Co-operation — its Two
Modes
ALL increase in the productive power of man over that
with which nature endows the individual comes from the
co-operation of individuals. But there are two ways in
which this co-operation may take place. 1. By the
combination of effort. In this way individuals may
accomplish what exceeds the full power of the individual.
2. By the separation of effort. In this way the
individual may accomplish for more than one what does not
require the full power of the individual. . . . To
illustrate: The first way of co-operation, the
combination of labor, enables a number of men to remove a
rock or to raise a log that would be too heavy for them
separately. In this way men conjoin themselves, as it
were, into one stronger man. Or, to take an example so
common in the early days of American settlement that
"log-rolling" has become a term for legislative
combination: Tom, Dick, Harry and Jim are building near
each other their rude houses in the clearings. Each hews
his own trees, but the logs are too heavy for one man to
get into place. So the four unite their efforts, first
rolling one man's logs into place and then another's,
until, the logs of all four having been placed, the
result is the same as if each had been enabled to
concentrate into one time the force he could exert in
four different times. . . . But, while great advantages
result from the ability of individuals, by the
combination of labor to concentrate themselves, as it
were, into one larger man, there are other times and
other things in which an individual could accomplish more
if he could divide himself, as it were, into a number of
smaller men. . . . What the division of labor does, is to
permit men, as it were, so to divide themselves, thus
enormously increasing their total effectiveness. To
illustrate from the example used before: While at times
Tom, Dick, Harry and Jim might each wish to move logs, at
other times they might each need to get something from a
village distant two days' journey. To satisfy this need
individually would thus require two days' effort on the
part of each. But if Tom alone goes, performing the
errands for all, and the others each do half a days' work
for him, the result is that all get at the expense of
half a day's effort on the part of each what otherwise
would have required two days' effort. — The
Science of Political Economy —
unabridged: Book III, Chapter 9, The Production of
Wealth: Cooperation — Its Two Ways •
abridged:
Part III, Chapter 7, The Production of Wealth:
Co-operation: Its Two Ways
Co-operation — its Two
Kinds
WE have seen that there are two ways or modes in which
co-operation increases productive power. If we ask how
co-operation is itself brought about, we see that there
is in this also a distinction, and that co-operation is
of two essentially different kinds. . .. There is one
kind of co-operation, proceeding, as it were, from
without, which results from the conscious direction of a
controlling will to a definite end. This we may call
directed or conscious co-operation. There is another kind
of co-operation, proceeding, as it were, from within,
which results from a correlation in the actions of
independent wills, each seeking but its own immediate
purpose, and careless, if not indeed ignorant, of the
general result. This we may call spontaneous or
unconscious co-operation. The movement of a great army is
a good type of co-operation of the one kind. Here the
actions of many individuals are subordinated to, and
directed by, one conscious will, they becoming, as it
were, its body and executing its thought. The providing
of a great city with all the manifold things which are
constantly needed by its inhabitants is a good type of
co-operation of the other kind. This kind of co-operation
is far wider, far finer, far more strongly and delicately
organized, than the kind of co-operation involved in the
movements of an army, yet it is brought about not by
subordination to the direction of one conscious will,
which knows the general result at which it aims, but by
the correlation of actions originating in many
independent wills, each aiming at its own small purpose
without care for, or thought of; the general result. The
one kind of co-operation seems to have its analogue in
those related movements of our body which we are able
consciously to direct. The other kind of co-operation
seems to have its analogue in the correlation of the
innumerable movement, of which we are unconscious, that
maintain the bodily frame — motions which in their
complexity, delicacy and precision far transcend our
powers of conscious direction, yet by whose perfect
adjustment to each other and to the purpose of the whole,
that co-operation of part and function, that makes up the
human body and keeps it in life and vigor, is brought
about and supported. — The Science of Political
Economy —
unabridged: Book III, Chapter 10, The Production of
Wealth: Cooperation — Its Two Kinds •
abridged:
Part III, Chapter 8, Cooperation: Its Two Kinds
To attempt to apply that kind of co-operation which
requires direction from without to the work proper for
that kind of co-operation which requires direction from
within, is like asking the carpenter who can build a
chicken-house to build a chicken also. — The
Science of Political Economy —
unabridged: Book III, Chapter 10, The Production of
Wealth: Cooperation — Its Two Kinds •
abridged:
Part III, Chapter 8, Cooperation: Its Two Kinds
ALL living things that we know of co-operate in some
kind and to some degree. So far as we can see, nothing
that lives can live in and for itself alone. But man is
the only one who co-operates by exchanging, and he may be
distinguished from all the numberless tribes that with
him tenant the earth as the exchanging animal. . . .
Exchange is the great agency by which what I have called
the spontaneous or unconscious co-operation of men in the
production of wealth is brought about, and economic units
are welded into that social organism which is the Greater
Leviathan. To this economic body, this Greater Leviathan,
into which it builds the economic units, it is what the
nerves or perhaps the ganglions are to the individual
body. Or, to make use of another illustration, it is to
our material desires and powers of satisfying them what
the switchboard of a telegraph or telephone, or other
electric system, is to that system, a means by which
exertion of one kind in one place may be transmitted into
satisfaction of another kind in another place, and thus
the efforts of individual units be conjoined and
correlated so as to yield satisfactions in most useful
place and form, and to an amount enormously exceeding
what otherwise would be possible. — The Science
of Political Economy —
unabridged: Book III, Chapter 11, The Production of
Wealth: The Office of Exchange in Production •
unabridged
Chapter 9, The Office of Exchange in Production
MENTAL power is the motor of progress, and men tend to
advance in proportion to the mental power expended in
progression — the mental power which is devoted to
the extension of knowledge, the improvement of methods,
and the betterment of social conditions. —
Progress & Poverty
— Book X, Chapter 3, The Law of Human
Progress
To compare society to a boat. Her progress through
the water will not depend upon the exertion of her crew,
but upon the exertion devoted to propelling her. This
will be lessened by any expenditure of force required for
baling, or any expenditure of force in fighting among
themselves or in pulling in different directions.
Now, as in a separated state the whole powers of man are
required to maintain existence, and mental power is only
set free for higher uses by the association of men in
communities, which permits the division of labor and all
the economies which come with the co-operation of
increased numbers, association is the first essential of
progress. Improvement becomes possible as men come
together in peaceful association, and the wider and
closer the association, the greater the possibilities of
improvement. And as the wasteful expenditure of mental
power in conflict becomes greater or less as the moral
law which accords to each an equality of rights is
ignored or is recognized, equality (or justice) is the
second essential of progress.
Thus association in equality is the law of progress.
Association frees mental power for expenditure in
improvement, and equality (or justice, or freedom —
for the terms here signify the same thing, the
recognition of the moral law) prevents the dissipation of
this power in fruitless struggles. —
Progress & Poverty
— Book X, Chapter 3, The Law of Human Progress
... go to "Gems from
George"