ABSTRACT
The most common way of explaining what goes on in society, including of course the processes of government, is in terms of the feelings and ideas of the men who make up the society. This chapter deals with interpretations in terms of feelings and faculties. The denial that the psychical qualities of individuals can be used in explaining social activities will perhaps appear absurd to some readers, while to others it will appear a quibble. Professor Albion W. Small interprets society by the aid of social forces. He classifies desires into six kinds which he names desires of health; wealth; sociability; knowledge; beauty, and Tightness. "Social interpretation must begin with an analysis of these desires, and must observe the conditions of their emergence". In the Ethics Spencer seems to distrust fundamentally the adequacy of the feelings as engineers of the social process.
