572 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
Erscheinungen auf dcm Gcbicte dcr systematischen Philosophic}. In his opinion sociology is identical with social philosophy. This appears in the following: "Every science is philosophy, on the one hand in its general projections, on the other hand in its practical importance ; that is, in its ethical and political signifi- cance." The idea seems to be too loosely conceived. The results of sociology are, to be sure, the foundation for ethical and political science or activity. They are not, however, ethics and political science themselves. The "general projections" of sociology are, to be sure, basal elements for social philosophy, but they are not on that account social philosophy itself. The latter builds in the air if it does not use the results of sociology for its foundation. Sociology loses itself in intangible general- ities if it poses as a completed system of social philosophy. The domain of sociology is narrow and more exact than that of social philosophy, which, like every philosophy, is an extract from sciences, not, however, science itself.
With this delimitation of the field of sociological research we have drawn the boundaries for the task of this paper. Our pur- pose accordingly is to treat here only the specifically sociological. We shall not refer to the technical economic sciences, nor to exper- imental social politics. In so far, however, as sociology on the one hand has its source in history, and on the other hand flows into social philosophy, will it be necessary to treat here certain fun- damental problems of historical philosophy, and the most recent tendencies in social philosophy.
It is a most peculiar situation, such as should seldom occur in the history of the sciences, that the question, historical mate- rialism or idealism, has become a party issue between the his- torians of the conservative (biirgerlich) element and those of social-democratic affiliations. At all events it is eagerly repre- sented in this way on the social-democratic side. Thus Franz Mehring says, for example : x " Historical idealism, in its various
1 " Ueber den historischen Materialismus " ( Anhang zu Die Lessing-Legende, Stuttgart, 1893).
