Introduction to the study of sociology

Introduction To The Study Of Sociology

BY

Pbofessob of Sociologt in the UmvEBSiTT OF Ilunois

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK AND LONDON

COPIBIGHT, 1915, 1918, BT

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

13^10 r)

Printed in the United States of America

Preface

This is an elementary textbook with the limitations which that fact implies. It is intended for the use of classes and also for general readers who desire a clearer view of the field of thought designated by the much used word "sociology."

Such a book must aim to serve two purposes. First, it must present as much as space permits of the accepted results of study in this field, to the reader who may have no further formal instruction in sociology, and whose further progress will be gained by independent thought and reading. Second, it must afford to the student, who will pursue more intensive courses in subdivisions of sociology, an outline of the entire field, and a sense of the relation of those special topics, which he may later study more intensively, to the subject as a whole. Each of these purposes requires the elementary textbook to be compendious so as to afford a view in perspective. The best books in sociology have been written by men who were contributing actively to the new body of teaching, and who have been too much preoccupied with the original materials, in the production of which their minds were engaged, to give adequate time and space to the contributions of others. As a consequence, it is ,hardly too much to say of the textbooks in sociology which have thus far been produced, that in proportion to their originality and intellectual excellence has been their failure as compendiums or outlines.

A compendium of sociology must include not only a summary of the chief abstract teachings in all branches of the subject, but also some practical applications, the result of hard experience and of investigation into specific evils and their causes, and of empirical efforts at reform as interpreted in the light of scientific principles. This corresponds with the practice of elementary textbooks in economics, which include practical suggestions on money, taxation, and labor problems

V vi PREFACE

along with theoretical discussion. This practice interrupts, to a slight degree, the course of scientific exposition, but is justified by its usefulness.

I have been influenced by the example of the best textbooks in economics and psychology to do without a multitude of footnotes, but I have inserted a considerable number of references, (i) when it has seemed especially desirable to call the attention of the reader to some passage that supplements the text, or (2) to some book that should be universally associated with the particular doctrine under discussion, or else (3) to afford opportunity to verify some statement that might otherwise be questioned, and (4) in case of direct quotation.

It might seem more logical to reverse the order of parts I and 2. As it now stands, the book presents the conditions which affect the life of society before it presents the inner nature of the life of society. This order has been adopted because it better develops the conception of society as a realm of cause and effect, and also because it places first those matters about which the student already knows something, in many of which he is already interested, which he expects to study when he registers for a course in sociology, and which are more material and easier, postponing those which are more psychological and difficult, which would cause him surprise if not disappointment if first presented, and for the study of which he requires some preparation, but which are the very soul of the subject when really understood. This arrangement is the result of much experimentation during thirteen years of teaching sociology.

Some readers may be inclined to criticize the inclusion of a few pages which might have been omitted if it had been possible to take for granted that all students of this text would have fresh in mind the facts and principles of biology, psychology, and economics. But it is impossible to take that for granted, and sociology, like general biology, requires some reference to facts of antecedent sciences.

In some universities where numerous courses in sociology are offered, it may be thought best to omit portions of the matter which deals with charities, criminology, and social evolu^

PREFACE vii

tion, because these subjects are to be covered by other courses. And an omitted part may be used later in connection with a subsequent course. Even in such universities, however, the brief outline of these topics here given may preferably be retained undiminished as an introduction to more extensive work, and as bringing the parts of the subject into their relations.

The author desires to express his thanks to the following persons who have read portions of the book in manuscript: Professor Felix von Luschan, of the University of Berlin, who read the part on social evolution ; Professor E. L. Bogart and Assistant Professor R. E. Heilman, of the Department ol Economics in the University of Illinois, who read the part on the necessity for social regulation of the distribution of wealth; Professor Charles Zeleny and Assistant Professor J. A. Detlefsen, of the Departments of Zoology and of Genetics in the University of Illinois, who read the parts which utilize biological data. Of course the kindness rendered by these gentlemen involves them in no responsibility for anything here contained.

