820 SOCIAL STRUCTURE 



The purpose of elevating sociology to the rank of an advisory 

 science gives rise to (3) the third problem: Has the human ivill an 

 influence upon social development? If this question is to be answered 

 optimistically, there open before society the most tremendous 

 prospects; but if it is to be answered pessimistically, there would 

 have to be acquiescence in despair for everything noble, great, good, 

 and beautiful. It is not difficult to understand that this problem 

 is connected with the psychological problem of the freedom of the 

 will and of the value of intellectual freedom. The solution of the 

 problem demands analytical insight into the whole complex of 

 social facts. 



A science which seeks to have a share in the enterprises of men 

 necessarily turns its attention to the subject of future developments. 

 In point of fact, all the exact and practical sciences do this, whether 

 they teach that once one is one, or that H 2 SO 4 sprinkled upon 

 KaCO 3 volatilizes CO 2 , or that at a given time there will be an 

 eclipse of the moon, etc., etc. In either case we are dealing always 

 with prevision of that which must necessarily occur. To-day, 

 thanks to their obsolete attachment to the antique, many psychi- 

 cal sciences are still training their vision toward the rear, and they 

 are meeting all prevision and prophecy of the inevitable with a 

 comical contempt. From the standpoint of sociology men will 

 learn to overcome this reactionary tendency, and to recognize as 

 scientific no research until, as is always the case with the natural 

 sciences, it strives after future control of the phenomena. This in- 

 fluence upon coming social development presupposes, however, 

 the solution of the fourth problem, namely, (4) What form mil so- 

 cial evolution take? This problem can be solved only on the basis 

 of knowledge of previous social evolution. Its purpose is to gain 

 prevision of the social necessities, in order to measure the inevitable 

 and to learn the extent to which the interposition of the human 

 will can have effect. 



In connection with the passing of judgment upon social develop- 

 ment, a series of principal problems will be presented. The most 

 important of these may be named as the fifth problem in our 

 series, viz., (5) the question of the reciprocal relationships between 

 individualism (subjectivism) and socialism (communalism). The 

 realization of the typically human is unquestionably a work of 

 individualization, which has rescued man from the communalistic 

 horde condition. Personality is the noble fruit of this impulse. Its 

 excess, however, brings it about that the individual regards him- 

 self as the focus of the world. Does social evolution permit the 

 unlimited process of individualization, or is it demanded that it 

 shall be limited by a socialization in the common interest, and 

 how may men succeed in bringing individualization and social- 



