CLASSIFICATION OF THE SCIENCES 169 



Comte's Classification Spencer's Classification Proposed Classification 



1. Astronomy 1. Astronomy 1. Chemistry 



2. Physics 2. Geology 2. Physics 



3. Chemistry 3. Biology 3. Biology 



4. Biology 4. Psychology 4. Psychology 



5. Cerebral biology 5. Sociology 5. Sociology 



6. Sociology 6. Ethics 



7. Ethics 



It will be observed that beginning with biology all three classifica- 

 tions are the same, with the exception that Comte and Spencer include 

 ethics as a science coordinate with others of the group. If it properly 

 belongs there it must have a special field of phenomena occasioned by 

 a special set of forces coordinate with the social forces. But ethical 

 forces and phenomena are occasioned by the social forces ; hence ethics, 

 as Professor Ward has pointed out, is only a department of sociology. 



The chief difference between the proposed classification and those 

 of Comte and Spencer lies in the divisions preceding biology. Astron- 

 omy with both Comte and Spencer is the first great division of the 

 sciences. But to make astronomy the first of the sciences in a genetic 

 classification is to imply that the subject-matter of astronomy is at the 

 beginning of the creative process. Stellar phenomena, however, must 

 have been preceded by both physical and chemical phenomena. Instead 

 of being first and coordinate with other great sciences astronomy is 

 properly a subdivision under physics. This is sometimes indicated by 

 the application to astronomy of the names astro-physics, or celestial 

 physics. Since it seems that stellar phenomena properly belong to the 

 field of physics and chemistry, we are obliged to omit it from the 

 classification as one of the great general sciences. 



In Spencer's classification geology is placed second in the list. This 

 is surely unwarranted. Geology, the study of the earth, is no more 

 coordinate with chemistry, physics, biology, psychology and sociology 

 than is the study of Venus, Mars or the moon. 6 Geology, then, like the 

 science of any other planet, properly belongs under astronomy. 



The remaining and perhaps the most fundamental difference of the 

 proposed classification from that of Comte is that in the former chem- 

 istry precedes physics. Bacon called physics the "mother of the sci- 

 ences." Haeckel also, in the concluding chapter of his " Wonders of 

 Life," speaks of physics as the fundamental science. In the fourth 

 chapter of the same book, he writes as follows : 



The study of the atoms and their affinities and combinations belongs to 

 chemistry. As this province is very extensive and has its special methods of 

 research, it is usually put side by side with physics as of equal importance; in 

 reality, however, it is only a branch of physics — chemistry is the physics of the 



6 This is the opinion also of Professor Ward. See ' ' Pure Sociology, ' ' p. 69, 

 footnote. 



VOL. LXXIX. — 12. 



