Public Opinion, Determinism, and Free Will

PUBLIC OPINION, DETERMINISM, AND FREE WILL PUBLIC opinion is one of those ill-defined and glib concepts that we are wont to call upon to tide us over vague portions in our thought. In the popular mind it has a dozen more or less variegated uses: it is considered as the bulwark of democracy, the essential factor to be wooed in selling merchandise, and the content of a free press. We have no doubt about its functional value since we are all convinced that it has tremendous effect on the action of politicians and other persons in public places. After all, every four years in the presidential elections we have an unparalleled example of its power. In a sense it is an intangible factor, yet we know that its censure is fierce when turned on those who oppose its decisions-witness the German pogroms against minorities; or it can be a great power for good, as is shown in such endeavors as the public health program in this country. What then is this thing called Public Opinion? How can we specify this concept? The most fruitful approach to this question can be found, first, by distinguishing between the sociological group and the body politic, the state. Next, when this has been done, we shall ask which of these groups is the proper agent of public opinion. And finally, we shall inquire into the elements that go into the making of public opinion. There is a relationship of a most intimate nature between the proper object of a science and the knowledge constituting that science, for the knowledge is after all only the subjective, noetic existence of the object. We cannot understand the nature of a science without constant reference to the nature of the object studied, nor can we hope to determine the extent of the validity of particular scientific principles unless we consider them in relation to the unique phase of being from which 172 PUBLIC OPINION, DETERMINISM, AND FREE WILL 178 they are drawn. The object of the sociologist is primarily and essentially the group, a product of the gregarious instinct. One distinctive type of group is that formed by human beings. The term " sociology " has come to apply solely to the discipline concerned with study of this unique type of group. As studied by the sociologist there is nothing to differentiate the human group essentially from other types of animal communal life. There is, however, a greater complexity and richness of institutions observable here, and a much larger variety of means employed in the functioning of the instinct of gregariousness. The duty of the sociologist is to examine and describe in detail the various phenomena observable in this human group. But in order to specify lhe nature of the sociological group to a greater degree we must examine the ends towards which the gregarious instinct is oriented. For, like all functional units, the group has unity, and consequently being, only by reference to the purpose for which it exists. Group life springs from two different characteristics of the animal nature: its lack of self-sufficiency in certain lines of endeavor and its superiority of performance in other lines. As fiq.ite creatures we are not equally capable of performing all the necessary functions of preserving ourselves and propagating our species. Or, even supposing that we could manage to create by ourselves the necessary conditions for getting enough food and other essentials to maintain ourselves in existence and to procreate children, we would live but a minimal biological life. As members of a group, however, we are aided and protected against the many hazards threatening our life on a biological plane. For the work that one man is ill fitted to perform is taken care of by another member of the social group, who in turn is benefited in some other way hy the work of the former. Thus our need in some fields of activity concerning biological life and our perfection in other fields give rise to the sociological group. This particular type of group, therefore, is not a substantial but rather a functional unit formed under the drive of the gregarious instinct. Its purpose 174 WILLIAM...