THE PROBLEMS OF SOCIOLOGY. 1
IT seems to me necessary to introduce the discussion of my theme by explaining what I understand by sociology, what its tasks are, and what the methods are which seem to me appropriate to this science.
By sociology I understand the science of the reciprocal rela- tionships of human beings; its task is to discover the fundamental tendencies of social evolution and the conditions of the general welfare of human beings.
In accordance with this conception sociology 'should lead to promotion of the common weal on a level above that of naive empiricism; viz., on that of conscious and purposeful action. Sociology should do for social weal what medicine, for example, tries to do for bodily welfare. A scientifically sanctioned practice should take the place of the prevailing quackery in treatment of the social body. In earlier times the various creeds and churches were zealous in trying to regulate social relationships. More recently this has been the function of political authorities. Because, however, neither of these agencies has in practice very often secured the common weal, it came to pass that the elucida- tion of this question fell largely into the hands of speculative theorists. Plato and Aristotle were sociologists whose dialec- tical system maintained influence down to the time of Hegel. Because this thought, however, acquired little influence over the reciprocal relationships of men, there was at last a turning of research toward social phenomena in order to derive theorems from experience in this field. As a matter of course, it was neces- sary that the total phenomena of human relationships should first of all be separated into special departments of research. Certain such special departments had already been for a long time the subject-matter of investigation. This is true of history con- sidered as chronological exhibition of social evolution, with
- A paper presented in Department 16, Section b, "Social Structure," of the
St. Louis Congress of Arts and Science. Translated by ALBION W. SMALL.
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