SCIENCE AND CITIZENSHIP 



VICTOR V. BRANFORD, M.A. 



Hon. Sec. of the Sociological Society 



I 



A si eminent sociologist has recently spoken of 

 the " bankruptcy of science as to any choice 

 of ideals of life," and again we are told that 

 " sociology no more than mechanics or chemistry 

 has any policy." That doubtless is the prevalent 

 view in these reactionary times, when apostasy 

 from science is almost a fashion. The object of 

 this paper is to maintain the contrary view. And 

 although the logic of its argument may be open 

 to revision, the moral principle from which it 

 starts will not be gainsaid. That principle is em- 

 bodied in the well-established maxim, " If a lion 

 gets in your path, kick it." There are those who 

 believe that the way out of the present tangle of 

 sectionalisms is to be found, not by turning back, 

 but by pressing on. If science cannot direct us, 

 we must direct science. All life is growth, and 

 science understood as a spiritual phase of racial 

 life, a mood of humanity, may, like other spiritual 

 growths, be trained and guided, within limits. 

 Here as elsewhere the essential condition of 



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