An Introduction to the Study of Society

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Preface

Although this book is the first of its kind, the demand for it has been created by earlier American expounders of social relations. A syllabus of sociological method, printed in 1889 for the use of his students, by one of the authors of this Manual, was mentioned by President E. B. Andrews in a widely circulated article upon the literature of Sociology. From the terms in which numerous readers of the article requested copies of the " Introduction," it was apparent that interest in scientific exposition of society was more general than the author had supposed.

It is impossible to apportion credit for the new social impulse in the United States, but it is fair to say that the sources of influence most frequently mentioned in the correspondence referred to were the writings of Dr. Samuel W. Dike, Professor Richard T. Ely, and Professor Franklin H. Giddings.

During the last five years attention to specific social problems has become more general, and at the same time there has arisen an effective demand for guidance in the investigation of sociological as distinguished from social problems. Conspicuous among the signs and agencies of this change have been the Introduction to Social Philosophy, by Mr. J. S. Mackenzie ; two papers by Professor Giddings, The Province of Sociology, published in 1890, and Sociology as a University Study, which appeared in 1891 ; the sociological department of the Andover Review, under the editorial direction of Professor, now President, Tucker, and the writings of Professor Lester F. Ward.

6 PREFACE

During the last decade the nearly simultaneous appearance of the course title Social Science, or Sociology, in scores of college catalogues, has emphasized the claims of the new phase of social thought. Since the organization of the department of Sociology in the University of Chicago, in 1892, applications for information about a suitable college text-book in Sociology have been incessant. The fact that no such text-book exists has enforced the belief that the preparation of a guide to the elementary study of Sociology is the best scientific service which the department can immediately render.

The amount of originality in this manual is obviously limited by indebtedness acknowledged throughout the following pages to those systematic writers who began the construction of a scientific sociological method. On the other hand, it will not be doubtful that the book has a certain individuality. It acknowledges no authority except the content of the facts to be investigated; it depends upon no traditional interpretation, and it accepts no classifications nor conclusions as finalities.

The authorship of the manual has been a work of genuine collaboration. From the nature of the case one of the authors must and should incur the heavier responsibility for defects of matter or manner. On the other hand, there has been such partnership in conception and execution that either author is willing to concede to the other the major portion of credit for possible merits of the book.

It is a pleasure to acknowledge the liberality of the publishers. Their cooperation has been as sympathetic and generous as if no pecuniary calculations had been involved.

Albion W. Small.

George E. Vincent.

The University of Chicago.

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This manual for beginners. — A "laboratory guide." — Familiar facts are not necessarily known in their relations. — This book does not offer conclusions, but shows a method of deriving them. — Prime importance of the studies recommended. — This book treats only a fraction of Sociology. — Vicious tendencies in social doctrine. — Sociology constructive, not destructive. — The method a correlation of particulars into general system 15

Chapter I. The Beginnings of Sociology 23

Sociology is a new interpretation of old facts. — The way prepared for it by the development of the physical sciences. — An acquaintance with their history an invaluable preparation for sociological study. — Auguste Comte, the pioneer of scientific Sociology. — He insisted on the importance of a rational classification of the sciences. — It must be based on a study of the thing classified. — Comte's hierarchy of the sciences. — Its significance from Comte's standpoint. — Comte a herald, not an oracle. — Character of the development that Sociology has undergone since Comte.

Chapter II. The Development of Sociology 34

The " Industrial Revolution" called attention to social conditions. — The efforts of sympathetic people prepared the way for Sociology. — The Christian Socialists created a demand for it. — The influence of Carlyle, Ruskin, and Morris. — Organized philanthropy has promoted scientific Sociology. — Systematic Socialism has made it a necessity. — Popular Socialism has emphasized the demand for Sociology. — Political Economy has created a place for it — Sociology is partly a result of modern historical criticism. — Sociology has taken tentative shape in a few systematic treatises : Spencer, Le Play, Lilienfeld, SchaflSe, Ward.

