SCIENCE AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 247 



of knowledge was almost instinctive, and of such a nature as gregarious 

 animals possess, or it was at least a product of gradual experience. For 

 a long time social organization was not a subject of study like physical 

 phenomena. Politics was the first social science to develop, if we may 

 except ethics, which in its origin was connected with religion or philos- 

 ophy, and was hardly an inductive social science. An interest in politics 

 did not arise until different forms of social organization appeared and 

 could be readily compared. A mere aggregation of people did not 

 stimulate a study of politics, nor did more complicated organizations 

 as long as they all rested on force. But when a change in social organi- 

 zation appeared possible, when different forms could be compared, and 

 some were seen to be more efficient than others, social organization 

 became an object of study. Under such conditions appeared Plato's 

 " Kepublic," Aristotle's " Politics " and Machievelli's " Prince." Eco- 

 nomics and other social sciences followed politics, but so difficult and com- 

 plicated are the laws of association, that even with the present facilities 

 for investigation, a general science of sociology can hardly be said to be 

 established. The three comprehensive groups of sciences here outlined, 

 seem, therefore, to have appeared in the order given in accordance with 

 men's interests and the complexity of the phenomena to be studied; 

 though it must be admitted that the subdivisions of the sciences did not 

 develop according to their complexity alone. The additional influence 

 of the immediate needs of mankind is strong enough to disturb ma- 

 terially Comte's theory of their historical development. 



It is possible now to go a step farther and show that the growth of 

 one group of sciences prepares the way both directly and indirectly for 

 the growth of another group. The direct effect of the advance of one 

 science upon others is a well-recognized fact and this influence is not 

 by any means always in the direct order of their serial development, 

 according to Comte's classification, but is frequently in the inverse 

 order. A knowledge of physics has helped to advance astronomy as 

 much as it has chemistry. This form of the interdependence of the 

 sciences need not be enlarged upon. 



The sciences have a less direct effect upon each other through the 

 alteration of social conditions and the change of men's interests. Thus 

 the earlier sciences have in a sense prepared the way for the later, and 

 the development of the later sciences has often given a new impetus to 

 the further advance of the older. The increasing knowledge of the 

 physical sciences has produced two great results: First, it has in- 

 creased man's power over nature, and, secondly, it has done much to 

 free the mind from the bonds of superstition. The conquest of nature 

 has increased the food supply, as well as other forms of wealth, and 

 therefore made possible a larger population and permitted the concen- 

 tration of population in small areas. This increase of population, how- 



