Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/208

 196 to represent the object. They are aspects of the object, not independently existing objects. They are machinery for handling in details the things to be understood in their totality. This consideration will be further urged presently. In a portion of Professor Ward's argument he seems to neglect this fact, and to imply that there is an objective distinction between things as static or dynamic, whereas nobody understands more clearly than he that the distinction is between relations of things. The question at issue is, then, What are the most convenient divisions into which to separate the subject matter of sociology? Professor Ward argues that they are "Statics" and "Dynamics." I am in perfect agreement with him about the desirability of these divisions, but I have found it serviceable to use the preliminary category, "Descriptive Sociology." This division is certainly not precisely coordinate with the divisions "Statical Sociology" and "Dynamic Sociology." There is a qualitative difference between the material held in suspension, so to speak, in descriptive sociology and the same material partially interpreted in statical or dynamic sociology. The tripartite division does not in any way affect the definition of statics or dynamics. It does most effectively guard against the illusion of which Comte was a notorious victim, that data may be interpreted before they are collected. Professor Ward would be among the last to indulge such an illusion. My difference with him at this point is therefore a matter of detail, of emphasis, of punctuation perhaps. I find however that it is extremely important, both in research and in teaching, to keep the observing and describing stage and process abruptly distinct in thought, and, especially with immature students, distinct in time from the interpreting stage and process, in which latter the categories static and dynamic have their place.

Professor Ward's position on the main question is as follows: "There is properly no division of descriptive sociology. That which might be so designated is only the work of the collector." As intimated above, I do not understand that this proposition