Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/535

 THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY $21

really primary, secondary, tertiary, etc., among the distinguishing activities of the association.

3. With our present knowledge it is obviously impossible to make a classification that will assign to the leading modern states fixed positions in a sociological hierarchy. We cannot say, for instance, that Great Britain is an economic state of Type/, class #, order /", species w iu, etc., while Germany is a civic state, Type ./V, class o\ order/", species ^ u , etc., etc., for the reason that we have no differential calculus of civic qualities, and no standard of measure that can be applied with precision to one state after another.

4. The indicated order of procedure in sociological analysis of modern states is therefore, first, a universal conception of the social process ; second, mastery of the principles and systems of classifications agreed upon, or still under discussion, in anthro- pology, ethnology, economics, and civics ; third, mastery of some principles and systems of morphological and functional classifica- tion of activities within the state considered as part of an ethical process ; fourth, specification of the associations within the states, and determination of their functional values relative to the whole process which the state maintains. It is in this connection that we look for immediate progress from use of the interest categories as suggested above (p. 493). We shall thus be able to work out rather classifications of associations within states than classifications of states themselves. It should be added that in order to get the good out of all this analysis at last, it is neces- sary to cultivate parallel with it adequate perceptions in the field of the logic and the psychology of ethics. Formal ethical categories will get their content from our knowledge of actual functions in concrete association, and per contra we shall be able to classify our valuations of associational functions by application of logical and psychological criticism.

It will make a great deal of difference in the course of our inquiry whether we assume that the state which we study is a biologic state, with economic, civic, and ethic variations ; or an economic state, with biologic, civic, and ethic variations ; or a civic state, with biologic, economic, and ethic variations ; or an