Concrete Studies 4^7 



In psychology, the comparative method became the 

 genetic method when students started out with the presup- 

 position that the material to be compared had to be arranged 

 in the order of transition from the simple to the complex. 

 This meant comparison of the activities of primitive peoples 

 at all levels of culture, the comparison of responses to stimu- 

 lation in animals at all levels of development, the comparison 

 of child behavior at infancy with behavior at every other 

 age level and so on. The questions uppermost were, How 

 did mentality arise? How did the various senses develop? 

 How does the complex conduct of man in modern society 

 grow out of simpler forms of conduct? In the same way the 

 social studies became more and more genetic. 



It should be recognized, however, that even these genetic 

 methods are not altogether new since the advent of evolu- 

 tionism. They are in fact essentially historical and as such 

 had been pursued in past ages. Rousseau's essay on the social 

 contract is a genetic study of how human relations in society 

 have come to be. Robinson Crusoe has been repeatedly em- 

 ployed as a basis for the genetic study of economic relations. 

 Utopias in the past have frequently taken the form of show- 

 ing how, from the assumed beginnings in Eden, or from a 

 stranded family, a more perfect society might have evolved. 

 It is true, of course, that these imaginary constructions dif- 

 fered from modern scientific studies in the genetic form in 

 that they dealt with purely speculative material. 



Concrete Stii^dies 



A third characteristic of modern science is its insistence 

 upon the concrete. It is recognized that speculation and the- 

 orizing are necessary. Hypotheses have to be formulated, 

 and the many gaps in our knowledge have to be bridged first 

 of all by the imagination. But it is further recognized that 

 inferences have to be verified, that guesses have to be held in 

 suspense, that hypotheses have to be tested out. The im- 

 agination can indeed construct many bridges between the 



