Society: Its Origin and Development Part 26

READING REFERENCES

ELLWOOD: _Sociology in Its Psychological Aspects_, pages 352-381.

NEARING AND WATSON: _Economics_, pages 443-493.

BLACKMAR AND GILLIN: _Outlines of Sociology_, pages 373-392.

DEALEY: _Sociology_, pages 351-361.

SKELTON: _Socialism_, pages 16-61.

CARNEGIE: _Problems of To-day_, pages 121-139.

CHAPTER XLVIII

THE SCIENCE OF SOCIOLOGY

384. =Sociology vs. Social Philosophy.=--Sociology is one of the recent sciences. It had to wait for the scientific method of exact investigation and the scientific principle of forming conclusions upon abundant data. Naturally, theories of society were held long before any science came into existence, but they were of value only as philosophizing. Some of these theories were published and attracted the attention of thoughtful persons, but they did not affect social life. Some of them developed into philosophies of history, based on the preconceived ideas of their authors. Now and then in the first part of the nineteenth century certain social experiments were made in the form of co-operative communities, which it was fondly hoped would become practical methods for a better social order, but they almost uniformly failed because they were artificial rather than of natural growth, and because they were based on principles that public opinion had not yet sanctioned. The story of the predecessors of modern sociology naturally is preliminary to the history of sociology itself.

385. =Philosophers and Prophets.=--Two cla.s.ses of men in ancient time worked on the problems of society, one from the practical standpoint, the other from the philosophic. One group of names includes the great statesmen and lawgivers, like Moses, who laid the foundations of the Hebrew nation and gave it the nucleus of a legal system; Solon and Lycurgus, traditional lawgivers of Athens and Sparta, and several of the earlier kings and later emperors of Rome. The other group is composed of men who thought much about human life and disseminated their opinions by writing and teaching. For the most part they were idealistic philosophers, but their influence was far-reaching in time.

In the list belong Plato, who in his _Republic_ outlined an ideal society that was the prototype of later fanciful commonwealths; Aristotle, who made a real contribution to political science in his _Politics_; Cicero, who himself partic.i.p.ated actively in government and wrote out his theories or spoke them in public, and Augustine, who gave his conception of a Christian state in the _City of G.o.d_.

During the period when ancient ways were giving place to modern, and a transition was taking place in the realm of ideas, Thomas More, in his _Utopia_, and Campanella in his _City of the Sun_, published their conceptions of an ideal state, while Machiavelli took society as it was, and in his _Prince_ suggested how it might be governed better.

These are all evidences that there was dissatisfaction with existing systems, but no unanimity of opinion as to possible improvements.

Later theories were no more satisfactory. The French Revolutionary philosophers, especially Rousseau, with his theory of voluntary social contract, and the Utopian dreamers who followed, were longing for justice and political efficiency, but their theories seem crude and visionary from the point of view of the social science of the present day.

386. =Experimenting with Society.=--Robert Owen in England and Fourier and Saint-Simon in France were prophets of an ideal order which they tried to establish. Believing that all men were intended to be happy, and that happiness depended on a reorganization of the social environment in which property should be socialized, at least in part, they organized volunteers into model communities, expecting that their success would attract men everywhere to imitate the new organization.

The arrangement of industry was planned in detail, a co-operative system was organized that would keep every man busy at useful labor without working him too hard, would take away the profits of the middleman by a well-planned system of distribution, and would allow liberty in social relations as far as consistent with the general good, but would subordinate the individual to the community. Certain of the Utopians thought that it would be necessary for the state to determine the minutiae of daily life, and for a few directors to prescribe activities, and they introduced a uniformity in dress, food, and houses that savored of the old-fas.h.i.+oned orphan asylum. These features, together with the failure to understand that social inst.i.tutions could not be made to order, and that human nature was not of such quality as to make an ideal commonwealth at once actual, soon wrecked these utopian schemes and brought to an end the first period of socialistic experiments.