The book is offered with the hope that it may promote comprehension and insight, and help some of its readers to "find themselves," with reference to the perplexing intellectual problems, the opportunities, and the responsibilities of the life we live in society.

University of Illinois.

October, 1915.

Note to Sixth Edition.

In the sixth edition various typographical errors have been corrected. The only important alterations in the , sense occur on pages 16, 65, 70 and 116. Complete new plates of the index were made after the first printing.

Introduction

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Nature of the Study 3

Sociology studies good and bad alike, 3. The point of view, 4. Art and science, 8. Practical application of sociology, 10. The need of a new world view, 12. Sociology as an intellectual pursuit, 13. Comte's hierarchy of the sciences, IS-

II. What Is Involved in Sociological Explanation 18 Causation, 18. Explanation and scientific law, 20. Problem phenomena, their constituent elements, and their environing conditions, 22. The kinds of conditioning phenomena, 24.

Part I The Causes Which Affect The Life Of Society

I. GEOGRAPHIC CAUSES WHICH AFFECT THE LIFE OF SOCIETY

III. Geographic Causes and Their Social Effects . 29 The less conspicuous geographic differences socially important, 29. Geographic conditions determine the size of populations, 29. The economic occupations of a people are determined by their geographic environment, 30. Stagnation and progressiveness are conditioned largely by geographic surroundings, 31. Lawlessness is the natural consequence of gdographic inaccessibility and poverty of natural resources, 32. The form of government is affected by geographic conditions, 32. Tastes and social and

CHAPTER VkG^

domestic customs are influenced by geographic conditions, 34. Ethical differences are largely influenced by geographic environment, 34. Mythologies and religions are influenced by geographic environment, 35. Geographic conditions affect the moods and psychic tendencies of a people, 36. The routes followed by migration, war, and commerce have been marked out by geographic highways, 37. The sociological importance of geographic conditions, 37. Limitations on the importance of geographic conditions, 39.

II. TECHNIC CAUSES THAT AFFECT THE LIFE OF SOCIETY

IV. Rural Conditions 42

Formation of population, 42. Population may increase in numbers too rapidly, 43. Agrarian aristocracy and population pressure, 47. Density and communication, 50. Rural solitude, 51. Rural community, 51. Hamlet, 51. Village, 55.

V. The City 60

Nine characteristics of the city, 60. The growth of cities, 65. The causes of increasing urbanization, 67. What makes Americans out of Europeans? 70.

VI. Personal Groups and Crowds 74

Personal groups, 74. The group of two, 76. The federal character of large groups, yy. Crowds, 78. Safeguards against crowd perils, 81.

VII. Social Effects of the Amount, Forms, and

Distribution of Wealth 84

Effects of the forms of wealth, 84. Transportation, 86. Housing, 87. Educating the public on the subject of housing, 90. City planning, 93. Municipal conveniences, 94. Relation of

CONTENTS xi

CHAFIER PAGE

the distribution of wealth to sociological problems, 95. Effects of distribution of wealth upon the health of the people, 96. Poverty is effective in preventing the attainment of the ethical and cultural values of life, 100. Actual distribution of wealth in the United States, 103.

VIII. The Inadequacy of Economic Law to Explain OR Control Justly the Distribution of Wealth and the Necessity of Social Control 109

Why do we have so much poverty in our rich land? 109. Labor bought at forced sale, no. Labor not protected by cost of production, in. The differential, 112. No share in primary distribution, 115. Organization, 116. Though present distribution is indefensible, equality of incomes is neither expedient, just, nor feasible, 117. What of the rank and file? 118. Do we need plutocrats? 1 19. Wealth as success, 119. Competition as a cure-all, 121. Should the manager retain all that his activity at present conditions? 125. Gains from chance and from foresight, 126. Gains of organization, 127. Gains of bargaining power, 128. Conclusion, 131-

IX. How May Society Regulate the Distribution

OF Wealth? 133

Public opinion and law, 133. Trust-busting, 135. Will the amount that now forms the differential be produced if part of it is diverted to labor? 137. Factory legislation, 139. Tenement laws and city planning, 140. Employers' liability, compensation and industrial insurance laws, 140. The modern view, 141. The socialization of wealth by taxation, 145. The unearned increment, 148 xii CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAfia

X, Further Proposals for the Social Regulation

OF THE Distribution of Wealth .... 151 Minimum wage boards, 151. Collective bargaining, 152. Profit-sharing and cooperation, 154. Bipartite cooperation, 156. Prevent stock-watering and limit stock gambling, 157. A commission for corporations, 160. Government ownership, 164. Socialism, 164. Reform by violence, 167. Necessity for development in industrial legislation, 168. Law no cure-all, 169.

