Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/103

 EDUCATIONAL ASPECTS OF SOCIOLOGY 87

to the recognition of changes especially when based on the com- parative study of region by region. To interpret these current events, the resources of historical specialisms and the general history of civilization have alike to be utilized; contemporary social phenomena being largely survivals and recapitulations of past historical developments. But while preliminary studies in geography begin with a survey of a particular region, and ascend to a general view of the world-theater of mankind, the corre- sponding historical preparation of the sociologist essentially pro- ceeds in the reverse order, the student using the general history of mankind to interpret the particular history of his own region. Its industry and art, its politics and religion, its education and custom, being thus viewed as parts of a general evolutionary process, the possibilities of its modification by conscious human endeavor next present themselves to the student, who thus passes by a natural transition from pure to applied sociology, from science to art, from social survey to social service. From this point of view, every individual type, every social institution, industrial and political, educational and religious, is seen as an empirical racial experiment toward a certain social ideal, though this may be but obscurely known to the participating individuals. Given, however, such evolutionary ideals, the transition from empirical to rational (i. e., scientific) experiment in "social evolu- tion is inevitable. The history of every branch of science shows, at a certain stage of its development, the emergence, not only of observational, but of experimental institutes ; in fact, laboratories, in which the conditions of rational experiment are thought out and organized. It is thus the practical endeavor of the Outlook Tower to work toward the beginnings of such departures in sociological science, upon civic and even wider levels. 2

The London movement has a different origin, developing out of the unique environment of the metropolis. Of all cities, London exhibits the wealthiest and most luxurious aggregation of the leisure class and at the same time herds within itself what is probably the vastest mass of poverty, disease, lunacy, vice, and crime ever accumulated on a like area. The social problems thus


 * Geddes, City Development (Edinburgh, 1904).