Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/155

NO TES AND ABSTRA CTS 1 4 3 The boy should stay in the high school until he is eighteen, and then go to the uni- versity, or he should enter the college at sixteen and pass forward to the university in two years. The man should begin to take part in the real work of the world at twenty-one, but he should never regard his education as complete, and should for many years, if not always, continue to spend some time in work at the univer- sity

" In my opinion, the university is or should be a group of professional schools, giving the best available preparation for each trade and profession. It is more feasi- ble to give such training than to teach culture or research. These, like the building of character, are not the result of any particular kind of curriculum. Culture comes from daily and immediate association with the best that the world has ; and this should be found at the university

" The chief difficulty in securing the right men for university chairs is the Lmall field from which they must be drawn. When we have a hundred thousand men of university training teaching in the schools, there will be those deserving promotion. When we have more students doing research work at the universities, there will be

more men of genius for the higher offices We should, without delay, introduce

the Privatdocent system of Germany." E. C. H.

The Definition of Sociology. The opening article in the Popular Science Monthly for June reproduces a discussion before the Philosophical Society of Wash- ington, on "The Definition of Some Modern Sciences." There was an introduction by Professor W. H. Ball. Hon. Carroll D. Wright spoke on statistics, Professor Roland P. Falkener on political economy, Professor E. A. Pace on psychology, and Lester F. Ward on sociology.

Mr. Ward offers the proposition that " in the complex sciences the quality of exactness is only perceivable in their higher generalizations," or "scientific laws increase in generality as the sciences to which they apply increase in complexity." Accordingly, in sociology, the most complex of the sciences, the laws must be the most highly generalized. The wants and passions of men everywhere show resemblances, and are subject to a uniform law of psychic and social development in all corners of the earth. " There is nothing new in ' news ' except a difference in the names. The events are always the same." Society is a domain of law, and sociology is an abstract science in the sense that it does not attend to details except as aids in arriving at the law that underlies them all. There are many social or sociological laws, but they all may be grouped and generalized into one fundamental law, the law of parsimony. This has been regarded as merely an economic law, but it is much broader than this. It has its homologue in the natural sciences, and is the scientific corner-stone of that collective psychology which constitutes so nearly the whole of sociology. A sentient and rational being will always seek the greatest gain, or the maximum resultant of gain his " marginal " advantage. This refers not alone to pecuniary gain, or tem- porary or immediate gain. It allows the effectiveness of worthy as well as of unworthy motives, and the " transcendental " interests. E. C. H.

Abolition of the Death-Penalty. In the Archiv fur Kriminal-Anthropologie und Kriminalistik, 9. Bd., 2. Heft, Ernst Lohsing has an article on " Abschaffung der Todesstrafe." Professor Hans Gross, editor of this publication, in its seventh volume had maintained that to put to death anarchists who have attempted assassination is to help them in the direction of their desire to die in the glory of martyrdom, while taking along a mighty companion to the shades. He accordingly argued that, if not for all classes of criminals, at least for anarchistic assassins the death-penalty should be abolished.

Upon this proposition the present writer makes two comments: (l) The criminal has no right to punishment. Punishment is meant to be without the will or against the will of the criminal. Yet, as in the case of tramps who steal in order to be housed and fed in jail through the winter, crime may have punishment as its aim. (2) But if the above suggestion regarding anarchists were adopted, then any murderer who wished to escape the death-penalty would need only to make it appear that he was an anarchist aspiring to martyrdom. The writer nevertheless welcomes the reopening of the question of abolition of the death-penalty. There are cases in which the inno-