Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/554

 534 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

every speculation is worthless which loses sight of the realistic back- ground."

The third subdivision of the first part treats of the " positivism of all knowledge and science." The author here adopts the most rigorous standpoint of Comtean positivity {Positivitdt); but in spite of it, or just on account of it, he rejects the haughty and sterile conception of the " purposelessness " or, more plainly speaking, "disinterestedness" of all science. He remarks (p. 17): "Science is no longer satisfied with an insight into things, with investigation of the existent and the past ; it wants rather to put insight and retrospection at the service of prevision." According to Huxley, every science whose future applica- tion deeply concerns it, must take care " that it be possible for it to divine from the existing state the past and the future." Only through such knowledge does science preserve its proper position in the life of man. " If we consider the task of science to be the seeking of laws for all phenomena, we find that a multitude of endeavors which are but distantly related to science sail under its flag ; for the search for laws in phenomena is not the gratification of mere desire of knowledge, but the effort even in itself is purposeful, because only from conformity to law can conclusive inferences regarding the past and future arise. That, in this case, the past, whether it be investigated or ascertained through deduction, will be put at the service of prevision lies in the nature of purposeful science." NSgeli says rightly : "If causal knowl- edge succeeds in foretelling future events with the same certainty and precision as astronomy, it will stand the test." With the demonstra- tion of laws in human relationships we enter the path in which pre- vision into events is to be found — a path which has long since been trod experimentally by the science of medicine and with full certainty by all exact sciences.

This review can only consider much more briefly the remaining six divisions of Ratzenhofer's Soziologische Erkenntnis.

The second division treats of the "psychological" basis of sociology in four subdivisions: (i) "The Place of Man in the Universe," (2) "The Biological Origin of Consciousness," (3) " The Innate Content of Consciousness," (4) " Consciousness as Distinct from the Outer World." The third division, which is devoted to the "natural-science basis of sociology," treats the subject under four subdivisions: (i) "The Relation of Natural Law to Sociological Knowledge," (2) "The Doctrines of Universal Evolution," (3) " The Redistribution of Mat- ter and Its Consequences," (4) "The Doctrines of Biological Phe-