Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/545

Rh may be rarer and more precious than the scientific sociologist, but he is certainly not a scientist.

In the light of these distinctions we may, therefore, divide those who profess the science of ethics into three groups:

1. Those who systematically examine experiences, ascertain their causes, groupings and effects, compare and measure them in respect to quality and intensity, and formulate the rules for attaining maximum satisfaction. These may be scientists, but such a science, if imparted in unsoftened, unexpurgated form, is so relaxing to social discipline that few venture to submit their work to the public.

2. Those who determine the conditions of continuance and well-being for a group of associated men, discover how these are helped or hindered by men's actions, and elaborate criteria for judging the various types of conduct. These men are sociologists, cultivating a particular department of their science.

3. Those who extend to the sphere of feeling the classification reached by the sociologist and who, mixing up with his distinctions of "right, wrong," "good, bad," other distinctions, such as "good, evil," "agreeable, disagreeable," borrowed from the student of individual ethics, create and propagate an immensely popular, inspiring, wholesome, but unsound body of doctrine, professing to show that the individual, without swerving from his own ends, can become a perfectly virtuous member of society. This is not science, nor are its teachers scientists. They are consciously or unconsciously representatives of the social order. They are social functionaries and differ in no respect but badge and method from those avowed agents of social discipline who frankly preach, inveigh, denounce, plead, or exhort for the sake of the group.

A final preliminary is a basis of classification.

In classifying the concrete facts in the field of social control, we are free to follow either of two distinct principles of grouping. In the first place we may assign each specific exercise of control to the social institution from which it directly comes. Thus we may group together all the disciplinary services