Chapter III. The Relation of Sociology to the Special Social Sciences . . 54

Sociology is the synthesis of all the particular social sciences. — Sociology is primarily historical and analytical, and as such involves knowledge of man as (x) an animal ; (a) a thinking animal ; (3) a creating animal ; (4) a cooperating

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animal. — The scope of Descriptive (Historical and Analytical) Sociology. — It must command the precise facts involved in social relations. — Sociology is, second, critical and ideal (Statical). — It is, third, constructive and technical (Dynamic).

Chapter IV. The Relation of Sociology to Social Reforms 72

Science not indifferent to art. — Sociology is not a short cut to the solution of social problems. — It is not a synonym for Socialism nor a champion of class interests. — Sociology is not primarily concerned with the helpless elements in society. — Sociology is the philosophy of increasing social health rather than of diminishing social disease. — Sociology is the scientific counterpart of characteristic popular convictions.

Chapter V. The Organic Conception of Society 87

The idea of the social organism fundamental. — Sociological and biological conceptions of organism distinguished. — The organic conception a guide to social discoveries. — Figurative language must not obscure realities. — The organic conception not a modern invention.

BOOK II, The Natural History of a Society Introductory Note 99

Socrates' description of social growth. — The objects of the book stated to be

(1) exhibition of various factors of social life at different stages of organization ;

(2) illustrations of tendency to specialization and interdependence of parts in an increasingly complex society; and (3) suggestion of a method of observing social phenomena.

Chapter I. The Family on the Farm ... 100

The land, flora, fauna, and climate. — The population. — The economic resources of the settlers. — Their standards of judgment and taste. — Their religion. — Their motives. — Provision of shelter and productive industry. — Division of tasks between husband and wife. — Domestic manufacture. — Daily physical and mental life. — Connection established with the outside world. — Exchange of products. — Children and a servant added to the family group. — Education and training of children. — Homestead laws stimulate immigration. — The ferry determines the location of a highway. — Rural group gradually formed.

Chapter II. The Rural Group . 112

Families vary in property, personality, and ideals. — Groups are formed within the group. — Government survey and water courses determine form and location of farms. — Paths and trails. — Families resemble each other in general activities. — Specialization begins to appear. — Common carrier and ferry master opens a store. — This is a clearing house for goods, products, and ideas. — School estab-

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lished and children turned over to this special social agency. — Occasional books and papers. — Spasmodic postal service. — The store a social center. — Religious associations formed. — Sectarian differences. — Beginnings of social stratification. — Conduct enforced by public opinion and action. — Degenerate families. — Arrival of prospectors. — Town site located and town association formed. — Village springs up.

Chapter III. The Village 127

The growth of the community is traced in its various activities and the characteristics of village life are summarized as follows : (x) improved economic arrangements; (2) more compact disposition of dwellings; (3) increasing specialization of social activities and interdependence of families and of individuals ; (4) a rising standard of living ; (5) more complex and frequent social intercourse; (6) tendencies toward groupings — religious, racial, occupational ; (7) higher social intelligence and more coordinated social action; (8) more regular communication with society at large ; (9) a group spirit of loyalty to the new community, on the part of the citizens, which goes far to unite them into a single whole. — Growth of the village into the town.

Chapter IV. Town and City 143

The establishment of railway communication gives an impetus to growth in population and increase in wealth. — Changes follow in physical arrangements. — Area increased by the addition of suburbs. — Economic arrangements modified. — Social intercourse becomes more conventional and systematic. — Educational and ecclesiastical institutions multiplied. — Lfgal machinery fully established. — The main characteristics of urban life are thus summarized: (1) increasing complexity; (2) minute specialization; (3) high degree of interdependence; (4) groupings determined by differences in wealth, intelligence, creeds, and ideals distinctly traceable ; (5) easy and rapid transportation ; (6) prompt communication of ideas ; (7) close and sympathetic relations with the world at large ; activity stimulated in countless ways, and life raised to a higher intensity ; (8) vicious influences by the very nature of urban arrangements more subtly penetrate the social organism and threaten individual and family life.

Chapter I. The Social Elements: Land and Population 169

A restatement of the methods of social analysis. — Land or natural environment. — Population, or man, the social unit. — Man a being with positive desires. — Personal wants classified as demands for (a) health, (6) wealth, (c) sociability, (d) knowledge, (e) beauty, (/) righteousness. — Population individualized by nature. — Wealth a social factor.

