Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/339

 THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 325

are in a given association rather potential than actual. With such qualifications, however, it is true that all human associations whatsoever betray characteristics in common. Enumeration of these characteristics is one way of presenting the problems which must be solved before there will be a science of sociology. 1

When we assert, therefore, that certain incidents are common to all human associations, and when we proceed to specify cer- tain of these incidents, we are not proposing sociological solu- tions. We are not professing to exhibit the incidents as they will appear after criticism. We do not claim that this first enumeration shows the most precise or profound relations between these incidents. Indeed, if sociology were more ripe, such pro- testations as these would be entirely superfluous. In point of fact, however, it is so nearly the rule among sociological writers to propose solutions before considering what is to be solved, that a different program requires tedious explanation. The problems of sociology are encountered when we arrive at the sort of gen- eralizations which we are about to indicate. An adequate theory of the problems may seem, after the schedule that we present, more distant than before. We need not presume that the inci- dents to be specified are the most important sociological cate- gories. We need not assume that they will be the final terms in sociological equations. All that we at present claim or imply is that when we survey human associations as such we discover certain incidents, attributes, properties, or qualities in them all. From this preliminary perception we must proceed to verify, to analyze, to systematize, and to explain. Instead of starting with an arbitrary definition of association, we begin by putting together our observations that wherever we find individuals associating we discover such incidents of the relationship as the following, namely :

I. Plurality or multiplicity of individuals. At first thought this specification may seem too obvious for mention. Of course, it takes more than one person to make an association, and many persons to form a society. It should go without saying that our theories of association must be theories of conditions among

1 Cf. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, Vol. V, p. 796.