Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/603

 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY 583

If at this point we cast a retrospective look upon these tribu- taries which have contributed and still contribute, in spite of their errors and their apparent detours, to increase the vast stream, sociology, we shall no doubt be struck by the small place which social pessimism occupies in this general evolution. In fact, this doctrine troubles only the surface of the majestic and limpid flow of the broad river which carries civilization toward the great intercontinental oceans. There is no scientific pessimism, no pessimistic socialism. On the contrary, all the efforts of the scientists and the workers predicate a continued reaction of humanity against physical and social miseries, a more and more perfect adaptation to the terrestrial and collective environment. Pessimism that throws off all constraint is the portion of decadent aristocracies ; neither science nor work has ever despaired of the future.

As we have to proceed to the methodical investigation of constant and necessary relationships that is to say, to the investigation of the general abstract laws of the structure of the ensemble of societies it is advisable to recall these prelimi- nary considerations in order that we may not lose sight of them. Therefore we repeat here, what we have developed in Les lots sociologiques, that each science has its own method, but that each method is applicable to sociology, because the latter is the science of the highest combination of inorganic and organic factors. Likewise the method appropriate in sociology is retroactively applicable to all the antecedent sciences, as is shown by the historical studies relative to these sciences, espe- cially since the advent of sociology.

SCIENCES.

Mathematics, mechanics, astronomy : method, direct and indirect observa- tion.

Physico-chemical sciences: the same as the preceding plus the experi- mental method.

Biology : the preceding methods plus the comparative method.

Psychology : the preceding methods plus the logical methods, deductive and inductive, of concordance, difference, residuums, and concomitant varia- tions, the four processes which are an artificial or rational prolongation of the experimental method.

Sociology: the preceding methods plus the historical method.