Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/21

 THE VINDICATION OF SOCIOLOGY 7

First, Sociology is already vindicated in part by the very con- clusion with which such writer} as Professor Ford try to rule it out of court; viz., that it is consciously and avowedly a science in the making.

In our day nothing more vital than Mandarins' traditions is ossified and encysted and sterilized. It is becoming. It is realizing itself, both in rearrangements within and in readjust- ments without. Some divisions of knowledge are not doing this. On the contrary they are vaunting their fixedness. The soci- ologists are men who refuse to be entombed in these sepulchers. They assert that knowledge of life is as vital as life itself, and they declare their independence of all the pseudo-scientific com- mittees of mummification who propose to make scientific stand- ing depend on acceptance of burial space.

Primarily for this reason, no sociologist may speak very specifically for his colleagues. "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit." Because they are interrogating life, not forcing life into the molds of foregone conclusions, they fre- quently seem wholly detached from one another. It is, however, only the detachment of deployed skirmishers. They know their rallying-point, and their work makes for the success of a com- mon campaign.

Second, Sociology is still further vindicated in part by the very accusations that are brought against it.

Professor Ford's article is a symptom of the amateurish stage of almost-science which, for brevity, we may caricature. Its major premise is that knowledge is preserved in an assortment of hermetically sealed cans. The right and the skill to open these cans is the monopoly and the mystery of corresponding groups of specialists. Each group has also the peculiar skill and right to manipulate the contents of its respective can.

Every man who takes this view of science points to his precious can of preserves, and denies to the sociologist the rank of scientist till he can produce a can of a different sort of pre- serves from any previously listed in the collection.

Third, In order to get a hearing at ail, sociology has been