786 SOCIOLOGY 



" The classification of the sciences of this Congress has done more 

 to throw the subject into confusion than any other event of recent 

 years. I regard it as a retrograde movement so far as sociology is 

 concerned. I trust it will be considered by scientists as merely a 

 temporary arrangement. To classify sociology as a mental science 

 and to divorce it from concrete social studies, as in the present 

 classification, is to narrow its scope, dwarf its usefulness, and imply 

 that there is no place for a science of society called sociology. If such 

 a course of classification is followed, sociology will eventually be con- 

 sidered as a feeble branch of psychology. But this must not be, for 

 sociology has a greater service to humanity, a greater scope, and 

 a greater destiny. No subjective classification arising from a priori 

 assumptions, proceeding from a psychological source, will satisfy the 

 demands of a working classification for science, which must of neces- 

 sity arise from objective conditions. Comte performed a service in 

 the classification of the positive sciences, but the course of scientific 

 investigation since his time has been such as to cause a similar classi- 

 fication, & la Comte, to be neither desirable nor serviceable. 



" Sociology must occupy an independent position, as the youngest 

 sister of the social sciences, but in close touch with politics, ethics, 

 political science, political economy, and history. Whatever ab- 

 stractions may be used in formulating the science, it should not lose 

 its method of concrete work. Hence, the sooner we can have a con- 

 sensus of opinion as to its position, nature, and scope, the greater 

 will be its progress. The sooner we can have a synthesis of the work 

 already done, the sooner will sociology assume its rightful position 

 as an independent and dignified science, with the unqualified respect 

 of all students of man and nature." 



