Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/691

RELATION BETWEEN SOCIOLOGY AND ETHICS 675 its flight in the twilight, when the labors and the struggles of the day are over. But in ethical thought the goddess herself appears on the field of battle. She does not forget what her bird has told her of the struggles and labors of former times, but she applies this knowledge in waging her war with the wisdom which becomes her divinity.

Historical data are the foundation on which ethical development is based. But in what manner and in what direction is this development, this conscious continuation of history, to proceed? That is the question. Here individual stands up against individual, individual against society, society against individual, and society against society. We have here all the four sorts of war which Grotius long ago distinguished. Ethical valuation must always be the work of individuals who start from certain definite social and mental presuppositions. How, then, can a universal ideal be formed, and how can a universal standard be set up? Here we have the real sting of the ethical problem. It is the greatest war in history, which here is carried on in the quiet world of thought. This war has also interest for the sociologist; but he is here only a spectator. The moral philosopher takes his place in the battle itself. The sociologist examines what is going on, and how it is going on; but the moral philosopher asks on which side the highest value is to be found, and how he can get a standard to test this value. The moral philosopher can as little set himself above sociological laws as the agriculturalist can set himself above chemical laws. But as the agriculturalist can make use of chemical laws in order to make the earth produce the profit he looks for, so the moral philosopher asks how we can make use of the sociological laws in order to produce ethically valuable results.

The independence of ethics manifests itself in the selection of ends and means within the manifold possibilities which sociology presents. The farther we advance on our way from sociology to ethics, the more the field of possibilities becomes narrowed. There are more possibilities in the marble block than the sculptor can actualize.

The relation of sociology to ethics is here again similar to the relation of psychology to ethics. Psychological possibilities present to ethics the same problem as was presented to it by the sociological possibilities. In both respects the great art is to find the differentiating principle.

4. Not only is there a difference between sociology and ethics, but there may be a sharp contrast between them, and it is important