Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/488

 474 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

condition of advancing knowledge, even a little way, on firm ground. And specialization involves a parceling out of the ter- ritory defined already, with reasonable clearness, in the pioneer and encyclopaedic works of such men as Schaeffle and De Greef.

Since there is something distinctive in the task of sociology, it must have a division of labor based on principles inherent in the characteristics of sociology.

A tentative classification of particular tasks is herewith offered for criticism, and this classification is based on a divi- sion of labor already in part accepted and fruitful, and which proceeds according to certain groups and classes of persons in modern society.

These groups and classes of persons have already, in most cases, been selected for separate treatment by statisticians, and have been analyzed with great care for the purposes of investi- gation. They are also recognized by law, and by common speech, as having marks which characterize them.

Over against each of these social groups and classes there is already, in most instances, a body of experts, whose lives are devoted to the study and administration of social organization in relation to this class or group.

These bodies of technical experts have gradually arrived at certain regulative principles, often stated as isolated maxims, but sometimes in systematic and logical forms, and these regu- lative principles have been subjected to multitudes of severe and prolonged tests.

It seems probable that we may reasonably look in this direc- tion for a division of intellectual labor in the mighty task of reducing to order the fundamental regulative principles of social life.

All that can be presented is a bare outline of the boundaries of some of the projected divisions of scientific labor in this field.

We may begin with the domestic institution, the family. During the last fifty years the learned world has been actively investigating the early and later evolution of the family. The names of Bachofen, McLennan, Morgan, Spencer, Letourneau, Westermarck represent a most important range of studies.