Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/371

 METAPHYSICAL ELEMENTS IN SOCIOLOGY 359

Sur I'homme et developpement de ses facultcs, ou essai de physique social*; De Greef, Introduction a la sociologies Galton, Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development; Pearson, Grammar of Science).

Or they have made the principle which should be sufficient to explain social phenomena :

I. Association (Izoulet, La cite moderne).

a. Division of Labor (Durkheim, De la division du travail social).

3. Imitation (Tarde, Les lois de limitation).

4. Struggle of the Races (Gumplowicz, Der Rassenkampf).

5. Consciousness of Kind (Giddings, Principles of Sociology).

Consequently we are prepared for Mr. Lester Ward's state- ment of what is involved in sociological investigation. He says :

By pure sociology, then, is meant a treatment of the phenomena and laws of society as it is, an explanation of the process by which social phenomena take place, a search for the antecedent conditions by which the observed facts have been brought into existence, and an aetiological diagnosis that shall reach back as far as the state of human knowledge will permit, into the psychologic, biologic, and cosmic causes of the existing social state of man.* He then goes on to say that pure sociology must confine itself exclusively to what is, and not to what ought to be, which latter is the province of applied sociology. This latter part may not be neglected any more than pure sociology (since it necessarily puts the value- judgment central, it is very vitally connected with appreciation). Compare this with Professor Giddings's state- ment when he says that sociology

is a science that tries to conceive of society in its unity, and attempts to explain it in terms of cosmic cause and law. To accomplish such explanation

it must work a subjective interpretation in terms of physical process

The subjective process and the objective must be shown to be inseparable, each being at all times conditioned by the other.*

It will now be our problem to consider a number of the con- ceptions employed in sociological discussion, and to examine them to find out whether they involve anything that is philosophical, either in content or in point of view. Mr. Bosanquet has pointed out with great clearness that philosophy has been dealing with sociological problems in that it has investigated the state and other of the higher manifestations of the self in its relation to its


 * Pure Sociology, p. 4.

Principles of Sociology, p. 16.