Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/610

 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEW OF SOCIETY

CHARLES A. ELLWOOD University of Missouri

Auguste Comte suggested, in the later years of his life, that all sciences might be reduced to two great general sciences, physics and sociology, the former dealing with all the phenomena of the physical universe, the latter dealing with all the phenomena of human society. The sociologist of today, however, would acknowledge that it is more reasonable to suggest that the two master sciences are, not physics and sociology, but physics and psychology. He would not claim for his science the proud posi- tion which Comte claimed for it, but would rather subordinate it to psychology. This is due to the fact that the modern view of the world recognizes the clear distinction between the objective and the subjective, between the physical and the psychical; and this recognition has led inevitably to the recognition of psychol- ogy as the master science of the subjective, or psychical; just as physics has been elevated to the central position among the physical sciences, so modern thought has elevated psychology to the central position among all those sciences which deal in any way with the psychical or its products.

Comte did not deny the existence of psychology, but he sub- ordinated it partly to biology (organic physics), and partly to sociology. This was due, in part, to his materialistic world-view, but even more to the fact that psychology in his time had not developed sufficiently to have even an independent position among the sciences. Comte, in other words, could not have subordinated sociology to psychology without being misunderstood. At pres- ent, however, conditions are reversed; the development of psy- chology, and of modern science generally, has made it evident that sociology must be subordinated partly to biology (organic physics) on the one hand, and partly to psychology on the other. It needs no extended argument to show that sociology is much

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