Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/373

 METAPHYSICAL ELEMENTS IN SOCIOLOGY 361

science, in that it is a regular microcosm of thoughts, feelings, and volitions; and the motives from which it acts can very sel- dom, or at least not always, be detected from the actions them- selves.

Some sociologists hold that the only valid sociology is one which treats the subject-matter exactly as the data of the physical sciences are treated. But Professor Baldwin has pointed out that social progress takes place according to a dual law habit and accommodation; with the result that when we are studying social progress, in order to get the law of that development, we must remember that when any advance (accommodation) has taken place, and habit sets in, the basis for the next development is not the same as served for the last stages ; and so to understand social progress, the investigator may not confine himself merely to the bare functional phenomena, but he must consider how the change in the matter of the process modifies the function. Then, in turn, the function modifies the matter, and thus by this dialectical movement social progress takes place. 7 This points out clearly that the methods which obtain for physical processes are not ade- quate for the interpretation of phenomena of this sort. Further- more, in view of the above, we can say that the mere laws of physical science are insufficient, since the situation to be investi- gated is so complex. M. Tarde, in his chapter on " Archaeology and Statistics," points out that statistics can deal only with imi- tations and their regularity, but that it cannot be applied to the "inventions'" which must precede the imitations and without which the imitations would not exist (p. 137). "Only imitation, and not invention, is subject to law in the true sense of the word " (p. 142). It is not as though you had matter acting according to the law of motion, as physics would hold ; what you really have is conscious selves acting according to teleological law. 8 Perhaps it is possible for these units to be endowed with a certain capri- ciousness, a certain individuality of their own in reacting. Thus by this very nature of theirs since they are wills they make an extremely complex situation, and at the same time an inde-

T Social and Ethical Interpretations, 3d ed., p. 494.
 * GIDDINGS, Elements of Sociology, p. 350.