Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/486

474 II.

1. The scientific method as applicable or applied to social phenomena has been transmitted and developed from Aristotle, through

a) The theologians of the Church with many speculative modifications;

b) Roger Bacon (1214–1292) "the first encyclopædic savant to emerge from the Middle Ages";

c) St. Thomas Aquinas (1227–1274) who prepared for the separation of theology and metaphysical philosophy;

d) Machiavelli (1469–1527) who observed social forces and based rules of action upon the actual nature of men;

e) Francis Bacon (1561–1626) the founder of the modern scientific method;

f) Hobbes (1588–1670) who based the sovereignty of the prince on social need instead of "divine right";

g) Descartes (1596–1650) who by his attempt to sweep away all preconceptions cleared the path for the scientific methods;

k) Spinoza (1632–1678) who announced the theory of the "sovereignity of the people."

2. These ideas thus developed began to be applied to social phenomena systematically by

a) Vico (1668–1744) who announced the conception of a continuous and ordered development in history; a cyclical movement through three stages: divine, heoric, human. No