292 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
sorts of complications in different portions of the book. What is the sociologist as such driving at ? What is he trying to do ? What rela- tions is he trying to determine and explain ? In one class of passages (biddings commits himself to the view which, in principle, is most generally prevalent among sociologists. Thus :
Sociology is a science that tries to conceive of society in its unity, and attempts to explain it in terms of cosmic law and cause. 1
Sociology is the science of mental phenomena in their higher complica- tions and reactions, and of the constructive evolution of a social medium through which the adaptations of life and its environment become reciprocal. 8 Specifically, sociology is an interpretation of social phenomena in terms of psychical activity, organic adjustment, natural selection, and the conserva- tion of energy. 3
The sociological task is the double one to know how social relations are evolved, and how they react on the development of personality. 4
Sociology is an attempt to account for the origin, growth, structure, and activities of society by the operation of physical, vital, and psychical causes, working together in a process of evolution. 5
Whatever modifications of these formulas might be demanded by individuals there is nothing necessarily involved in them which would distinguish Giddings' view from that which has become commonplace with intelligent sociologists. I will not attempt to explain Giddings' failure to abide by this view. I do not know whether it is cause or effect of his contention that sociology is the fundamental science, rather than a dependent science. I will not undertake to show its relations with the a priori character of his whole method, to which respect must be paid later. It is a fact, at all events, that Giddings weaves into his system another sort of sociology, which contains all that is peculiarly his own. On page 70 he says :
Description and history must precede theory; it is impossible to study with profit the general questions of law and cause until much has been learned about the concrete particular aspects of things and events; before we general- ize we must be familiar with the constituent elements of our phenomena, with the manner of their action, with the forms that they assume in combination, and with the conditions under which the combinations occur.
All this is precisely what is meant by the men from whom Giddings tries to differ, when they say that sociology is impossible until ante- cedent sciences have done at least parts of their work. Instead of being content, however, to follow this programme consistently, Giddings
'P. 16. P. 26. 3 p. 4I9 . 4 p. 4 2i. s p. g.
