Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/410

 390 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

sciences are thus, so to speak, partial products, or trial divisors, to be calculated into the more general formulas of descriptive sociology.

The still unfamiliar concept '■'^ social forms" may become clearer by reflection on an unclassified and uncriticised list of the most obvious of them. This list has no reference to the relative importance or gener- ality of the forms named. Regardless of the relationships which may be made out between these forms (as of genus and species), they are named as illustrations. Most of them are suggested by Simmel (^Annals of the American Academy, December, 1895, pp. 57, 62, etc.):

(i) Secrecy (secret societies) ; (2) authority ; (3) subordination (per- sonal) ; (4) equality ; (5) control (by the group), and (6) conformity (on the part of individuals, without subordination to other persons individ- ually) ; (7) competition ; (8) imitation ; (9) opposition ; (10) division of labor; (11) hierarchies; (12) parties; (13) interaction and stratification of groups; (14) manifold reactions against external influences ; (15) agency and clientage; (16) dealer and customer ; (17) spokesman and constituent (not involving authority) ; (18) representation (with author- ity); {iqi) primus inter pares (perhaps resolvable into (17)); (20) tertius gaudens (the non-partisan, sometimes).'

The best of Herbert Spencer's work consists in making out social types, though he would not say so. One of Dr. Simmel's pupils (Thon) defines sociology thus : "Sociology is the science of {a) t\\t forms and (b) i)\t psychical motivation of human association."'

This necessitates study of the psychical forces, working through the forms. Even Dr. Simmel, who emphasizes {a) as the sole province of sociology, sees more to reward research in {b). He simply does not want the name "sociology" to cover more than (a). Without taking up the question of nomenclature, we may be certain that the social problem involves study of {b). It has been pursued under two catego- ries, "static" and "dynamic," as follows :

2. Statical (sociology) interpretation deals with the laws of coexist- ence among social forces.'

3. Dynamic (sociology) interpretation deals with the laws of serial relationships among social forces.* Quite likely we shall presently

•The most elaborate treatment of atypical form is Simmel, "Superiority and Subordination as Subject-Matter of Sociology," American Journal of Sociology, September and November, 1896.

•American Journal of Sociology, January, 1897, p. 570.

' yiite Ward, Dynamic Sociology, first edition. I, pp. 81 and 127-8.


 * Vide Ward and Small on " Static and Dynamic Sociology," loc. cit.