Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/498

486 X.

1. The term "Sociologie" was first employed, as an equivalent of "social physics," by Comte in the fourth volume of his Philosophie Positive, published in 1839. Spencer adopted the term which has come into general but vague use. The word has been criticised as etymologically a hybrid, but it is defended on the following grounds:

a) There is need for a new term to which a precise meaning may in time be attached.

b) There is no Greek word for the essential component.

c) The words "social science" have been employed to include several "social sciences."

d) Sociology yields readily the adjective "sociological" and the noun "sociologist."

2. While technical terms have an important function, there is too often danger of laying stress upon words rather than upon the ideas which they are to connote. "Instead of discoursing