Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/754

 THE DATA OF SOCIOLOGY. CONTRIBUTIONS TO SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY. VI. leading distinction between modern and ancient philosophy is that the former proceeds from facts while the latter proceeded from assumptions. Every science is at the same time a philosophy. The greater part of all that is valuable in any science is the result of reasoning from facts. What would geology be if all we know was the bare facts that the rocks present? The history of the world as geologists now understand it is all deduced from a state of things that is now fixed or stationary. It is true that similar movements are now taking place, or may be artificially caused to take place, from which past movements may be inferred, but they are none the less inferred. The geological period practically closed when the human period began, so that no record is possible. Yet who shall say that we do not know all that we claim to know about the earth's history? The evidence, though all circumstantial, is absolutely irresistible as to the main points on which all geologists agree. Yet it is all inference. In other words geology, so far as it furnishes us anything of value is a philosophy. As much might be said of physics and chemistry. They deal with agencies and elements wholly beyond the range of our senses, and yet most of the material progress of the world has resulted from men's reasonings about these invisible and intangible things. The chemical atoms, the luminiferous ether, electricity, all existed the same as now before anything was known of them. It is clear therefore that all the value they have now is due to the actions of men, and this has chiefly consisted in observing facts and drawing conclusions from these facts. So that chemistry and physics constitute a philosophy. Thus we might go through the whole list. The more complex a science is the greater the