Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/131

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REVIEWS 117

Sociological Library," the omission of Mackenzie's Introduction to Social Philosophy is without excuse. Indeed, this bibliography reminds me of the corresponding feature in Stuckenberg's Introduction to the Study of Sociology. It could hardly have been the work of an expert sociologist. It detracts from the value of the author's own references at the heads of chapters, because it is undiscriminating and confusing. The author'^ own treatment of social philosophy is unfortunate. To be safe in dealing summarily with a great division of thought, one must have it sufficiently in hand to be sure of one's touch. There is lack of perspective, there is no determinable vanishing point in the treatment, simply because of the assumption that sociology may be " practical " without a correlating philosophy. For this reason I would say that Professor Henderson's Social Elements is a better guide to " practical sociology" than the book before us, while the latter contains copious material to which the former would furnish interpretation. Moreover, the summary reference to sociology in the first chapter, while subscrib- ing to that view of the scope of sociology which in my judgment is the only tenable one, nevertheless leaves some very incorrect impres- sions of social philosophy. For example, the author's cavalier repudia- tion of the organic concept of society as something belonging in an obsolete stage of sociology (pp. 2-4) appeals somewhat successfully to one's sense of humor when taken in connection with the title of Part II, " Units of Social Organism "I There are numerous sociologists who, for some reason, persist in misrepresenting the role of the organic concept in sociology, and in pin-pricking other sociologists with imputations which are justified only by fancy. Colonel Wright seems to have appropriated their views without sufficient investigation of their authority. In point of fact, as he illustrates in his own terms, nobody can deal with social relations intelligently today without assuming all that is essential in the organic concept. The only sense in which it is obsolete is that in which the heliocentric theory of our solar system is obsolete, viz.: for all practical purposes it is taken for granted by everybody, hence nobody with any scientific standing cares to waste time discussing with one who doubts it. How much attention shall be given to elaboration of the organic concept in teaching young students of sociology, is a question of pedagogical detail about which there is room for wide diversity of judgment. Among the writers on sociology I have yet to discover the first one who does not betray by implication and as a necessary postu- late, whenever an attempt is made to trace out genetic relations, a belief in all that is essential in the organic concept. Whoever professes the