1 6 ARISTO CRA CY AND E VOL UTION 



Book i certain groups of members, of any given social 



chapter i a gg re g a te differ from one another. And here we 



come to the reason why sociology, as a practical 



social science science, has failed. It has failed because hitherto 



^/SfgSde it nas not realised this distinction, and has persisted 



because it has j n applying to the phenomena, involved in practical 



not recognised i i 



this distinc- social problems, the same terminology, the same 

 methods of observation and reasoning, which it has 

 applied to the phenomena involved in speculative 

 social problems. By so doing, though it has dis- 

 sipated many popular errors, it has, in the most 

 singular manner, given a new vitality to others. It 

 has indeed supplied a pseudo-scientific sanction to the 

 most abject fallacies that have vitiated the political 

 philosophy of this century ; and it has thus been 



and hence instrumental in keeping alive and encouraging 

 most grotesquely impossible hopes as to what 



the political ma y De accomplished by legislation, and the most 



philosophy of i r i i r i 



this century, grotesquely false views as to the sources ot social 

 and political power. To expose these fallacies, and 

 the defective reasoning on which they rest, is the 

 object of the present volume. 



The nature of that peculiarity in the procedure 

 of modern sociology which has just been described, 

 and to which all its errors are due, forms a very 

 curious study, and it will be essential to exhibit it 

 with the utmost plainness possible. In the following 

 chapter, therefore, the reader shall be presented with 

 examples of it. 



