importance of these theories. This hierarchy may be constructed in an order of dependence from below up, with reaction from above down.
e) Social Control—the art of so combining social forces as to give society at least a trend toward an ideal.
d) Social ideals—the construction of social ideals based upon a study of the nature of society and of individuals.
c) Social evolution—a determination of the laws of social development.
b) Interpretation of contemporary social regimes as a basis for the study of past orders of society.
a) Descriptions of social phenomena, present and past, to supply materials for interpretation.
XI. Three Divisions of Sociology.
(For bibliography see under X above.)
Taking up these tasks in their order of dependence we may designate that which deals with (a) above, as:
1. Descriptive Sociology. ". . . . the organization of all the positive knowledge of man and of society furnished by the sciences and sub-sciences . . . ." Small and Vincent: Introduction, p. 62. This involves:
a) the investigation of such principles of association as are manifested in all social phenomena (Simmel and Giddings) and
b) the synthesis of the data furnished by the abstract social sciences into a concrete positive philosophy (i. e. scientifically based, not in the Comtean sense).
These two tasks are so intimately related that they cannot be separated even for purposes of study, for "principles of association" can be discovered only by a comparison and combination of the data furnished by the social sciences. The following statement may be regarded as in general recognizing this view: "Sociology is the science of society. Its field is coextensive with the operation of the associative principle in human life.
