Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/734

 THE PRESENT STATUS OF SOCIOLOGY IN GERMANY

II.

IT is perhaps indirectly due, in no small degree, to theoret- ical socialism that the historical view point has been so generally adopted in more recent national economy in Germany. When socialism announced its dictum that the realization of its plans and theories is an inevitable necessity in the course of natural historical development, its more or less positive opponents encountered the task of investigating the historical develop- ment of the industrial system, which served socialism as the premise from which to derive its bold conclusion. If it should be possible to meet socialism upon its chosen ground, to gain historical perspective unfavorable to socialism, the theory would thus be shaken from its foundation. Marx, and still more Engels, found in history a constantly increasing tendency to col- lectivism. If historical research should reach a contrary result, then an exceptional place will no longer be claimable for social- ism. It will, in itself, have no more plausibility and scientific viability than other social impulses which have sprung from definite arbitrariness and not from historical necessity.

In the broad circuit of questions arising in this connection the phenomenon of the formation of social classes, so impor- tant for sociology, constitutes the central problem. How is it with the fact of social classes? History shows them from the beginning. Is the tendency with them toward stronger social- ization and unification or toward divergence and differentiation ? Inseparable from this consideration is the related phenomenon of the division of labor. It is a long way from primitive domes- tic economy to the modern industrial system with its industrial specialization and organization. Moreover, the division of labor in our day is constantly becoming more minute. Does it lead finally to socialization or to individualization? Socialism sees

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