Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/677

 THE TEACHING OF SOCIOLOGY 663

There is still another aspect of sociology deemed worthy of emphasis in our teaching. The historical method should be applied to sociological theories themselves and the great social theories of past generations should be studied and compared with the teachings of the sociologists of the nineteenth century. By this method fundamental agreements and differences can be noted, the trend in the current of sociological theorizing can be indicated, and from the teaching of all of these thinkers can slowly be constructed a framework which later writers may fill out in detail. Furthermore such a historical study will enable the student to see why sociology in its upward march has been influenced first by mechanical theories of development, then by biological analogies resulting in the organic interpretation of society, then by the rise of the "social mind" under the influence of the newer psychology, and how, throughout the entire period, the conclusions of eco- nomics as the most fundamental of all the special social sciences have exercised a powerful influence on sociological theory.

Now when once the student grasps the thought that sociology is not to be identified with concrete studies of social problems, nor with economic, political, ethical, psychological, or biological studies as such, but rather with broad generalizations found in these as laws and principles of human association, and when fur- thermore he sees that others before him have labored to arrange in systematic and logical form these fundamentals, he is then prepared to see the real meaning of sociology as an abstract sci- ence. Indeed it is better that he should see this than that he become expert in what is often referred to as "social pathology" or "social philanthropy." If only he can be brought to see that there are fundamental teachings underlying human association, he will in later and more concrete studies tend to "put things in their places" and will not lose himself in detail, as might be possible if he were allowed to devote his energy exclusively to the innumerable perplexing problems of our highly complex civiliza- tion.

When once the student can be brought to see that in theory at least there may be a science of sociology, the remaining task should then be comparatively easy. He starts with an attitude of