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CHAPTER VI 
SOCIAL DIFFERENTIATION 
THE INTERSECTION OF SociAL CIRCLES! 
I y YHE history of human associations shows a tendency 
1 similar to that of the association of ideas. The soci- 
ological development seems to repeat the psychologi- 
cal development. In thought, association by contiguity 
generally precedes association by analogy. The accidental 
coexistence of objects in space and time is at first sufficient 
to bring about an association between the ideas of these 
objects. The complex of characteristics of these objects 
appears at first as a unitary totality. Only when one of 
these characteristics is observed in a great many other 
combinations does it become differentiated from the rest. 
The similarity between various objects is then observed 
detached from the individual combinations, and the asso- 
ciation based on the relations between the contents of 
ideas succeeds the association based on their temporal or 
spatial coexistence. 
The Historical Aspect of Social Differentiation. 
The development of human relationships shows an anal- 
ogous tendency. The individuals are at first associated with 
others in their immediate environment, and this associa- 
tion is relatively independent of their individual peculi- 
arities. At a later stage there arise associations between 
the homogeneous elements out of the different heterogene- 
ous groups. 
! Adapted from Soz., chap. vi, pp. 403-53. 
179