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 METAPHYSICAL ELEMENTS IN SOCIOLOGY.

I.

EVER since the appearance of the Cours de philosophic positive of Auguste Comte, and the Principles of Sociology of Herbert Spencer, the scientific mind has been conscious of the presence of a body of phenomena which needed an explanation peculiar to themselves. Some aspect of this body had, of course, been treated in the works of Plato and Aristotle, and in later political philos- ophies. But the awakening of the spirit of scientific investigation brought with it the demand that, just as the phenomena of con- sciousness in individuals were being considered according to scientific principles, so the phenomena which were the objective results of the activities of those conscious individuals should also be studied. Psychology was for a long time simply a part of a philosophy. Modern thought, in securing for psychology a place in scientific research, has been able to make it a definite branch of learning, occupying a place in the hierarchy of knowledge between the physical sciences and philosophy, with a method of investiga- tion all its own. Sociology seems at present to be undergoing the formative period which psychology has undergone; it seems to be slowly working out its place in the realm of thought. Much has been said concerning the relationship of sociology to the various sciences, but little concerning its relation to philosophy. In view of the unique place which psychology holds in reference to philosophical thought, and in view of the very vital relationship between the material with which the two sciences have to deal, it might prove to be worth our while to look into the relationship of sociology to philosophy; to ask whether there is a metaphysical element in sociology, and, in case there should be one, to ask what it is, and whether it is a necessary one, or whether it can be suc- cessfully eliminated.

In the consideration of the relation of sociology to meta- physics we are called upon at the outset to consider the province

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