Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/756

740 sound to say that in order to be properly prepared for the study of sociology one must first be acquainted with mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and psychology, but when it is clearly understood what is meant by this it loses much of its formidableness. For it has never been maintained that it is necessary to become a specialist in all, or even in any of these sciences. It is only essential to have a firm grasp of the leading principles of all of them and of their relations one to another. It would be far better to devote time to this aspect of each of them than to mastering the details, as is so largely done in the present system of education. A certain amount of detail is of course necessary to furnish a full conception of what any science is and means, but it need go no farther than this. The pedagogic principle applies to any science. A fair acquaintance with the general principles of all the simpler sciences is essential to a full understanding of the one it is proposed to make a specialty of. The astronomer must understand mathematics, the physicist should be familiar with the laws that govern the solar system, the chemist should be acquainted with the general principles of physics, the biologist should have a fair command of chemical phenomena, and especially of those of organic chemistry, and the psychologist cannot dispense with a thorough foundation in the general laws of life and in the facts of anatomical and physiological science. So, of course, the sociologist, before he can fully perceive the scope and significance of his science, must know the laws of mind which directly underlie the whole social fabric.

It is also always a great gain if the philosophical student of these higher sciences can have the advantage of much deeper drafts from the more directly underlying sources. It has an immensely broadening and deepening effect upon the study of mind or of society, to pursue, as a pastime or as a profession, some special branch of biology—botany, entomology, ornithology, or general zoology. The special study of physiology and anatomy, particularly their comparative study, is also exceedingly helpful to the psychologist or the sociologist. In fact, long and continuous