Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/420

 4o6 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Before he had reached his seventieth birthday, Gumplowicz laid down his professorship and took a vacation. On this same birthday (March, 1908) he received a great many ovations, which, with wonted modesty, he was loath to accept. Prominent men, on that occasion, emphasized loudly, in spoken and written language, their gratefulness and appreciation of the scientific activity of the great savant, to whom, in the search after truth, no labor had been too difficult, and who had defended his ideas bravely and unflinchingly. In his honor a sociological society was founded in Graz during those days.

Sociology, which for some is "natural history" of the his- torical development of man, for others a synthesis of the most essential historical phenomena, an apex of the philosophy of the social sciences, or even a pure historiosophy, was for Gumplowicz a science which should be devoted exclusively to the investigation of the relations common to the social groups and classes. Start- ing from this foundation he devoted himself to the observation and investigation of social development with the high moral impartiality of the searcher after truth.

Science (sociology) [writes Gumplowicz] does not belong to any particu- lar camp; it is not, indeed, a fighting party at all, it is an observation tower, a lookout, from which the movements of the fighting parties may be investigated. Its purpose is not victory, but knowledge; it should be beyond partiality."

And he knew very well the invincible obstacles standing in the way of the valuation of social events, for he wrote :

No chemist would ask whether oxygen did well in uniting with hydro- gen, or whether it is right in mixing with quicksilver. No astronomer would ask, whether the moon, in appearing between sun and earth is worthy of praise or blame — but no historian could be found who would consider it unjustified to judge about the "right" or "wrong" action of King X or Minister Y; who would refrain from praise or blame in the conception of any action whatever.

While Auguste Comte, who regarded sociology as a natural science of society, could not keep up this standpoint in his own writings, and while Herbert Spencer, who warned so frequently and insistently as to the danger of subjectivity in sociological in- vestigation, nevertheless fell a prey to the temptations of the