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Chapter II. The Primary Social Group: the Family 183

Social elements heretofore regarded singly. — The family the molecule of society.

— Husband and wife; monogamy. — The relation of parents and children; authority and docility. — The relation of brothers and sisters naturally that of equals by birth. — Relatives by blood and marriage form bonds of larger social groups. — Domestic servants occupy relations of economic dependence. — The family domicile. — The household goods. — The family capital.

Chapter 1 1 1. Social Aggregates and Organs — the Manifoldness of the Individual 197

Social aggregates in general. — Spontaneous aggregates. — Voluntary aggregates.

— Social organs in general. — Structural interrelations of aggregates ; many-sidedness of individuals. — Systems of social organs. — The sustaining system. — The transporting system. — The regulating system.

Chapter IV. The Psycho-physical Communicating Apparatus .... 215

A communicating system penetrates the whole social organism. — The psychical and physical elements. — The individual a communicating cell. — The individual a terminal cell. — Means of communication between individuals: symbols. — Devices for preserving and transporting symbols: the post office. — Arrangement and coordination of communicating channels. — The structure of the press. — Mercantile communicating structure. — The structure of speaker and audience.

— The educational communicating structure. — The ecclesiastical communicating structure. — The governmental communicating apparatus.

Chapter I. The Life of Society in General: the Functions of the Family . 237

Social activities have their source in the desires of individuals. — Society exhibits life and gives evidence of growth. — Social functions in general. — Social functions classified. — The distribution of functions among social agencies. — Propagation a peculiar family function. — Location or settlement. — Shelter and defense. — Production of wealth as a family function. — Apportionment and transmission of wealth. — Communication of psychical impulses. — The relation of the family to intellectual and aesthetic training. — The socializing function of the family. — The family function as a whole.

Chapter II. The Functions of Society as performed by Organs . .251

Society regarded as an organic whole. — Functional versatility and vicariousness of social organs. — The social function of location or settlement. — Shelter and defense. — Production of wealth. — Transportation of goods and population. — The social function of exchange. — The function of advancing wealth for special needs. — Apportionment or distribution of wealth. — The transmission of wealth by society. — Discovery and invention. — Psychical communication. — Intellectual training a social function. — Discipline. — Coordination or control a social task.

PAGB

Chapter III. Pathology in General; the Pathology of the Family . . .267

Social Pathology defined. — Social normality a relative term. — The relation of social elements to Pathology. — Pathological arrangements and social elements. — The more obvious pathological conditions of society. — Pathology of the function of propagation. — Pathological conditions of location and defense. — Pathology of domestic production. — Abnormal acquisition and apportionment of wealth. — Pathology of socialization. — Mutilation of the family structure : death. — Dissolution of the family: divorce.

Chapter IV. The Pathology of Social Organs — Characteristics of Social Disease 282

The pathology of social functions to be described. — Pathology of location and settlement. — Of defense. — Of production. — Of distribution. — Of education. — Of communication. — Of discipline and control. — Remedial social organs. — Some general characteristics of Social Pathology. — The relation of the individual and the family to Social Pathology restated.

Chapter I. The Phenomena of Social Psychology in General .... 305

The vital principle of society is psychical force. — Social Psychology is Super-psychology. — The phenomena of Social Psychology. — The reaction of social psychical forces upon individuals. — The significance of Social Psychology.

Chapter II. Social Consciousness — the Phenomena of Authority . .317

Individual and social consciousness distinguished. — Social functions and growths are chiefly unconscious. — Social consciousness soon relapses into unconsciousness. — Coordination about guiding centers or authorities. — The division of psychical labor produces authorities. — Authority is exercised by individuals, groups, and institutions. — The active side of authority : leadership. — The passive side of authority : reaction of the public.

