Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/142

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SOCORRO


118


SOCRATES


sciences. Ethics must proclaim the inviolable natu- ral rights of the individual to private property in cer- tain forms. It must proclaim the pernicious moral consequences that may flow from certain property conditions, but it will fail of its high mission unless in its indispensable ethical work it take account of the estabhshed results of social investigation. Eco- nomics, ethics, sociology, politics are drawn together by the complex problems of property and each has much to learn from the others. And so, whether the problem be that of the Christian family, the relations of social classes, altruism, the modification of the forms of government, the changing status of woman, the representative of the Christian outlook on life may not for a moment ignore the results of these par- ticular social sciences.

Closer relations have been established between Christian ethics and sociology in modern days. Modern social conditions with their rajjid changes, accompanied by ethical and philosophical unrest, have set up a challenge which the Christian Church must mei^t without hesitation. The Catholic Church has not failed to speak out definitely in the circum- stances. The School of Catholic Social Reform, which has reached such splendid development on the Euro- pean continent, represents the closer sympathy be- tween the old Christian ethics and the later socio- logical investigation. Problems of poverty seen in its organic relations to social organization as a whole, problems and challenges raised by the modern indus- trial labouring class, demand for a widening of the definitions of individual and social responsibility to meet the facts of modern social power of whatsoever kind, reaffirmations of the rights of individuals have been taken account of in this whole Christian modern movement with the happiest result. There ha.s been produced an abundant literature in which traditional Christian ethics take ample account of modern social investigations and the theories thus formulated have created a movement for social amelioration which is playing a notable part in the present-day histor}' of Europe.

Since all of the social sciences are concerned with the same complex fact of human association, it is but to be expected that the older sciences would have con- tained in their literature much that in the long run is turned over to the newer ones. Sociological material is found, therefore, throughout the history of the other social sciences. The word "sociology" comes from Auguste Comte, who used it in his course of posi- tive philosophy, to indicate one of the sections in his scheme of sciences. Spencer sanctioned the use of the word and gave it a place in permanent literature by using it unreservedly in his own system of phil- osophy. He undertook to explain all social changes as phases in the great inclusive process of evolution. Society was conceived of as an organism. Research and exposition were directed largely by the biological analogy. Schaeffle, Lilienfeld, and Ren6 Worms were later exponents of this same view. Later schools in Sociology' have emancipated themselves from the sway of the biological analogy and have turned toward ethnological, anthropological, and psy- chological aspects of the great problems involved. Repeated attempts have been made to discover the fundamental unifying principle by which all social processes may b<' chissilicd and explained, but none of them have mot general ::(cp])tance. The drift to-day is largely toward the i)sy<'hol<igical aspects of human association. Profes.-Jors (liddings and Baldwin maybe looked upon as its representatives in the I'nited States. Aside from these attempts at systematic or philo- BO]>hical sociology there is scarcely an aspect of human association which is not now under investigation from the sociological standpoint. That this activity in a field of such great interest to the welfare of the human race promises much for human progress is


beyond question. Even now statesmen, religious teachers, educators, and leaders in movements for social amelioration do not fail to take advantage of the results of sociological research.

See Ethics; Psychology; Church; and articles on the other social sciences.

The following text-books summarize the field of sociology from various standpoints; W.\rd. Outlines of Sociology (New York, 1S98) ; Dealy. Sociology (New York, 1909) ; Gomplowicz, Outlines of Soc, (tr. Moore), pub. by Amer. Acad, of Soc. and Pol. Sc. (1899); GlDDiNGS, Elem. of Soc. (New York. 1898); Bascom, Sociology ; Blackmar. Elem. of Soc. (New York, 1905) ; Stuck- E.VBERG, Sociology (New York, 1903).

The following genera! treatises aiin di pr* — n; the new socio- logical point of view; Ross, Social r,,;,, / \, w York. 1901); Idem. .Soc. Psychology (New York, I'.His: ( ,i,,i i v S/,r. Orqanxza- tion (New York. 1909); Small, (ii„,r,,l s,, . n l.icago. 1905); Idem, Meaning of Social Science (Chicago, I'.HU); McDoroAL, iSoc. Psychology (London); Baldwin, Social and Ethical Inter- pretations (New York, 1902) ; Kidd, Soc. Evolution (New York, 1894).

Systematic Treatises: Spencer, Principles of Soc; Schaeffle, Bau und Leben des sozialen Korpers; Lilienfeld, Gedanken uber die Sozialwissensckaft der Zukunft (5 vols., Mitau, 1873) ; Le- tourneau, La sociologie, tr. Thallope (Paris, 1884) ; Tarde, The Laws of Imitation, tr. Parsons (New York, 1903) ; Simmel, So- ziologie (Leipzig, 1908); Ward, Pure Soc. (New Y'ork, 1903); Idem, Applied Soc. (New York, 1906); Giddings, Principles of Soc. (New York, 1899) ; Idem, Inductive Soc. (New York, 1901).

Periodicals: Annales de I'inst. interna, de soc; Rev. intern, de soc; American Jour, of Soc

Discussions of the nature and relations of sociology will be found in Reports of meetings of economic, historical, and political sciences associations and in text-books on the various social sci- ences. For discussion of the science from a Catholic standpoint, see Slater, Modern Sociology in the Irish Theo. Quart., VI, nos. 21, 22.

William J. Kehby.

Socorro, Diocese of (de Succursu), established in 1895 as a suffragan see of the Archdiocese of Bogota, in the Republic of Colombia, South America. The Catholic population in 1910 numbered 230,000. The city of Socorro arose at Chiancon, the settlement of an Indian chief of the same name, in 1540 defeated and captured by the discoverer Martin Galeano. In 1681 the village moved to its present site under the auspices of Our Lady of Succour (Socorro), with which name the rank of parish was given it in 1683, and it was definitively constructed eight years later. In 1771 it was raised to the rank of a town. This city was one of the first in starting the Colombian movement for independence, for as late as 1781 there was a revolt against the Spanish authorities. Socorro is the capital of the province of the same name, in the Department of Santander. The present bishop is the Rt. Rev. Evaristo Blanco. (See Colombia, Republic of.)

jolian moreno-l.\c.\lle.

Socrates, a historian of the Early Church, b. at Constantinople towards the end of the fourth century. Nothing is known of his parentage and his early years with the exception of a few details found in his own works. He tells us himself (Hist, eccl., V, xxiv) that he studied under the grammarians Helladius and Am- monius, and from the title of scholaxlicus which is given to him it has been concluded that he belonged to the legal profession. The greater part of his life was spent in Constantinople, for which reason, as he admits, the affairs of that city occupy such a large part in his works. From the manner in which he speaks of other cities and from his references as an eyewitness to events which happened outside Constan- tinople, he is credited with having visited other coun- tries in the East. Though a layman he was excel- lently qualified to recount the history of ecclesiastical affairs. Love of history, especially the history of his own time, and a warm admiration for Eu.sebius of C^sarea impelled him to undertake the task in which he was sustained by the urgent solicitation of a cer- tain Theodorus to whom his work is dedicated. His purpose was to continue the work of Eusebius down to his own time; but in order to round out his narra- tive and to supplement and revise some statements of