5^4 



LOGIC OF THE MORAL SCIENCES. 



number and variety of the data or 

 elements — of the agents which, in 

 obedience to that small number of 

 laws, co-operate towards the effect. 

 The Social Science, therefore, (which, 

 by a convenient barbarism, has been 

 termed Sociology,) is a deductive 

 science ; not, indeed, after the model 

 of geometry, but after that of the 

 more complex physical sciences. It 

 infers the law of each effect from the 

 laws of causation on which that effect 

 depends ; not, however, from the law 

 merely of one cause, as in the geome- 

 trical method ; but by considering all 

 the causes which conjunctly influence 

 the effect, and compounding their laws 

 with one another. Its method, in 

 short, is the Concrete Deductive Me- 

 thod; that of which astronomy fur- 

 nishes the most perfect, natural philo- 

 sophy a somewhat less perfect example, 

 and the employment of which, with 

 the adaptations and precautions re- 

 quired by the subject, is beginning to 

 regenerate physiology. 



Nor does it admit of doubt that 

 similar adaptations and precautions 

 are indispensable in sociology. In 

 applying to that most complex of all 

 studies what is demonstrably the sole 

 method capable of throwing the light 

 of science even upon phenomena of a 

 far inferior degree of complication, 

 we ought to be aware that the same 

 superior complexity which renders the 

 instrument of deduction more neces- 

 sary, renders it also more precarious ; 

 and we must be prepared to meet, by 

 appropriate contrivances, this increase 

 of difficulty. 



The actions and feelings of human 

 beings in the social state are, no 

 doubt, entirely governed by psycho- 

 logical and ethological laws ; what- 

 ever influence any cause exercises 

 upon the social phenomena, it exer- 

 cises through those laws. Supposing, 

 therefore, the laws of human actions 

 and feelings to be sufficiently known, 

 there is no extraordinary difficulty in 

 determining from those laws the na- 

 ture of the social effects which any 

 given cause tends to produce. But 



when the question is that of com- 

 pounding several tendencies together, 

 and computing the aggregate result 

 of many co-existent causes ; and espe- 

 cially when, by attempting to predict 

 what will actually occur in a given 

 case, we incur the obligation of esti- 

 mating and compounding the influ- 

 ences of all the causes which happen 

 to exist in that case ; we attempt a 

 task to proceed far in which surpasses 

 the compass of the human faculties. 



If all the resources of science are 

 not sufficient to enable us to calculate 

 a priori, with complete precision, the 

 mutual action of three bodies gravi- 

 tating towards one another ; it may 

 be judged with what prospect of suc- 

 cess we should endeavour to calculate 

 the result of the conflicting tendencies 

 which are acting in a thousand diffe- 

 rent directions and promoting a thou- 

 sand different changes at a given in- 

 stant in a given society : although 

 we might and ought to be able, from 

 the laws of human nature, to distin- 

 guish correctly enough the tendencies 

 themselves, so far as they depend on 

 causes accessible to our observation ; 

 and to determine the direction which 

 each of them, if acting alone, would 

 impress upon society, as well as, in a 

 general way at least, to pronounce 

 that some of these tendencies are 

 more powerful than others. 



But, without dissembling the ne- 

 cessary imperfections of the a priori 

 method when applied to such a sub- 

 ject, neither ought we, on the other 

 hand, to exaggerate them. The same 

 objections which apply to the Method 

 of Deduction in this its most difficult 

 employment, apply to it, as we for- 

 merly showed,* in its easiest ; and 

 would even there have been insuper- 

 able, if there had not existed, as was 

 then fully explained, an appropriate 

 remedy. This remedy consists in the 

 process which, under the name of 

 Verification, we have characterised 

 as the third essential constituent part 

 of the Deductive Method ; that of 



* Supra, p. 295. 



