Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/691

 COMPARA TIVE STUDY OF ASSOCIA TION 67 1

and interpretation of what the relations, activities, associations of these complex beings are must also be driven to a consideration of what these were ; and that accordingly sociology, in order to deal adequately with the association of human beings, must pay most careful and considerate attention to the association of beings lower than those we see fit to call human." In view, therefore, of the characteristics of the phenomena to be dealt with and of the resulting difficulties involved in the attempt to isolate and observe under relatively simple conditions any par- ticular aspect of the same, it seems not improbable that the comparative method, which has yielded such worthy results in other sciences confronted with a similar complexity of subject- matter, may be susceptible of fruitful application in the field of societary phenomena. For it is perhaps not an unwarrantable hypothesis that association has a genetic history corresponding, in large outlines at least, to that of the associating organisms.

It will at once be evident that from the standpoint here implied the distinctions between sociology and other sciences will be based upon considerations varying in their nature with the particular science which at a given time we may be seeking to distinguish from sociology. A ground of distinction which will hold good when certain others fail to do so will be found in what is usually designated by the phrase " point of view." Ref- erence is made to that aspect of point of view under which it appears as the observer's mental attitude toward the phenomena under investigation. This basis of distinction is particularly use- ful in helping us to differentiate from each other branches of knowledge concerned with the analysis and interpretation of phenomena related to each other in the process of development. An integration of phenomena, which occurs in growth, is of such a nature as to give rise to some curious relations between a sci- ence proposing to deal with a given phase or stage of that inte- gration and other sciences dealing with earlier stages or phases of the same. The latter are in a way propaedeutic to the former,

■ It is here that the so-called "biological explanation of society" — the oft-her- alded demise of which has a rhythmic periodicity deserving the attention of some astute investigator — may one day wreak a poetic vengeance upon those who are so fond of proclaiming its defunct condition.