Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/141

 SOCIOLOGY

117

SOCIOLOGY

by Christ. When, too, the sociologist studies the re- lation of the State to the family and the individual or the relations of the Church and the State he comes into direct contact with the fundamental principles of Catholic social philosophy. When he studies the religious phenomena of history, he cannot avoid taking an attitude toward the distinctive claims of Christianity in his interpretation of the facts of its history. Thus it is that sociologj-, not only on its philosophical side but also on the side of observation, interpretations, and social direction, tends to take on a tone that is often foreign to and as often antagon- istic to Catholic philosophy. Professor Ward would forbid pure sociology to have anything to do with the direction of human conduct. He says, for instance, in his "Pure Sociology'": "All ethical considerations in however wide a sense that expression may be under- stood must be ignored for the time being and atten- tion concentrated upon the effort to determine what actually is. Pure Sociolog>^ has no concern with what Sociology ought to be or with any social ideals. It confines'itself strictly with the present and the past, allowing the future to take care of itself." But he would give to what he terms Applied Sociology the function of directing society toward its immediate ideals. He says: "The subject matter of Pure So- ciologj' is achievement, that of Applied Sociologj- is improvement. The former relates to the past and the present, the latter to the future." Sociologj' can scarcely avoid inten^rctation and direction of human conduct and hence it can hardly be expected to avoid taking verj' definite attitudes towards the Christian outlook on life.

Modern sociology hopes to arrive at a metaphysics through the systematic observation and interpreta- tion of present and past social facts and processes. In the Christian view of life, however, the social sciences are guided by a sanctioned metaphysics and philosophy. This philosophy is derived not from in- duction but from Revelation. This view of life ac- cepts at the outset as Divinely warranted the moral and social precepts taught or re-enforced by Christ. Thus, it looks out upon the real largely from the standpoint of the ideal and judges the former by the latter. It does not, of course, for a moment forget that the systematic observation of life and knowledge of its processes are esseiitial to the understanding and application of the Divine precepts and to the estab- lishment of the sanctioned spiritual ideals which it professes. But Christian social philosophy did not, for example, derive its doctrine of human brother- hood by induction; it received it directly from the lips of Christ. And the consequences of that Christian principle in human history are beyond all calculation. The Christian view of life does not confound the abso- lute with the conventional in morality, although in the literature of Christianity too much emphiisis may at times be placed upon what is relative. A Chris- tian sociology', therefore, would be one that carries with it always the philosophy of Christ. It could not look with indifference on the varied and complicated social processes amid which wo live and move. In all of its study and interpretation of what is going on in life — which is largely the function of sociology — it never surrenders concern for what ought to be, how- ever clearly or dimly this "ought" is seen. While modern sociologj- is seeking descri])tive laws of human desires and is endeavouring to cla.ssify human inter- ests and to account for social functions, it is seeking merelj- for changes, uniformities, and interpretations unconcerned with anj' relation of these to the Divine law. Christian sociologj-, on the contrary, is actu- ated mainlj- bj- concern about the relations of social changes to the law and Revelation of God. It classi- fies processes, institutions, and relations a.s right or wrong, gfrfxl or bad, anfl offers to men directive laws of human desire and distinctive standards of

social valuations bj' which social conduct should be governed.

Economics as it developed under Christian influ- ences related largely to the search for justice in prop- erty relations among men rather than to the evolution of property itself. Whatever attempts were made to correlate and interpret economic phenomena, they were mspired largely by the search for justice and by the hope of holding industrial relations true to the law of justice as it was understood. Political science as it developed under Christian influence never lost sight of the Divine sanction of civil authority. The study of the forms and changes of government, little as the underlj-ing processes were then understood, never de- parted far from the thought of the state as a natural and Christian phenomenon and the exercise of its authoritj' as a delegated power from on high. Thus, whate^■e^ there was of social science, rudimentary because of the static view of society which obtained, it grew out of the study and ajjplication of the moral and social principles derived from the Revelation of God and presented to the believer through the instrumen- tality of the Church. The great emphasis placed in our days of wonderful social investigation and of w-orld-views of social processes causes those earlier attempts at social science to appear crude, yet they developed organically out of their historical surround- ings, retaining, for all time, titles to no mean consider- ation. Scattered here and there throughout theo- logical and moral treatises in Christian literature there is a vast amount of sociological material, which has its value in our own time. The present-day endeavours of sociologj- to classif J- human desires and fundamental interests appear to have been anticipated in a modest way in the work of the medieval Scholastics. Theo- logical treatises on human acts and their morality re- veal a verj' practical understanding of the influence of objective and subjective environment on character. Treatises on sin, on the virtues, on good and bad example touch constantly on social facts and proc- esses as then understood. The mainspring of all of this work, however, was not to show forth social processes as such, not to look for theretofore unknown law, but to enable the individual to discover himself in the social process and to hold his conduct true to his ideals.

To some extent there is confusion in speaking of sociologj' in this way since reference appears to be made rather to moral direction than to social investi- gation. The relations between all of the social sci- ences are intimate. The results established in the fields of the social sciences will always have the great- est importance for Christian ethics. It must take up the undisputed results of sociological investigation and widen its ilelinitions at times. It must restate riglits and obligations in the terms of newer soci.al relations and adjust its own system to much that it can wel- come from the hands of the splenfhd scholarsliip now devoted to social study. Bouquillon (q. v.), who w;is a distinguished theologian, complained that we had not paid sufficient attention to the results of modern social research. Illustration maj- be found in the problem of pri\-ate ]iropertj-, which is a storm centre in m<"lcm life and is the object of most acute study from the standpoint of the social sciences. Suum ciiiqiic may be called the law of justice that is back of all social changes and is sanctioned for all time. But the social processes which change from time to time the ' content of suum may not be neglected. Changes in the forms of property, varied consequences from the failure to have it at all and from the having of it in excess, are seen about us every day. It is undeniably the business of ethics to teach the sanctions of private property and defend them, but it must willingly learn the .sociological meaning of property, the significance of changes in its foniis, and the laws that govcni these changes. This is largely the work of other social