810 SOCIOLOGY 



view while, as a matter of fact, they expect their researches 

 to have social utility their present interest may be said to turn 

 not so much to large philosophic generalizations concerning vast 

 secular movements as to the more definite scientific study of con- 

 crete social phenomena. They are concerned rather with the laws 

 of change than with the formulation of world-theories. This is 

 only a manifestation of a general tendency to be noted presently. 



It remains to consider the scope and the phenomena peculiar 

 to sociology as a science. Giddings asserts that it is "the general or 

 fundamental science of society which occupies itself with the ele- 

 ments and first principles of social phenomena," leaving detailed 

 investigation to special social sciences. 1 In this view sociology 

 bears the same relation to these social sciences that biology sus- 

 tains to zoology, botany, anatomy, and physiology. Small, on the 

 other hand, sees in sociology "a synthesis of all the particular so- 

 cial sciences" and regards sociologists as engaged in the task of 

 "codifying the results of the special social sciences and in organiz- 

 ing these groups of scientific data into a coherent social philoso- 

 phy." 2 While these views at first seem radically different, they are 

 not, after all, irreconcilable. Sociology is both a science and a phil- 

 osophy. Moreover, sociology must discover the laws of association 

 as such; but these laws are discoverable only in the concrete facts 

 analyzed and organized by the special social sciences. If there be 

 a distinction in these ideas, it is that the fundamental view fixes 

 attention on principles, while the " synthetic " theory looks also 

 over the border toward policy and practice. 



Again, the phenomena peculiar to sociology are variously conceived. 

 De Roberty's "socialite," Gumplowicz's "conflict," De Greef's "con- 

 tract," Spencer's "cooperation," Tarde's "imitation," Durkheim's 

 "coercion," SimmeFs "subordination," Giddings's "consciousness 

 of kind," seem at first glance to form a chaos of ideas. But on ex- 

 amination these turn out to be simply various aspects of the struc- 

 ture and activity of the social group as such. They are different 

 characteristics common to all types of social organization. The 

 fact that these characteristics are almost wholly psychical is signi- 

 ficant of the trend of scientific sociology and goes far to identify 

 it with social psychology. 3 



Sociologists have by no means reached a consensus comparable, 

 for example, with that of the economists, but when variations 

 in terminology have been eliminated, a considerable and ever- 

 widening area of agreement emerges from the apparent confusion. 



1 Giddings, article on Sociology, Johnson's Encyclopedia, ed. 1895. 



2 Small, loc. cit., pp. 54 ff. 



3 Cf. Caldwell, Philosophy and the Newer Sociology, Contemporary Review, 

 September, 1898. 



