SECTION 20. STUDIES PREPARATORY TO ALL INVESTIGATIONS. 155 



In sociology abundant and invaluable detail work has been 

 performed; but if we reflect that one may almost say "as many 

 sociologists, so many sociological systems", one feels that here 

 also too much freedom is given to the speculative fancy. 



In short, over extensive tracts of modern thought, no true 

 scientific spirit broods. Unjustified generalisations and deduc- 

 tions abound, methodical observation and verification are neg- 

 lected, subtlety in argument is prized, traditions, conventions, 

 and prejudices are revered, affirmative instances are assiduously 

 collected and negative instances disposed of by ingenious argu- 

 ments, and were it not that our well-informed age has col- 

 lected many facts exacting a minimum of allusions to reality, 

 we could not be said in diverse departments to be far removed 

 from pre-Baconian days. 



The first need, then, is to be aware that most generally men's 

 cogitations are not methodologically controlled, and that scienti- 

 fic advance would be immensely aided if the reverse were 

 the case. Unmethodological thinking is world-removed from 

 methodological thinking. Let us submit some examples in illus- 

 tration of this contention. (See also Section IX.) 



67. In recent years the theory has become increasingly 

 popular that the human species, like animal species, is primarily 

 determined in its conduct by instincts, pace the works of Kirk- 

 patrick, McDougall, Ellwood, and others. At last we are supposed 

 to have struck the bedrock fact in psychology, sociology, and 

 ethics. Yet extreme vagueness is noticeable regarding the signi- 

 fication of the term Instinct. Sometimes it is conceived as an 

 impulse; sometimes as an inherited functional arrangement by 

 which impulses are gratified; sometimes it is confounded with 

 the total hereditary outfit; and its distant relation to automatic 

 and reflex action, on the one hand, and habit and deliberate 

 thought, on the other, is confidently commented on. That is, 

 a popular conception, misty in the highest degree, is proposed 

 as the basis of a number of sciences. 



As a matter of fact, several factors are involved in the term 

 Instinct and should be made explicit. The existence of native 

 impulses or (a) inborn needs should be considered as forming 

 a separate fact. A child who is kept inordinately long without 

 food may become unhappy and complain of a pain somewhere 

 in the neighbourhood of the stomach. There is here a dis- 

 equilibrium, but without any connected tendency to right 

 itself. Should such an equilibrating tendency be inborn, we 

 frequently speak of an innately determined mode of procedure 

 or (b) instinct. But if instincts are dependent on needs, they 

 are no less dependent on (c) organs whereby to satisfy the 

 needs. These organs, again, are often of a specific character, 

 as the tiger's claws, the mole's snout, or the spider's spinning 

 apparatus. Beyond needs, modes of procedure, and means, 

 we should also allow for (d) the general adaptive structure of 



