Baird.] lO'i. [March 16, 



Association : The Dominating Need of Man and the Keynote of Social 



Science. 



By Henry Carey Baird. 



{Read before the American Philosophical Society^ March 16, IS94.) 



Never before today, in the history of the human race, has there been so 

 earnest or so widely extended an examination of economic problems. At 

 this very hour the philosophers of the orthodox political economy and 

 their philosophy are on trial before Christendom ; and the issue is not : Is 

 the philosophy true or is it false ? But rather : Is it or is it not so false 

 aud pernicious that when applied to human society that society is wholly 

 unable to stand the strain, and is constantly, as a result, in danger of 

 wreck ? 



Social Science is fast emerging from that place wherein it has long been 

 the plaything of school-men, who acknowledge themselves as being the 

 teachers of "a science based on assumptions." Soon these teachers will 

 be classed as mere metaphysicians, whose disquisitions can lead to no 

 beneficent practical end, aud their learned treatises will finally be con- 

 signed to that great lumber-room of the centuries which holds the larger 

 part of the literature of the world, the forgotten, because useless books. 

 Empires, kingdoms, republics, even society itself trembles in the balance, 

 and these philosophers of " assumptions" have held the leading role in 

 the terrible drama which places all of these human institutions in peril. 



Therefore, does it seem fitting that so venerable aud so renowned an 

 institution as the American Philosophical Society should give some heed 

 to the consideration of these vital problems. Hence do I ask your atten- 

 tion to 



Association : The Dominating Need of Man and the Keynote of Social 

 Science. 



Of Social Science. 



In science the most important preliminary work is that of definitions, 

 in order that the exact meanings of woids may be distinctly understood, 

 and when so understood, that those words shall always be used with the 

 same significance. Social Science treats of man in his eflbrts for the main- 

 tenance and improvement of his condition, and as defined by the Master, 

 Carey, is "The science of the laws which govern man in his efforts to 

 secure for himself the highest individuality and the greatest power of as- 

 sociation with his fellow-men." This definition is not only broad and 

 comprehensive, but it points unmistakably to the true direction in which 

 we must look for the investigation and solution of each and every prin- 

 ciple in social science It uncovers and lays bare the very taproot of the 

 science itself. 



