SOCIOLOGICAL METHODOLOGY 47 
PavuL Von LILIENFELD (1829-1903) 
The Analogical Method 
Lilienfeld is perhaps the best representative of the analogical 
school, for though Schaffle has made large use of the organic 
analogy it is not essential to his system as proven by the fact that 
in his Sociology he dispensed with the concept entirely, and 
his whole temperament and method, together with his emphasis 
on the psychical factors in society and social progress, give war- 
rant for placing him in another class. 
Lilienfeld may well be termed a social realist for he insists 
“dass diese oder jene Gesellschaftsgruppe, dieser oder jener Staat 
wirkliche, lebendige Organismen, gleich allen iibrigen Organismen 
in der Nature, sind, die sich im Raum und in der Zeit nicht nur 
ideell, sondern reell entwickeln und wahrnehmen lassen.” 4 
Many likenesses between society and a biological organism are 
enumerated, the individuals in the former corresponding to the 
cells in the latter,? the political, juridical and industrial institu- 
tions corresponding to the central nervous system while the inter- 
cellular substance in the body has its analogue in such social 
achievements as works of art, written laws and ideas, by means of 
which society projects itself in concrete form.? 
While holding that there is no break in the cosmic process, yet 
he shows how the forces working in organic life differ from those 
in the inorganic realm, becoming ever more active, complex, and 
differentiated, culminating in freedom and purposeful action. 
He mentions five ways in which the former shows its superiority 
to the latter: (1) in the organic cycle of growth and decay activi- 
ties are never repeated; (2) an organism has an inner unity of 
life; (3) there is a correlation of materials and forces working 
toward an end; (4) there is a struggle to come to completion and, 
(5) there is a storing up and transmission of surplus energy.® 
In the first and last items he has made real contributions to social 
1 Gedanken tiber die Socialwissenschaft der Zukunft, i, p. 27. Cf. Pathologie 
Sociale, Preface. 
2 Gedanken, ii, pp. viii f. * Gedanken, i, pp. 56, 57. 
3 Pathologie Sociale, pp. 95 ff. 5 Ibid., pp. 57 £. 
