SUGGESTIONS OF SOCIOLOGY. 497 



around himself a social environment. On this he 

 acts, and it reacts on him. This social environ- 

 ment, called in hrief a society, is a more or less com- 

 plex system of inter-relations of thought, feeling, and 

 action, which find expression in traditions and cus- 

 toms, in laws and institutions, in science and litera- 

 ture, in arts and crafts, and so on. Sociology aims 

 at the scientific study of this society in its present 

 structure and functions, in its origin and develop- 

 ment (looking forward as well as backward) ; and 

 thus, at certain points, it necessarily comes into con- 

 tact with psychology, anthropology, and history, 

 not to speak of economics (which has primarily to 

 do with industrial organisation) or of politics (which 

 has primarily to do with the affairs of the state as 

 such). 



Just as Biology includes Botany and Zoology, 

 Anatomy and Physiology, hut is their synthesis 

 rather than their sum, having to do with the funda- 

 mental problems of the nature and origin, continu- 

 ance and progress of living organisms, so sociology, 

 while embracing a number of more special enquiries 

 (which may be separated off if this is found conven- 

 ient), has to do with the general phenomena of the 

 structure and activity, development and evolution 

 of social groups or of social forms. But just as 

 there has been some disadvantage in separating Biol- 

 ogy from the more special disciplines namely, that 

 many investigators ignore general problems ; so there 

 is some disadvantage in defining off Sociology, in so 

 far as it furnishes an excuse for experts whether 

 historians or economists, anthropologists or psychol- 

 ogists to pursue their enquiries without recogni- 

 tion of the sociological basis. 



To sum up the section, the justification of social- 



