Loc. cit., pp. 602 et seq.