Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/331

 THE PROBLEM OF SOCIOLOGY 317

covery of that new complex of social problems. The quarrel about what sociology really means, so long as it turns upon the assignment of this title to already existing and already treated groups of problems, seems to me unimportant. If, meanwhile, the title sociology is selected for this collection of tasks, with the claim that this collection completely and alone covers the idea of sociology, the claim must answer to another group of problems which undeniably seek to gain knowledge in addition to that of social sciences determined by their content — that is, knowledge of society as such and as a whole.

Like every other exact science which aims at immediate com- prehension of given experience, social science is also hemmed in by two philosophical regions. The one embraces the limitations, elementary concepts, presuppositions of the particular investiga- tion which in the special investigation itself can find no complete expression, since they rather are at the basis of the investigation. In the other region this particular investigation is carried to completions and correlations, and is put in relationship with questions and concepts which have no place within experience and immediately objective knowledge. The former is the epistemology, the latter the metaphysics of the particular terri- tories in question. This latter metaphysics signifies virtually two problems which nevertheless are usually undifferentiated in the actual processes of thought. On the one hand dissatisfaction with the fragmentary character of the particular details of knowledge, with the early exhaustion of the actually demonstrable data, and of the series of provable things, leads to attempts at completing these by means of speculation. These very same means, then, serve the parallel need of reinforcing the disconnect- edness and the reciprocal incoherence of those particles by organ- izing them into the unity of a complete view. By the side of this metaphysical function, which has to do with the degree of knowl- edge, there is another, dealing with another dimension of exist- ence, in which the metaphysical significance of its contents lies. We express this as the sense or the purpose, as the absolute substance under the relative phenomena, also as the value or the religious significance. In the case of society this spiritual