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 Il8 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

edge, as well as with the mental development of the individual. Neither general nor individual knowledge advances in a straight line. A slight revision of a single portion of knowledge has often compelled reconsideration and readjustment of the whole body of scientific beliefs then prevalent. The purpose of this syllabus is to explain the correla- tion of scientific research which is " indicated " by our present insight into social relationships.

The reality which our minds encounter is the worlti of people, inseparable in fact from the world of things. Men have investigated this dual reality sufficiently to have furnished a somewhat circum- stantial answer to the questions : What do we know about the world of people ? What do we need to know about the world of people ? How must we go to work to get the lacking knowledge ?' In order to get the benefit of accumulated knowledge about the world of people, and in order to control the mental processes that are involved in mak- ing our knowledge more precise, we must master — both theoretically and practically — certain methodological elements. Those in most constant demand, for the purposes here in view, are characterized in the next chapter.

CHAPTER II.

ESSENTIAL METHODOLOGICAL PROCESSES.'

I. ANALYSIS.

The objects which we encounter in experience are complex. Every object or event represents either many permanent and coexistent aspects, or many conditions following each other in time. Frequently these two sorts of marks form combinations with each other. Analysis is consequently that form of methodical thinking which is, as a rule, set in motion by the natural qualities of the object of thought. A clear and definite conception of objects is the fundamental condition of scientific research, and at the same time the most obvious mark of distinction between scientific scrutiny and ordinary observation. The first step of investigation must consequently be definite

■F/</ir"The Sociologists' Point of View," American Journal of Sociology, September, 1897, pp. 145-55.

'Following WuNDT, MethodenUhre, 1. Band, I. Abtheil., pp. I-I?- To make assurance doubly sure it may be worth while to state explicitly that these citations from general logic do not amount to a claim that these fundamentals belong within the field of sociology. The sociologist must go to school under many teachers. Because he has not learned, as well as he should, some of these elementary lessons in logic, it is necessary to review these portions of antecedent methodology, and to insist that sociologists need to pay more heed to their requirements.