PRESENT POSITION OF SOCIOLOGY. 815 



between them, rightly understood. Each emphasizes correctly one 

 phase of the relation between sociology and the special social sci- 

 ences. Sociology is both an inclusive, a co-ordinating, and a funda- 

 mental science. In the first place, sociology is a general science, 

 having as its subject-matter social phenomena of all kinds. There 

 fore it comprehends all the sciences dealing with special kinds of 

 social phenomena. These particular sciences are, in the nature of 

 things, closely related to each other. They must possess in common 

 certain laws and principles. These it is the task of sociology to for- 

 mulate; for as the inclusive social science it should exhibit the 

 mutual relations of the included social sciences. Thus sociology be- 

 comes a co-ordinating as well as an inclusive science. Furthermore, 

 the laws and principles of the special social sciences, which sociology, 

 as the co-ordinating science, undertakes to formulate, are necessarily 

 fundamental. And in this respect sociology may be regarded as the 

 fundamental social science. The three rival conceptions of sociology 

 must be combined in the correct view. As Mr. Arthur Fairbanks 

 remarks in his admirable Introduction to Sociology : " Sociology may 

 embrace all the sciences dealing with society, but it does not destroy 

 the partial independence of any of these branches. It includes 

 economics, politics, and the like, but, instead of supplanting them, 

 its sphere is to lay the foundation of these particular social sciences." 

 It appears, then, that the disagreement among the leaders of 

 sociological thought regarding the scope of their " science " is more 

 apparent than real. The same may be said regarding the contention 

 about method. The debate here is over the question whether de- 

 duction or induction is the proper method of investigation in the 

 social sciences. One party holds that the only legitimate method 

 is the abstract-deductive, the investigator arriving at his conclusions 

 by reasoning a priori from certain fundamental assumptions regard- 

 ing the nature of man in general. What these thinkers aim at is a 

 subjective interpretation of social phenomena in terms of human 

 motives, principles, and ideals. Another party maintains that the 

 only fruitful method is the concrete-inductive, the investigator reach- 

 ing his conclusions by observing the facts of social life and reasoning 

 from them to general laws and principles. The aim here is to give 

 an objective interpretation of society in terms of race, environment, 

 and historical conditions. The controversy has been especially vio- 

 lent among the economists. The English classical school of politi- 

 cal economy made exclusive use of the deductive method; economic 

 laws were deduced from the fundamental postulate of human selfish- 

 ness. The German historical school employed the inductive meth- 

 od; economic laws were inferred from a study of the concrete facts 

 of industrial life. 



