PRESENT POSITION OF SOCIOLOGY. 821 



Spencer witli great fullness of illustration.* They arise from three 

 sources — namely, (1) from the intrinsic nature of the facts dealt with; 

 (2) from the natures of the observers of these facts; and (3) from the 

 peculiar relation in which the observers stand toward the facts ob- 

 served. 



1. In the first place the peculiar nature of social phenomena is 

 such as to render scientific observation difficult. They are not of a 

 directly perceptible kind like the phenomena which form the sub- 

 ject-matter of the natural sciences. Quantitative measurement and 

 experiment are not possible. Social facts " have to be established by 

 putting together many details, no one of which is simple, and which 

 are dispersed, both in space and time, in ways that make them difficult 

 of access." 



2. Again, to these objective difficulties are added the subjective 

 difficulties resulting from the intellectual and the emotional limita- 

 tions of the investigators. There is, very generally, a lack of intel- 

 lectual faculty sufficiently complex and plastic to comprehend the 

 invoh^ed and changing phenomena of society. The scientific judg- 

 ment is disturbed by a variety of emotional prejudices, which Mr. 

 Spencer classifies as the educational bias, the bias of patriotism, the 

 class bias, the political bias, and the theological bias. 



3. And, finally, the peculiar position which the sociological ob- 

 server occupies with reference to the phenomena puts further ob- 

 stacles in the way of trustworthy observation. The sociologist has to 

 study an aggregate in which he is himself included. He is a member 

 of society and can not wholly free himself from the beliefs and senti- 

 ments generated by this connection. 



These peculiar difficulties which beset sociology have naturally 

 impeded the development of the department compared with other 

 branches of knowledge. They furnish adequate explanation of the 

 unsettled condition of sociological thought which has been described 

 in this paper. 



In conclusion, it is hardly necessary to state that in the writer's 

 opinion sociology is not, at present, entitled to be called a science. 

 In order to establish the right of a body of knowledge to the title of 

 science, the claimants must be able to show that they have a definitely 

 bounded field of investigation, that they employ recognized scientific 

 methods, and that they have established certain truths of unquestioned 

 value. Sociology in its present state fails to meet these conditions. 

 Its province is not yet agi'eed upon, its methods have been often 

 unscientific, and its first principles are yet to be formulated. It is 

 not, therefore, a science. 



" Sociology," says one of its critics, " no more demonstrates its 



* Herbert Spencer. Study of Sociology, chaps, iv to xii. 



