Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/273

 THE CLAIMS OF SOCIOLOGY 259

of its fundamental concept. The proper description of sociology I conceive to be this : it is a pseudo-science, which was produced by hasty, speculative methods of applying natural science to the interpretation of human society, and which possesses a methodo- logical scheme that exhibits logical consistency, but is completely vitiated by the falsity of its premises. The greatest single gain that could be made in scientific progress toward the solution of the problems with which sociology undertakes to deal, would be to get rid of sociology, since it is essentially a false start. Those who yield to its plausible pretensions go astray.

EDITORIAL NOTE

Professor Ford's confession that he prefers obscuration in the company of Oxford and Cambridge to unbiased search for the light, is not the only proof in his paper that there is no common ground for argument between him and the sociologists. His con- tention amounts first to the claim that a knowledge problem must be solved before work upon it can have scientific value. That is, a generalization must have been reached which may serve as an a priori to explain all the phenomena. This flatly rules inductive processes out of the pale of science. It puts dogmatism in place of research by test of all possible hypotheses. According to Pro- fessor Ford, therefore, all the science in existence has come into being by an unscientific process.

In the second place. Professor Ford demands acceptance of the a priori that the state existed before the individual. This is like denying scientific value to biology until it solves the riddle of the priority of chick or egg, and deduces the details of biological knowledge from that a priori. Inasmuch as we have not discovered the missing link, and do not know its habitat and its habits, we should be somewhat premature, whether we called ourselves soci- ologists or anything else, in being as sure as Professor Ford is about things which nobody knows. What we do know is that wherever human experience has been observed one of its elements has been an incessant reciprocating process between individuals and their groupings. The sociologists are trying to do for this process precisely what the physicists are now trying to do for radio-activity. That is, they are testing every possible hypothesis which may help

to explain what it is, and how it is, and why it is. . ,Tr r-

•^ A. W. S.