Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/18

 2 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

More significant than either of these factors was the situa- tion of sociology itself, which no one intimately interested had the stoicism frankly to admit. Sociology was in fact nothing more than wistful advertisement of a hiatus in knowledge. It was a peering after an eighth color in the spectrum, or a fourth dimension of space. Only here and there a perverse spirit betrayed longings for such unattainables, and it was not to be expected that the few irregulars could win over responsible members of society to patronage of their vagaries. Although wise books had been written in the interest of sociology, books that will be read for many years to come, the sad fact was that no sociologist had quite found himself, or, if he thought he had, he could not give a convincing account of himself to others. Sociology was a science without a problem, a method, or a mes- sage. The many confident prophesyings in the name of soci- ology, but conflicting with each other, served not to mitigate the case, but to aggravate it. Our purpose is not to describe the differences that a decade has wrought from the publisher's standpoint, but to indicate some evident changes in the status of sociology itself.

In the first place, the sociologists understand themselves and each other much better than they did ten years ago. It would be premature to say that they have come to an agreement about their problems, and their methods, if not about their message. There is at least more ability among them to act on the assump- tion that "he who is not against us is on our part." There is more readiness to admit that the man who states sociological problems in terms different from those which we prefer is still promoting the same search for knowledge to which we are com- mitted. There is more keenness to welcome good work, and to grant that it fits into a vacant place, even if it is not the kind of work that we most value. Whether we have a formula for it or not, we have a more catholic instinct of the range that socio- logical research must occupy, and we are more ready to hail as fellow-laborers types of workers whose particular interests and presumptions and methods vary widely from our own.

In the second place, there is not merely a sympathetic gain,