Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/247

 THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 235

sense a deduction from the idea of a spiritual environment. The reverse is the case. We do not get the idea of a spiritual environment until we have found out that there are many dis- tinct social forces, and then it becomes convenient for some pur- poses to mass them in one conception, to which we give the name " spiritual environment," or some equivalent. The simple fact which the concept "social forces" stands for is that every individual acts and is acted upon in countless ways by the other persons with whom he associates. These modes of action and reaction between persons may be classified, and the more obvious and recurrent among them may be enumerated. More than this, the action of these social forces may be observed, and the results of observation may be organized into social laws. Indeed, there would be only two alternatives, if we did not discover the presence and action of social forces. On the one hand, social science at most would be a subdivision of natural science. On the other hand, the remaining alternative would be the impos- sibility of social science altogether.

But social forces are just as distinctly discernible as chemical forces. The fact that we are not familiar with them no more makes against their existence and their importance than gen- eral ignorance of the pressure of the atmosphere takes that phe- nomenon out of the physical world. The social forces are the atmosphere of the moral world. They are not only the atmos- phere, but they are a very large part of the moral world in gen- eral. If we could compose a complete account of the social forces we should at the same time have completed, from one point of attention at least, a science of everything involved in human society.

As suggested above, a preface to Ward's analysis of the social forces should be found in antecedent analysis of interests. As Ward correctly observes :

All beings which can be said to perform actions do so in obedience to

those mental states which are denominated desires We will, therefore,

rest content to assume that desire is the essential basis of all action, and hence the true force in the sentient world (AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOL- OGY, Vol. I, p. 468).

But we have gone back a step beyond desires, and have found