Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/547

Rh been that while the specific disciplines have been perceived we have overlooked that great portion of control which does not proceed from definite organizations, and which, by reason of its pervasiveness, supplies the moral groundwork of all the rest. Like the air, formless and viewless, it has escaped notice because all else was seen through it.

By thus overlooking the moral upbuilding of men going on under the guidance of society, we have invited the taunt of the moralist that our science cannot account for or explain social order, and therefore we must fall back on the "intuitive sense of duty," "divinely implanted conscience," "innate perception of right and wrong," and the other phantasms supplied by men of his ilk. The force of this logic we can avoid only by exposing the entire process by which the ordered social life of today is made possible. To do this we must ignore no portion of the field. Everything that shapes men in the interest of the group—every motive, inducement, incitement, penalty, check, sanction, influence, ideal or custom—every stimulus, in short, of social origin and application must fall within the scope of investigation. Not otherwise may we hope to wrest this central department of sociology from the obscurant sway of theologians, metaphysicians, moralists, sentimentalists and poets.

In accordance with the adopted principle of classification, I shall treat of Modifications of the Will, Modifications of the Feelings, Modifications of the Judgment. When, for instance, the desire for a certain experience is weakened we have a modification of the feelings; when the belief that a certain act or course of conduct will procure the coveted experience we have a modification of the judgment; when desire and belief remain the same, and conduct is controlled by linking to acts extra pleasures or pains in the form of rewards or punishments, we have a modification of the will. It is not implied that these extra motives do not involve feeling and judgment.

Our first duty, therefore, is to explore the field of employment of rewards and punishment as a means of social control.