Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/797

 THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 78 1

in one way or another before the term "sociology" was invented. Indeed, we may approach a little nearer to exact definition by saying that the business of the sociologist is to organize available knowledge of the conditions of human life, so that all concrete questions of conduct will be more easily, or at least more truly, answered when placed in the setting that this organized knowledge furnishes. The sociologist has the duty, first of all, to lay a reliable foundation for reflective conduct in analysis and in synthetic interpretation of general social relations, as given in all available knowledge of past and present associa- tions.

To illustrate : The historian may describe a given period or episode of human experience, say the Gracchan revolutions in Rome or "the Revolution" in France. It is a piece of very highly specialized work to find out the facts and their correla- tions in a particular instance. Quite likely the man who studies the Gracchan revolution, for example, branches out into gener- alizations about causes and effects of all revolutions. He may, however, be completely incompetent to speak with authority on any part of the subject other than the single fragment of evi- dence contained in the period which he has particularly studied. Now, the sociologist is not primarily and specifically a historian. He is dependent upon the historian. He has to learn how to take the facts that many historians authenticate and coin them into general truths about associated human life. For instance, the historian should furnish material for answering such questions as these about the period of which he treats : On what terms did the people live together? Under what constraints did they maintain those terms ? For what ends did they endure the con- straints ? With what institutions did they act ? In what way did they presently change their manner of living together ? What part did individuals play, and what role was assumed by the society as a whole, and by the inanimate surroundings, in postponing or promoting these changes ?

All such questions, when generalized into inquiries about uni- versal tendency, have to be answered by first collecting instances. Here is the place of anthropology, ethnology, history. Then