387. =Biological Sociologists.=--Not a few writers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, before sociology was born, recognized the need and the possibility of a true science of society. Scholars were studying and writing upon other sciences that are related to sociology--biology, history, economics, and politics. Scientific information about the various races of mankind was acc.u.mulating. At length Auguste Comte, a Frenchman, found a place for sociology among the sciences and declared it to be the highest of them all. In 1842 he completed the publication of the _Positive Philosophy_, in which he maintained that human society is an organism similar to biological organisms, and that its activities can be systematized and generalizations be deduced therefrom for the formation of a true science. In his _Descriptive Sociology_ and later works Herbert Spencer in England amplified the theory of Comte and arranged a ma.s.s of facts as evidence of its truth. He put too much emphasis on biological resemblances in the opinion of present-day sociologists, but his emphasis on inductive study and his generalizations from biology were important contributions to the development of the new science.

388. =Psychological Sociologists.=--Comte and Spencer were followed by other biological sociologists whose names are well known to students of the science. Interest was aroused in Great Britain, on the continent of Europe, and in America. Students were influenced by conclusions that were being reached in biology, in economics, and in other allied departments of thought, but the one science which became most prominent to the minds of sociologists was psychology. Ward's _Dynamic Sociology_, published in 1883, marked an epoch, because it called special attention to the psychic factors that enter into social life. After him it became increasingly clear that the true social forces were psychic, though physical conditions affected social progress. A younger school of sociologists has come into existence, and the science is being developed on that basis. More than one individual thinker has made his special contribution, and there is still a variety of opinion on details, but the general principles of the science are being worked out in substantial agreement. It is not to be expected that such a complex and comprehensive science could be completed in its short history of approximately half a century, or that it can ever be made exact, like mathematics or the natural sciences, but there is every reason to expect the development of a body of cla.s.sified facts that will be of inestimable value in attacking social problems, and of principles that will serve as a guide through the labyrinth of social life. The value of any science is not in the perfection of its system, but in the practical application which can be made of it to human progress.

389. =Relation of Sociology to the Natural Sciences.=--Sociology has relations to an outer circle of general sciences and to an inner circle of social sciences. It is itself but one of the social sciences, though it is regarded as chief among them. Man looks out upon the universe, of which he is but an atom, and asks questions.

Astronomy brings to him the findings of its telescopes and spectrum a.n.a.lyses. Geology explains the transformations that have taken place in the earth on which he lives. Physics and chemistry a.n.a.lyze its substance and reveal the laws of nature. Biology opens up the field of life. Psychology investigates the structure and functions of the human mind, and shows that all activity is at base mental. At last the new sociology discloses human life in all its complex relations.h.i.+ps, the function of the social mind, and the channels through which it works.

Since social life is lived in a world where physical and mental factors are constantly in action, there is a close connection between all the sciences. Although social life is not so closely similar to animal life as was thought previously, the principles of biology are important to the sociologist because biology is the science of all life. Psychology is important because it is the science of all mind.

390. =Relations of Sociology and Other Social Sciences.=--There are many phases of human experience and differences of relations.h.i.+p.

Obviously the specific sciences that deal with them have a still closer relation to sociology. Economics, for example, has as its field the economic relations and activities that are connected with the business of making a living. The production, distribution, and use of material things is the subject that absorbs the economist. The sociologist makes use of the facts and principles of economics to throw light on the economic functions of society, but the economic field is only one sector of his concern. In a similar way political science is related to sociology. It deals with the organization and development of government and embraces the departments of national and international law, but the governmental function of the social group is but one of the divisions of the interests that absorb the sociologist. He uses the data and conclusions of the political scientists, but in a more general way. It is the same with the sociologist and history. History supplies much of the data of the sociologist from the records of the past. It deals with social life in the concrete, and historical interpretation is essential to an understanding of social phenomena, but sociology takes the past with the present, a.n.a.lyzes both, and generalizes from both as to the laws of the social process. Pedagogy deals with the history and principles of education. Sociology is interested in the educational function of the family, of the community, and of the nation, but again its interest is from the standpoint of abstraction and generalization.

