THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 249
into co-operation. 1 Sociological analysis accordingly involves discrimination and appraisal of the kind and quantity of conflict present in each society with which it deals.
1 6. Social situations. Certain concepts which might have been placed in this schedule were listed in the sixth paper of this series, under the title "Some Incidents of Association." 2 Still other concepts must be employed in later stages of our dis- cussion. Some of them have a working value in excess of that which can be claimed for many of those assembled in this paper. They are not elementary enough in logical rank, however, to require mention in this catalogue. We therefore close the list with a concept which is, of course, essentially psychological. Indeed, any attempt to conceive of association in terms of activ- ity, or psychologically, presupposes the idea for which the term "social situation" is a symbol.
In a word, a "social situation" is any portion of experience brought to attention as a point in time or space at which a tension of social forces is present. More simply, a "social situation " is any circle of human relationships thought of as belonging together, and presenting the problem : What are the elements involved in this total, and how do these elements affect each other? This term, again, like the term "group," carries no dogmatic assumptions. It is not a means of smuggling into sociology any insidious theory. It is simply one of the inevi- table terms for the sort of thing in which all the sociologists find their problems. A "social situation" is any phase of human life, from the least to the greatest, which invites observation, description, explanation. For instance, the Hebrew common- wealth, when hesitating between the traditional patriarchal order and a monarchical organization, presents a "social situation;" a quarrel between a husband and wife, threatening the disrup- tion of a single family, presents a "social situation ;" the exist- ing treaty stipulations between the commercial nations constitute a "social situation ;" the terms of a contract and the disposition of the parties toward those terms, in the case of a single employer and his employees, present equally a "social situa-
1 This thesis is represented in the left-hand column of the diagram above, p. 242.
2 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, Vol. VI, p. 324.
