Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/37

 FOUR SYNTHESISTS 23

sociological study has been erected. Lilienfeld is not unlike Spencer in this respect, although he asserts that many of his analo- gies are far-fetched. He believes that it is possible to find analo- gies everywhere and for everything, and that the discussion of these analogies may even be of service to natural science. It is needless to point out that such a position is hardly tenable. The condensation of Schaeffle's treatise of four volumes into the two of the second edition is significant. This abridgment was brought about, as he tells us in the introduction, by better systematiza- tion, more extended use of fine print, the condensation and subordination of individual psychological and anthropological material ; and, above all, by the elimination of many of the discus- sions based upon pure analogy. In the second edition analogies are generally put well into the background. Like Comte, he shows that individual and social development can be traced along parallel lines ; and, in common with Lilienfeld and Ward, he believes that homologies are, after all, more vital than mere analogies. And, unlike Lilienfeld, Schaeffle asserts that there are many things in society which have no analogy in organic life. 3. Views of progress. Sociological study, like all other science, must find its justification in its contributions to progress. From earliest times, writers on subjects related to the associated life of man have taken widely diverse views of progress ; and we are not surprised to find the problem of progress discussed in differ- ent ways by each of the authors under consideration. Comte has something to say on the direction, rate, and order of prog- ress. His general formula, expressed in the three stages, theo- logical, metaphysical, and positive for which Mill substituted (i) personal or volitional ; (2) abstractional or ontological ; and (3) phenomenal in its objective, and experimental in its subjective aspects expresses the essence of his theory of progress as applied especially to social phenomena ; although he explicitly asserts that this is a universal law. The counterpart of these three stages in the domain of historical study is expressed by the terms "ancient," "mediaeval," and "modern;" while in the domain of political phenomena the terms "militarianism," an intermediate, unnamed term, and "industrialism" express the analogous facts.