Ethics is a science that treats of the right and wrong conduct of human beings. It is very closely a.s.sociated with sociology, because the valuation of conduct depends on social effects, but the moral functioning of the group is but one phase of social life, and, therefore, ethics is far narrower in its range than sociology.

Theology, the science of religion, has sociological implications. As far as it is a science and not a philosophy, it rests upon human interest and human experience, and it is becoming increasingly recognized that these human interests depend on social relations.h.i.+ps, but all the religious interests of men are but one part of the field of sociology.

It is clear that each of the social sciences holds a relation to sociology of the particular to the general. Sociology seeks out the laws and principles that unify all the rest. It does not include them all, as does the term social science, but it correlates and interprets them all. It is not the same as philosophy, for that subject has for its field all knowledge, and especially tries to probe to the secrets of all being, and to learn the meaning of the universe as a whole, while sociology is restricted to social life. Each has its distinct place among the studies of the human mind, and each should be distinguished carefully from its rivals and a.s.sociates.

391. =Social Cla.s.sification.=--When we enter into the field of sociology itself we find other distinctions to be necessary. The novice frequently confounds similar terms. Not infrequently sociology and socialism are used as synonymous terms by persons who know little of either, so that it is necessary to point out that socialism is a particular theory of social organization and functioning, while sociology is the general science that includes all varieties of social theory, along with social fact, and especially is it necessary to explain that any fallacies of socialistic theory do not invalidate well-established conclusions of social science. Another common error is to identify sociology with social reform. Social pathology is too important a branch of sociology to be omitted or minimized, but it is only one division of the subject, and all measures as well as theories of social reform are only a small part of the concern of sociology.

Such terms as philanthropy, criminology, and penology all have connection with sociology, but they need to be carefully differentiated from the more general term.

Sociology itself has been variously cla.s.sified under the terms pure and applied, static and dynamic, descriptive and theoretical. Terms have changed somewhat, as the psychological emphasis has supplanted the biological. It is important that terms should be used correctly and should be sanctioned by custom, but it is not necessary to make sharp distinction between all the different divisions, old and new.

Cla.s.sification is a matter of convenience and technic; though it may have a scientific basis, it is entirely a matter of form. There is always danger that a particular cla.s.sification may become a fetich. It is the life of society that we study, it is the improvement of social relations at which we aim. Whatever method best contributes to this end is valid in cla.s.sification for all except those who delight in science for science's sake.

392. =The Permanent Place of Sociology.=--The study of the science of social life is eminently worth while, for it deals with matters that are of vital importance to the human race and every one of its individual members. For that reason it is likely to receive growing recognition as among the most important subjects with which the human mind can deal. It is vast in its range, exacting in its demand of unremitting investigation and careful generalization, stimulating in its intense practicality. Its abstractions require the closest reasoning of the scholar, but its basis in the concrete facts of daily life tends to make it popular. Once understood and appreciated, sociology is likely to become the guide-book by which social effort will be directed, and the standard by which it will be measured. As progress becomes in this way more telic it will become more rapid.

Social life will approach more nearly the norm that sociology describes, but until the day that society ceases to be pathological, sociology will teach a social ideal as a goal toward which society must bend its energies. As human life is the most precious gift that the world bestows, so the science of that life is worthy of being called the gem of the sciences.

READING REFERENCES

DEALEY: _Sociology_, pages 19-40.

BLACKMAR AND GILLIN: _Outlines of Sociology_, pages 13-47, 541-564.

GIDDINGS: _Principles of Sociology_, pages 3-51.

ELLWOOD: _Sociology in Its Psychological Aspects_, pages 29-65.

ROSS: _Foundations of Sociology_, pages 15-28, 256-348.

SMALL: _General Sociology_, pages 40-97.