166 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 
say that what is called sociology in France, or at any rate at the University 
of Paris, is the same study precisely as that which I have been describing 
as comparative sociology, and it is largely owing to the work of the French 
sociologists Durkheim, Hubert, Mauss, Simiand, Halbwachs, Hertz, Granet 
and Maunier, to mention only some of them, that the subject is as far 
advanced as it is. 
In Germany a great deal of what is called sociology is really better 
described, I think, as social philosophy or philosophy of history. One 
writer who represents the comparative sociology that I have described is 
Richard Thurnwald. 
In England we have very little of anything that is called sociology. 
Hobhouse, who stood for sociology in this country, was a philosopher 
rather than a scientist. 
In the United States there are a great number of departments of 
sociology scattered through the universities. _ It is difficult to summarise 
the various kinds of study that are included under the term. A con- 
siderable part of the work in many departments of sociology consists of 
what would be called civics in this country and in studies connected with 
social welfare work. There is still a little of what should properly be 
called social philosophy, though much less than there was a quarter of 
a century ago. The most marked activity of these departments at the 
present time is what can be described as factual social studies, 7.e. the 
collection of precise information, in statistical form wherever possible, 
about certain aspects of social life, principally in the United States itself, 
but also to some extent in other countries. 
I think I have made it clear that my own view is that any attempt 
to discover the general laws of human society must be based on the 
thorough detailed study and comparison of widely different types of 
culture. It was, indeed, the very firm conviction that this was so that led 
me to enter the field of anthropology a quarter of a century ago. I am, if 
anything, more convinced than ever of this, and see no hope for the develop- 
ment of any really scientific sociology except on this comparative basis. 
Unfortunately, what has happened has been that anthropology has 
largely neglected the sociological study of non-European peoples in favour 
of conjectural history, and at the same time most of those engaged in 
one form or another of sociological study have had little thorough 
knowledge of non-European societies. What I have described as com- 
parative sociology has, except in France, been left by the anthropologists 
to sociology, and by the sociologists to anthropology. I believe that the 
unsatisfactory results of this division of studies, whereby comparative 
sociology has failed to find any proper place, is now coming to be recognised 
in America, partly as the result of the work of the Social Science Research 
Council in attempting to co-ordinate the various social studies, and I live 
in hope that before another quarter of a century is out the science of 
comparative sociology will have obtained a recognised and very important 
place in any well-organised school of social sciences. 
English universities, or I may say British universities in general, have 
been very chary of admitting sociology in any form as a subject of study 
in strong contrast with the popularity of the subject in the United States. 
To some extent that caution has been a wise one. The subject is still in 
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