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alternation between the two points of view. The typical repre- sentatives of the objective and observational line of approach are in ancient times Hippocrates, Aristotle, with whom in certain respects is also to be mentioned Heraclitus, and Parmenides; in medieval times, the one conspicuous name (if we leave out of account Machiavelli and Campanella as marking a transitional phase) is Roger Bacon in the Christian world, and, in the Moham- medan world, Ibn Khaldoun ; in modern times the representative names are Bodin, Montesquieu, Herder, Buckle, and Le Play. The modern exponents of this line of approach to sociology are usually spoken of as the geographical school. The pioneers of the more subjective and abstract or, as we might say, the psychological school are usually reckoned to include Plato (and to some extent also the many-sided Aristotle), Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Hegel. The numerous nineteenth-century representatives of both schools are, with the exception of Buckle and Le Play, purposely omitted.
There is another well-marked line of approach which is more modern in its origin, and which for convenience of reference we may call the historic, or evolutionary. What has most impressed those who have developed this approach to sociology is an idea that has been very slow to unfold itself in the mind of man, although its germs go far back in history. It is the idea of the historic continuity of civilization. Civilization is conceived as proceeding in such a way that a certain stage in the history of mankind the predominant factor in determining social conditions is no longer external nature, nor the individual, but the accumu- lated pressure of humanity surviving from all previous genera- tions. The popular notion corresponding to this is that of progress, and in biology a modification of the idea has established itself under the name of evolution. The reputed founders of historic, or evolutionary, sociology are usually considered to be Vico, Turgot, Lessing, Herder, Kant, and Condorcet. But indeed all who, like Polybius and Cicero, Augustine and Ibn Khaldoun, Bossuet and Leibnitz, have had a large and moving conception of universal history have here their place as fore- runners of sociology. Another conspicuous line of appronc.li
