Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/304

 290 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

educated men have learned to conceive of sociology as distinctly and con- cretely as they conceive of other sciences. The word must instantly call to mind a particular class of phenomena and a definite group of coordinated problems.

This is among the many instances in Book I in which attempts to compose previously published essays into a consecutive argument result as usual with new patches and old garments. Prudential con- siderations about sociology as a university study have no place in a system of scientific methodology. Giddings does not properly distin- guish between considerations calculated to win academic tolerance for the new science, and arguments with colaborers about the scope and method of the science. He is not sure whether he is more con- cerned with preparing a syllabus which will be a convenient guide to university lectures, or with the direct attempt to deepen and broaden scientific knowledge. The book is thus confused by the influence of two considerations which have no business together: (i) can sociology be so formulated that it can secure a foothold in the universities ? (2) is it possible so to perfect methods of studying association that pro- founder knowledge of society will result ? The latter is the scientific question. It has been made subsidiary in Giddings' whole programme. The former is a question which the investigator, as such, has no occa- sion to raise. It is not his affair. Besides, to a man of scientific tem- per the question " Can sociology be studied in the university ? " would seem to be sufficiently answered by the significant fact that it is studied there, and by the apparent impossibility of preventing extension of the study. Giddings has however unconsciously allowed the supposed demands of university pedagogy to dictate the form and substance of his sociology. 1 The tacit reasoning is: Sociology must be a body of doctrine that can be comfortably taught in the universities. A defi- nite system of premises and deductions is such a body of doctrine. Therefore a system of premises and deductions sociology shall be. This is a veritable parody of science. It is like making scientific endorsement of a proposed method of reaching the North Pole depend on the probable ability of Cook and Gaze to popularize the route with tourists.

When we read the book closely, therefore, we find several dis- tinct questions hopelessly intertangled. Thus : (i) What sort of instruction belongs in a university ? (2) Can sociology lend itself to

- Cf. pp. 67-8.