THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY.
VII. CLASSIFICATION OF ASSOCIATIONS. 1
IF our exhibit of the scope of sociology were to be con- tinued upon the scale of minuteness adopted in chap, vi, it would be necessary to cover ground which has long ago been cultivated so well that there is little hope of improving the work at once. To continue the argument from the point now reached we have only to cite such well-known discussions as the follow- ing, viz.: Ratzenhofer, Die sociologische Erkenntnis; Part IV, "The Social Process of the Human Race;" Part VI, "The Social Forces;" Part VII, "Social Evolution in the Light of Sociologi- cal Perception;" Ward, Dynamic Sociology, second edition, Vol. I, pp. 468-706, "The Social Forces;" Spencer, Principles of Sociology, Vol. I, Part I, chap, xxvii, and Part II.
It will not be superfluous to add one more general state- ment, as a reminder of the relations between general classifica- tions of sociological material and the various divisions of sociological interpretation.
In presence of the same material, that is, the same body of specific facts about men, intellectual interests in organizing and interpreting the material concentrate in several distinct ways. For instance, one variety of thinkers will look out over human associations, and they will be moved to ask : " How did men come to associate as they now do?" This is the typical ques- tion of those whose primary curiosity is about the genetic aspect of human experience. Thinkers of another variety will survey the same facts, and they will ask : " How do men manage to preserve the status quo? " This question voices the peculiar interest of the men who care more for insight into the present social situation, for analysis of present social arrangements and the way they work, than for knowledge of how they came into
1 This paper is presented, not as an attempt to classify associations, but as a preface to such attempt. It does not belong in the main line of argument upon the scope of sociology. It goes back rather to necessary methodological preliminaries.
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