Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/439

Rh point of view. As man is the being with whom sociology deals that science of course belongs to the science of man. But if we look upon sociology as embracing everything relating to associated man, a large part of the facts and phenomena of anthropology overlap upon its domain, and it becomes important to consider the relations subsisting among these phenomena. Moreover, the phenomena of association are not exclusively confined to man. Sociologists are coming to pay more and more attention to phenomena among animals analogous to those displayed by men, and animal association is a well-known fact which is exciting increased interest. So that sociology is not wholly included in any view of anthropology.

But when we examine the two sciences closely we perceive that they differ generically. Anthropology, in dealing with man, i. e., with a particular being, or species of animal, is primarily a descriptive science. It is not concerned with laws or principles, but with material facts. Sociology, on the contrary, deals primarily with association and whatever conduces to it or modifies it. But association is not a material thing; it is a condition, and the science that deals with it is chiefly concerned with the laws and principles that produce and affect that condition. In short, while anthropology is essentially a concrete science, sociology is essentially an abstract science. The distinction is very nearly the same as between biology and zoology, except that anthropology is restricted to a single species of animal. Thus viewed, it is clear that it becomes simply a branch of zoology with classificatory rank below ornithology, entomology, mammalogy, etc. There is no other single species, or even genus, that has been made the subject of a distinct science, as might obviously be done, e. g., hippology, the science of the horse, or cynology, the science of the dog.

It comes, however, wholly within the province of social philosophy to inquire into the nature of this being, man, whose associative habits form the chief subject of sociology. First of all, his position in the animal world needs to be understood. No possible good can come from ignoring the true relation of