Chapter III. Certain Laws of Social Psychology— Social Intelligence and Feeling 332

Social Psychology discovers certain general principles. — At a given moment the collective psychical force is a fixed quantity. — Social psychical energy cannot long be concentrated upon one object. — Society is in double reaction with nature. — Observation as a social process. — The formation of social intelligence. — The service of authorities and parties in the formation of social intelligence. — The formation of social feeling and judgment. — Social estimation of values a divided labor. — The relation of social knowledge to social feeling. — The significance of social feeling

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Chapter IV. Social Volition and Execution— Morality and Law . . .349

The relation of feeling to volition. — Social action differs essentially from social knowledge, feeling, and volition. — Political organization as a means of reaching social decision. — Social psychical mechanics: opposition, coincidence, compromise. — Representation of the popular will numerically considered. — Representation defended as the selection of authorities in close relations with the public. — Social volitions are objectified in manners, customs, and laws. — The relation of social growth to legal statutes ; " dead-letter " laws. — The functions of morality and law. — Egoism and altruism. — The function of the religious motive.

Chapter V. Recapitulation 3 60

This chapter a conspectus. — Book I. gives a general account of scientific relations. — Book II. is a narrative with a pedagogical purpose. — Community life interpreted in organic terms. — Book III. distinguishes the constituent social elements. — Book IV. discusses social activities as "functions." — Observation ends with perception that psychic force is fundamental. — The manual assumes that wider social investigation will follow.

LIST OF MAPS, ETC. following

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The First Settlement 106

The Rural Group 112

The Village 128

The Citv 143

Postal Routes arranged about Indianapolis as a Center . . . 222

A Chart designed to show the distribution of functions at various stages of

social organization 250

This manual should be judged by experts not as a sup- This manual posed contribution to sociological knowledge, but as a for **ginneriproffered help in the training of beginners. It is the outgrowth of experience in teaching Sociology under difficulties. It is not a report of research upon the material of social knowledge, but the proposal of a method of preliminary investigation adaptable to the use of college students.

The manual has been referred to in another place as a a " laboratory "laboratory guide." This description indicates the con- * uide " ception of the authors, and the nature of the recommendations which they would offer to teachers. Men and institutions, as they live, move, and have their being in actual society, are to constitute the material of both effective and speculative philosophy from this time forward. To know ourselves as social beings, it has become necessary to study ourselves in our every-day occupations. It is interesting, and in its way profitable, to study the Speculation thoughts which men, past and present, have formed about tC t*!* db * social facts and forces, but positive knowledge, the test of thought about society, can come only from scrutiny of past and present human reality. The method of credible Sociology must be the method of observation and induction, and this book tries to arrange an order of observation which will direct attention to significant facts, and to the essential relations of facts to each other.

*5

Familiar facts not necessarily known in their relations

Details of ordinary experience are the material of Sociology

This book does

not offer conclusions, but shows a method of deriving them

In spite of the unusual arrangement, the familiarity of the subject discussed will doubtless disappoint many. Sociology is nothing but systematic knowledge of human beings, who have always been commonplace and at the same time mysterious. Sociology has no other task and no other evidence than the task and the evidence which the facts of associated human life contain. The problems of society are not in some social terra incognita, constructed by the kaleidoscope of abstract reasoning, and visible only in imagination. The puzzling world is the student's own world, and he may as well begin to resolve the puzzle in his own street or school district. The terms of social problems are the most commonplace facts of social experiences, but they are of no less evident scientific value. Salt had been familiar to everybody for thousands of years, but there was nothing commonplace about its decomposition into sodium and chlorine. To every one but members of Izaak Walton's guild the earthworm was a creature of prosaic, not to say contemptible associations, but he attained a dignity in the scientific world when Biology found him out and made him an expositor of vital relations. Social problems are involutions of facts observable wherever there are men, women, and children. Sociology is the last reading of these familiar facts. This book is, therefore, an invitation to practice observation and interpretation of the most ordinary social relations.

