Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/355

Rh hypotheses of Von Thünen, the clever intuitions of Rodbertus, and the weighty criticisms of Winkelblech.

The conception of political economy held by the school of Ferrara, opposed itself in Italy more than elsewhere to the rise of sociology. Undoubtedly that which more than anything else has contributed to the uncertainty which exists in regard to sociology, and has led some to deny it altogether, is the existence of the various sciences which, having a generic name, call themselves political and social sciences. Now, in Italy this state of things was aggravated. As our economists conceived their science it already occupied the field which sociology would cover. Political economy, as we have already stated, was understood as a comprehensive and general social science, upon which all the other special social sciences should be based. This economic science, however, lacked many of the requisites essential for transforming it into a true sociology. In fact, Ferrara never occupied himself with a general coordination of political economy and the other sciences. Moreover, at the time of his greatest activity, biology and psychology had yet to complete their great advances, and there was yet to come the epoch of the theories of Darwin and Spencer. In short, to Ferrara and his disciples the same accusation was applicable which was made at that time against economists in general. August Comte classified them all, briefly, as ignoramuses, especially in regard to psychology.

We have had, then, in Italy some economists who, while unable to develop sociology, have, at the same time been the greatest obstacle to the rise of this science through the medium of special investigators, by absorbing, as these economists did, a great part of the field over which the new science was to extend itself. Given this complexity of circumstances it is quite natural that as late as 1880 Vadata-Papale wrote: "These disputes, while they make us feel the need of the discovery of the great body of sociological laws, compel us to acknowledge with bitterness the void which exists in Italy for a new science."