SEMINAR NOTES.
THE METHODOLOGY OF THE SOCIAL PROBLEM.
DIVISION I. THE SOURCES AND USES
OF MATERIAL.
PART I. GENERAL METHODOLOGY.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
Radical error and persistent confusion would be forestalled, if students could be familiar from the start with the fact that sociology is not, first and foremost, a set of schemes to reform the world. To deserve respect sociology must become an accredited section of gen- eral philosophy. Sociological methodology has the task of arranging all the kinds and sources of knowledge which have a bearing upon the relations of men to each other.
In order to show that the new order of knowledge called sociology is not Quixotic in calling for an organization of kinds of knowledge that are known by name only to exceptional people, it should be said that sociology is a pursuit which may be undertaken successfully only by persons whose philosophical talents and training are of the first order. Tom, Dick, and Harry may and must have opinions about the social relations with which they are most intimately concerned, but only one man in ten thousand is likely to engage profitably in an attempt to organize all the facts about society into a system. This is only parallel with the facts about division of labor in all other human pursuits. Out of ten thousand good machinists there would probably not be more than one fitted by nature and by training to pursue the science of physics. Sooner or later, to be sure, all physical science enlarges the possible knowledge of all men. Progress in sociological science should have similar results. It remains true, nevertheless, that the most generalized knowledge, whether physical or social, is beyond the present reach of all but a relatively small number. Less general ized knowledge, special phases of knowledge, special applications of knowledge, will and must sufince for the majority.
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