Franklin Henry Giddings

Franklin Henry Giddings (March 23, 1855 – June 11, 1931) was an American sociologist, economist, and journalist.

Biography Giddings was born at Sherman, Connecticut. His father was an Evangelical minister. According to Barnes, Giddings' "lectures were more often diatribes against his pet hates than calm sociological analysis".

His most significant contribution is the concept of the consciousness of kind, which is a state of mind whereby one conscious being recognizes another as being of like mind. All human motives organize themselves around consciousness of kind as a determining principle. Association leads to conflict which leads to consciousness of kind through communication, imitation, toleration, co-operation, and alliance. Eventually the group achieves a self-consciousness of its own (as opposed to individual self-consciousness) from which traditions and social values can arise.

He also coined the term collective behavior.

In 1914 he became one of the inaugural Fellows of the American Statistical Association.

Giddings died in Scarsdale, New York.