lower; e. g., it is far easier to alter political forms than to effect changes in economic systems.
3. These phenomena and other phenomena of social contact which are not clearly included in the hierarchy, are apportioned among certain social sciences. Any attempt at distribution must be merely general. The division of labor is still so unorganized that wide differences of opinion exist. The chief departments, however, are as follows:
a) Political Economy, dealing with the laws discoverable in the social activities which have for their aim the production, distribution and consumption of wealth.
b) Political Science which concerns itself with the principles of government. Jurisprudence may be included under this head in so general a survey.
c) Ethics which examines the phenomena of social as well as individual conduct, formulates criteria and seek sanctions.
d) Folk psychology,[1] or that branch of psychology, which deals with the development of social consciousness. The comparative study of religions may be placed here for convenience.
e) Demography, which is to be discriminated from statistics as a method. The latter renders service to all social sciences in so far as their phenomena may be represented quantitatively. Demography, or the science of population, has a concrete content and infers conclusions.
f) Anthropology and Ethnology deal with social phenomena, although the former at least has even wider scope.
g) History employs all available data in an attempt to describe concrete events in relations of coexistence and causal continuity.
4. Is there a demand for a new Social Science?
The point has now been reached when once more the ques-
- ↑ Vide the article on "Scope and Method of Folk-Psychology," by Dr. W. I. Thomas, page 434 of this magazine.
