THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY. 1 IX. PREMISES OF PRACTICAL SOCIOLOGY. 2
SOCIOLOGY tries to bring into view, and to explain, all the sorts of facts that take place in men's lives, in such a way that they will tell the most about what to do, and how to do it, here and now.
In spite of something like chaos among the sociologists, so far as apparent consensus about abstract theory is concerned, the time is at hand for attempts to bring pure sociology to appli- cation. At least, it is safe and desirable to begin to mark out the procedure which will become more and more precise and profitable as sociology matures.
Sociology has passed through two stages since the beginning of the nineteenth century : ( I ) A stage of dilettantism, both in theory and in practice. This stage was prolific of fanciful social philosophies and of Utopian schemes of social improvement. (2) A stage of criticism* It is impossible to draw precise boundaries between these stages. Indeed, the two phases of development have overlapped in the same persons. When Herbert Spencer wrote his Social Statics, in 1850, he was dominated by the former
1 Chapters i-iii of this series appeared in this JOURNAL, Vol. V, Nos. 4-6 inclusive ; chapters iv-vii, in Vol. VI, Nos. 1-4 ; and chapter viii, in Vol. VIII, No. 2. The chapters are not consecutive, but they are studies to be recast in a syllabus of general sociology.
2 My colleague, Professor C. R. Henderson, has adopted the phrase " social technology." It means the whole body of approved devices for promoting social progress in every department of life. It is a proper designation of the modern type of effort for social improvement, all of which bears the same relation to funda- mental sociology that all physical technology bears to the underlying physical sciences. In the title of this paper I have refrained from using the phrase, first, because I want to avoid the appearance of venturing into the field where Dr. Henderson is an expert, and I a layman ; second, because the present discussion is from the point of view of the general sociologist, not of the social technologist. That is, the paper tries to show how abstract sociology converges upon analysis of concrete conditions. From the technological side the backsight upon general sociology might show a different perspective. The important matter is that general sociology and social technology are correlates. Each helps to legitimize the other.
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