Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/517

 THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 503

of entire peoples, like those of Russia by Tikhomirow, 1 of the United States by Tocqueville* and by Becker, 3 of Italy by Niceforo, 4 etc.

It is fortunate that, at least for economic facts, this work has been done more or less completely by descriptive political economy and by sta- tistics. For the rest of social life there are voluminous materials, meritorious attempts, but nothing more. But throughout this domain the passionate desire to complete the collection will be stimulated by collection itself. It will presently make changes of which sociology is in pressing need.

The same will be the case in another, closely related sphere, viz., social history, in the large sense of the word, or the history of civilization. Social history is made up of a continual series of descriptions, which have for their subject-matter the social situation of a people or of a group of peoples. It thus contains the most important problems which are presented to us. I would not undervalue the important and admirable work which has been done here by the historians, especially by the historians of political economy, but the sociologist who has had occasion to compare the social histories of various peoples upon some special social questions knows how far we are from a satisfactory condition of knowledge. It is not merely because many sides of social life are neglected, nor because the social history of many peoples is very incomplete or deserves little confidence. It is because the materials are not arranged so that they might be easily employed by those who try to com- pare them for the purpose of making them intelligible, that is, really useful. For, after all, the concrete materials of special histories do not serve their real purpose except through the use made of them by the sociologist, when he explains them and discovers their laws by means of the comparative method.

There will be no credible sociology until all these gaps are filled. Clas- sification will stimulate scholars to do the needed work. Up to the present a sociologist who proceeded exclusively by means of exemplification and illus- tration has been able to flatter himself that our descriptive science is very rich and approximately complete. His view of the field is so confused that it is scarcely possible for him to make out the enormous gaps in the evidence, and the use which he makes of the fragmentary evidence at his disposal does not promote such discovery. Even into his mind, however, classification will shed revealing light. The absence of order is of itself sufficient to prevent perception of lack of knowledge. 5 Classification once introduced into scien- tific custom, the exigencies of veritable induction will force us, more than any other power, to remedy the evil which they will themselves have brought to light with cruel evidence. 6

1 La Russie politique et sociale, 1886. 3 Die hundertjiihrige Republik, 1879.

2 Democracy in America, 1850. * I? Italia Barbara, 1898.

5 " From the classifications and definitions of a science one may form conclusions as to its accomplished results," says WUNDT (Logik, 1883, II, p. 42). What a somber diagnosis would result if this rule were applied to current sociology !

6 Cf. MILL on classification (Logic, Vol. II).