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to psychological law. But they will always have, this notwithstanding, their own originality of formula and their own specific value.
It is very true, as Mr. Branford says, that sociology must (i) describe in the present, (2) explain by the past, and (3) project in the future, the evolution of social life. But I would submit, as a complement to this, that when the object of our contemplations is human society, then prevision, or attempting to project the future, is no mere anticipative visualizing of things that will be, independently of our action or the action of human kind we are not in the position of an astronomer who forecasts an eclipse of the sun. In human society the act of looking forward already modifies and determines the object looked at. Vision is then not entirely passive any more, but is itself act and energy because it is thought, and because the idea of an end as possible and desirable is itself a force capable of furthering the realization of that end. Sociology ought therefore to guard carefully against the tendency to crystallize that which is essentially fluid and moving, the tendency to consider as given fact or dead data that which creates itself and gives itself into the world of phenomena continually by the force of its own ideal conception.
FROM PROFESSOR J. BURY, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, CAMBRIDGE.
Sociology, I should say, is concerned with two closely related subjects, the evolution of societies and the relations of interdependence among the various social phenomena, which themselves form the subjects of special sciences. It would thus be outside and, in a sense, above them, and deal with the material which they provide. I do not quite know whether it is suggested that the methods at present pursued by these special sciences is faulty and ought to be reformed, or whether it is merely proposed that something should be done to enforce the doctrine that special investigations should never lose sight of the general socio- logical aspects of their own subjects.
FROM RENE WORMS, GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF
SOCIOLOGY.
The social sciences must not remain isolated. For each of them studies society only from a particular aspect, and cannot, therefore, give a complete con- ception. Therefore, they must unite in order to give an entire picture. This task devolves on sociology. The social sciences analyze society, each from its own point of view. Sociology produces its synthesis. Thus, it does not absorb the social sciences, but is the crown of their work. Sociology cannot dispense with the social sciences, because it derives all its materials from them, and, in their turn, the social sciences need sociology, for by its synthetic views it provides them with guiding ideas. Sociology may, therefore, be called the philosophy of the social sciences. According to modern interpretation, philosophy is a synthesis of the sciences. Sociology accomplishes this synthetic task in the social world, as biology and cosmology accomplish it in the organic and inorganic worlds. I have shown in detail how it operates in Vol. I of my book entitled Philosophy of the Social Sciences (published fifteen months ago), and of which Vol. II is now in the press.
FROM PROFESSOR LEVY BRUHL, PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY, THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS.
I have read with great interest the abstract of the two papers on sociology. As to the first one, I can say that I fully agree on the main points with Mr. Durkheim on the scope and definition of sociology, as with his methodological principles. Mr. Branford's views are newer to me, and they deserve a careful and minute examination, for which more time is necessary than I could just now afford. I am particularly interested in the problem, the importance of which Mr. Branford also emphasizes, to ascertain what are, and what ought to be, the relations between sociological theory and practice. My views on the question if I may be allowed to refer to my own work are stated in my book, La morale et la science des nuturs.
I think much is to be expected from the discussion that will take place at the meeting of the Sociological Society on June 20, and I regret not to be able to take part in it.