It is perhaps superfluous to say that it would be useless or worse to experiment with this method unless the instructor has some time for independent observation and reflection. This book cannot take the place of a teacher competent to guide the studies of pupils. The text is hardly more than a series of directions to places where material of social interest may be discovered. The book does not furnish conclusions, but spurs to curiosity about

INTRODUCTION 17 facts with reference to which it is desirable to form conclusions. Together with a judicious teacher, who is at liberty to do more than hear recitations, the book should The book to serve a purpose in Sociology analogous with that aimed at wi ^^^ m by Parker's Elementary Biology^ or by Huxley's Practical tory guides in Biology. Biology

Such being the design of the manual, it is evident that Prime importhe questions proposed for students' theses have an impor- ^Jj e g f the tance which would not appear without this explanation, recommended The method will not be applied to best purpose unless students use the principles of analysis and synthesis illustrated in the text for investigation of corresponding conditions within the range of their own observation. The ideal use of the method would result in an account of the history and present conditions of the town in which the study is pursued, following the model of Book II., and carrying out the details of social structure under the categories indicated by Books III., IV., and V. This definite aim may This study be pursued by concentrating the studies of the class upon f hould result

* J ** m in an accurate

the circumstances of their own town. Maps like those in account of the Book II. should be constructed. The remaining work of *? cial con " investigation should be divided, and the results should selected town be brought together in a conspectus. Such a work has been done with credit by members of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, in a recently published study of Philadelphia.

If teachers desire a more specific schedule of topics More specific suggestive of local inquiries, Dr. C. R. Henderson's schfedulcof Catechism for Residents at Social Settlements would be serviceable.

Book II. should be read, and the teacher should quiz Bookii. to bring out pupils' comprehension of its significance, as f ou ! . ept a whole and in typical particulars. It is to be used as an throughout the outline into which should be drawn specific details belong- wholc study s. and v. soc. — 2

Book I. may be omitted by the least mature students

Time necessary may vary from one term to one year ing to the students' own locality. Book II. should be kept in mind throughout the study, instead of being treated as a section distinct from the last three books.

It is quite possible that the manual may be used with profit by a wise teacher with a class not sufficiently mature to deal with Book I. at all. In any event that portion of the work should at the beginning of the study be read only, and the topics suggested for theses should be reserved for review of the whole method.

The authors think that the manual may be adapted to use for periods varying from twelve weeks to a year. In case a careful study of a town is undertaken, a year would suffice if the number of cooperating investigators were large.

Emphasis should be laid upon the fact that this manual covers only a small fraction of General Sociology. It deals not even with Descriptive Sociology in full. It might be described as a method of Contemporary Descriptive Sociology. The remaining divisions of Social Philosophy are referred to only incidentally (§ 29).

At first glance there will seem to be little in common between the highly generalized system of Schaffle, the principles of which this manual seeks to place within reach of American students, and the highly concrete system of investigating special social conditions, which Professor R. T. Ely so successfully introduced in this country a decade ago. In fact, the two methods complement each other. The method of this book is a crusade against the fashionable social sciolism which assumes ability to perform large social generalization without precise knowledge of any contained particular.

Two dangers threaten in the new thought about society. The first of these is the possibility that destructive dogmas will control popular imagination until the spirit of the French

The manual treats only a fraction of Sociology

Generalization vs.

Observation

Vicious tendencies in social doctrine

INTRODUCTION 19

Revolution will reappear, and will be exorcised only after

society, in all its parts, has learned its delusion at fearful cost.

A primary duty of the teacher of Sociology is to approach Sociology eon-

the study in such a spirit that his influence will make against 8tructive / not

destructive

every destructive tendency. To discharge this duty successfully the teacher must impress the pupil with the belief that his primary task is not to reform society, but to understand society. The student should be liberated from any bondage to the political superstition that " whatever is is right." At the same time he should be shown that if institutions are defective they are the reflection of defective social knowledge, and that much information must be gathered about many things before safe substitutes for prevailing social conclusions can be derived.

The second danger threatened by current thought is the Certain good possibility that certain mystical preachers will be mistaken mcn raore for sociologists, with the result that the people who are now th an violators accusers of society will be encouraged in their assaults, and of » ocial ordcr that good men, who are also acquainted with affairs, will be driven to distrust of religion as a social guide, and of all Social Philosophy except a policy of indifference and inaction. The most mischievous social doctrinaires among us are not the theoretical anarchists, who attack social order directly, but those zealous prophets of righteousness who teach that the only reason why the kingdom of God cannot be established on earth to-morrow is that Christians will not put their knowledge of social principles into practice.

