Science and Citizenship 

 XXII 



There are those who tell us, that there is no 

 proper science of society because there are no 

 known sociological laws. Others go still further, 

 and say that the nature of human society is such 

 that no social laws are discoverable, that there 

 is no science of human society, that sociology 

 not only does not, but never will exist. This is 

 a mode of argument well known to historians of 

 scientific thought. It has been used at every 

 epochal advance by the obscurantists to justify 

 their ignorance and soothe their vanity. It be- 

 longs, in facfy to the self-protective devices so 

 common everywhere throughout the organic world, 

 and especially amongst the higher animals. Pro- 

 bably the most effective reply to this sort of criti- 

 cism is for the scientific observer to ignore it, and 

 to continue without interruption his observations 

 and generalisations of them. If those who tell 

 us there are no laws in social science would say 

 instead that they themselves do not know any 

 such laws, we might be happy to agree with them. 

 And if those who say there never can be any such 

 laws would say instead that they themselves are 

 determined never to know any such laws, we might 

 reasonably leave them in possession of the ignor- 

 ance to which they have pinned their faith, with 

 such a noble assurance that it will last their time. 



In point of fact, what generalisations, in the 

 nature of scientific law, are there at the disposal 

 of the sociologist who wishes to predict the future 



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