Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/675

 THE TEACHING OF SOCIOLOGY 66i

of civilization; or the struggle of class with class; or the social

importance of a class freed from the necessity of economic toil;

or the respective advantages and disadvantages of a static rigid

civilization as against one flexible and dynamic by nature; or

applications of biological and psychological knowledge to such

practical problems as pauperism, crime, and sexual vice.

Such and similar generalizations can be used in a practical way as working hypotheses until confirmed or modified by further study. When seen, appreciated, and applied by the student they not infrequently arouse an interest that becomes permanent, with inevitable consequences in respect to his attitude toward the whole social question. Presumably for some time to come this synthe- sizing process applied to the conclusions of the special social sciences will furnish to sociology its most fruitful field of useful- ness, by enabling it to exert a unifying influence on all social problems and by developing a constructive rather than a descrip- tive aspect to problems of social betterment. Furthermore it seems to the writer that sociology already has at its command a sufficient body of information to enable it to develop a tentative but constructive policy in respect to social problems. Haste should be made slowly and radicalism looked on askance, but the occasional blunders made in sociological suggestion will presum- ably in no case be worse than the continuous blunder of a policy of drift and inaction.

Our next step in the process of building up the content of soci- ology is to become familiar with social interpretations of the great teachings in well-established and historic departments of knowl- edge. Of these biology and psychology as basal sciences for soci- ology naturally furnish the chief material. Yet we are careful to show that sociology is no more psychology than psychology is bi- ology, or biology, physics. These general sciences, as they develop new principles, or prove or disprove earlier hypotheses, furnish subject-matter for the consideration of the sociologist. The pre- sumption is that such principles will have their analogies in social life also, and hence it is rather natural under the influence of the teachings from these other sciences to make use of a mechanical or a biological or a psychological interpretation of society or to