Any Sociology is superficial which calculates upon stable 'Christian equilibrium in unchristian society, but Christian purpose 1( ? eal8 a ° d pre *

cise social

and aspiration cannot furnish technical skill or information, science are Piety without knowledge of facts would work disaster in complement-

arv

politics and economics just as in navigation or in pharmacy. The rhapsodists to whom we have referred virtually repudiate the Christian version of cosmic order : — "Ye shall know

Our method the correlation of particulars into general system the truth, and the truth shall make you free." They imagine that it is practicable to achieve freedom by knowing only half the truth, and that the half remotest from immediate applicability.

In opposition to both these tendencies, this manual aims to commend a method which shall first emphasize the necessity of precise knowledge of social facts ; and which shall, second, confirm students in the habit of widening their comprehension of particulars by relating them to the containing conditions. The study recommended is scrutiny of the superficially, or perhaps rather the supposably familiar, in order that the student may learn humility of judgment upon universal policies or principles, through discovery of his ignorance about the elements of social combinations and the rudiments of social wisdom. It is vicious to encourage students to speculate about great questions of social reform, before they have learned to know intimately the facts of social structures and functions. American society is likely to be sufficiently prolific of social disturbers, even if the colleges refrain from artificial propagation of irresponsible theorists.

Book I THE BEGINNINGS OF SOCIOLOGY

§ i. No one can tell when men began to think about the Sociology is

phenomena of associated human life. The earliest Pharaohs a * e * int *5" r pretation of

and the most ancient Magi may have had social theories as old facts positive as those of Kaiser Wilhelm II. or of the College of the Propaganda. Systems of social doctrine are by no means inventions of the nineteenth century. Moses and Plato and Justinian and Mahomet and Calvin and Rousseau made sociologies after their kind. Nearly all the philosophers and theologians and expounders of history have tried to explain social relations in such a way that the exposition might furnish a clue to the ultimate rule of life. Sociology deals with subjects, therefore, which men have written about for more than two thousand years ; but for all that Sociology is a science less than fifty years old.

§ 2. Many men now living remember that, when they Tiie develop-

asked to be taught about plants, they were referred not to ment of the

physical

plants, but to books ; when they wished to learn of rocks, sciences prethey were told to study not rocks, but books ; when they P" 6 * the wanted to know the composition of matter in general, they sociology were set to study not substances, but books. The teachers had not found out the superior pedagogy of things ; their pedantry pinned its faith to books containing the shadows cast upon the minds of other men by mental images of things. This pedagogic slavery to books was a survival of

24 THE ORIGIN AND SCOfE OF SOCIOLOGY [Bk. I

the scholasticism which Bacon began to destroy in the thirteenth century by turning from words to things as the source of real knowledge. Objective knowledge of society was impossible until the sciences that dealt with simple combinations had developed the objective method.

Acquaintance § 3. Emancipation of mind from the slavery of diaof^tura! 017 lectics to the franchise of reality is not sufficiently cornsciences an plete for profitable study of the most complex phenomena,

invaluable un ^ tne liberation j s perfect in relation to simpler phepreparation r ...

for socioiogi- nomena. The method of observation, discrimination, Clascal study sification, and generalization, which has laid the foundation for physical and biological science, must become the habit of the student of society. Much of the knowledge appropriate to Sociology is fast in the bonds of dialectics. It can be redeemed only by men skilled in the processes of real knowledge.

Ideal preparation for sociological research would include experience in physical and chemical and biological investigation. Reading about physical and vital science cannot supply the lack of laboratory discipline. The beginnings of Sociology, however, are in the development of the natural sciences ; and the knowledge of these which can be obtained by the historical method should be added to experimental training, or should be gained as the best attainable compensation in default of such training, preliminary to the Reading sng- study of Sociology. Undergraduates would be assisted to use gestcd tne me th oc i to which this book is an introduction by reading

the historical portions of the articles in the Encyclopedia Britannica, under the titles : Astrology, Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology \ Anatomy, and Medicine. Each of these accounts exhibits a transition of thought from the fictitious to the real. In combination, they trace some of the main lines of exploration which have resulted in

Chap. I] THE BEGINNINGS OF SOCIOLOGY 25 demand for like realism in all science. Until recently, opinion has dominated social doctrine. Sociology has entered the ranks of the sciences by turning from opinion to precise examination of social facts.