Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/755

 OUTLINE OF A THEORY OF SOCIAL MOTIVES

JAMES M. WILLIAMS Hobart College

A comparison of the works on political science of a hundred or more years ago with the works of today reveals an important difference in method. The earlier works based their deductions on a theory of human motives consciously taken as a starting- point. Behtham entitled his book, Introduction to the Prin- ciples of Morals and Legislation. Present-day writers, however, generally restrict their treatment to a study of political relations and governmental agencies. This is wise because the methods used in a study of documentary sources on which political scien- tists mainly rely differ from those used in a study of motives. However, political scientists need a working knowledge of motives, and especially at three points: First, in discussing the function of the state and the extent to which the state should take up the ventures of private philanthropy. Second, in the study of political parties. Little information on this subject is to be gleaned from documentary sources because the activity of political parties centers in the activity of individuals which is largely unregulated by the state. Third, such knowledge is necessary when the political scientist becomes a critic of political institutions. As a critic he relates those institutions to something more fundamental; and without a theory of the motive forces out of which laws and institutions have developed, interpretations are apt to show a personal bias.

If scientists are influenced in their work by dispositional emo- tions, what may be expected of the ordinary man in his economic or political activity? For instance, I am now engaged in an investigation of the methods by which the agents of a certain enterprise work up, in a rural community, the speculative fever and the impulse to invest in their securities. These agents stir the imagination by picturing the wonderful things which may

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