498 PROGRESS OF SCIENCE IN THE CENTURY. 



ogy as a separate science rests upon the fact, that 

 " man is (now, if not from the first) a social being; 

 his existence is bound up ivith the community . . . 

 and no individual is complete by himself " 

 (Schaffle). Every societary form is, in other words, 

 to some degree an organic unity, and more than the 

 sum of its parts, 



HISTORICAL NOTE. 



In one sense sociology is old; from Aristotle and 

 Plato to Hobbes and Locke, many had pondered 

 over the problems of society and said wise things 

 about them. But if this be put aside as being not 

 *^ science," but " philosophy," political or social, 

 then sociology is indeed young and dates from Comte 

 and Spencer. 



(1) The term ^' Sociologie '' is due to Comte 

 (1839), who had clearly before him the ideal of a 

 study of society which should be dispassionate and 

 free from transcendental assumptions, which should 

 in fact follow the scientific method. His remarkable 

 combination of mathematical and historical attain- 

 ments enabled him to give an outline of what the 

 w^ork of the sociologist should be — an analytic and 

 historical study of social statics and social dynamics ; 

 but he lacked the key which the Evolution-idea af- 

 fords. Moreover, he meant by the term sociology to 

 include more than is now implied, — he thought of a 

 summation or synthesis of all science with practical 

 reference to the regulation of human society. 

 Comte's Sociologie was to supplant politics, econo- 

 mics, and much more; but the modern sociologist's 

 dream is rather that of affording the special depart- 

 ments a more secure foundation. 