XI. Types of Poverty 171

The care of dependent children, 171. Care of the aged, 175. Care of the physically defective, 176. Dependency due to moral abnormality, 181. The unemployed but employable, 185.

XII. Charity Organization 189

Underlying principles, 189. Institutional and non-institutional relief, 190. The Elberfeld system, 193. Charity organization societies, 194. Prevention of overlapping and imposture, 194. Properly conducted investigation, 196. ' Communication between need and source of

supply, 196. To restore the impoverished to economic independence, 197. Examples, 199. An agency of research and public instruction, 201. The almshouse, 203. Government supervision, 205. Conclusion, 207.

III. PSYCHOPHYSICAL CAUSES WHICH AFFECT THE LIFE OF

SOCIETY

XIII. The Hereditary Characteristics of the Population 209

Data which physiology furnishes '^tp sociology, 209. Relations of biological traits to social life, 211. Two classes of socially important psychophysical conditions, 212. Instinct, 213. Predisposition, 215. General predispositions, 218.

CONTENTS xiii

CBAPTBE PAGE

Economic predispositions, 220. Social predispositions, 221. Only minor variations in instincts and predispositions of normal individuals, 227. General neural traits, 230. Temperament, 234. Metabolism, 236.

XIV Other Hereditary Characteristics of Population. Race. Eugenics 239

Race, 239. Racial as distinguished from cultural differences, 242. Ages, 244. Sex, 245. Chivalry, 247. Hereditary defects, 248. Feeble-mindedness, 249. Retarded children, 251. Biology and caste, 252. The method of inheritance, 254. Eugenics, 258. Unplanned selective agencies, 261.

XV. Immigration 267

Effect of immigration on native birth rate, 267. Immigration and the standard of living, 269. Immigration and national development, 270. America aspires to world leadership, 271. The new immigration, 272. Immigration laws, 273.

XVI. Acquired Population-Traits and Public

Health 277

Are acquired characteristics inherited? 277. Does the type of humanity advance ? 279. Bior logical evolution and social evolution, 281. The methods of progress, 281. Preventable diseases, 282. Losses due to preventable diseases, 285. Occupation and disease, 287. Stunted youth, 288. School hygiene, 289. Socialization of medical science, 291. Drugging, 292. Venereal disease, 295. Second nature, 297. Subconscious set, 298.

rV. SOCIAL CAUSES WHICH AFFECT THE LIFE OF SOCIETY

XVII. The Determination of the Life of Society

FROM Within 301 civ CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

We pass to the inner essence of society, 301. Association— the inclusive social relation, 302. Association depends on communication and is always a causal relation, 304. Social suggestion, 306. Doubt and thought, 307. Social suggestion determines conduct and the desire for conduct determines invention, 311. Error may work for a time, 313. Psychological principle underlying these two statements concerning social suggestion, 314. Sympathetic radiation, 316. Imitation, 320.

XVIII. Prestige and Accommodation 323

Prestige, 323. Kinds of prestige, 324. Nature and grounds of prestige, 328. Accommodation, 333-

Part II Nature And Analysis Of The Life Of Society

XIX. The NATimE of the Life of Society .... 339 Life of society, 339. The in and out of conscious life, 340. Experience-activity, 342. The essential social phenomena are psychic, 344. The scientific and practical problems of sociology, 345. The sociophysical phenomena, 347. The first characteristic of social activities, 350. The second characteristic of social activities, 351. The third characteristic of social activities, 352. Relation between sociology and psychology, 354.

XX. The Analysis and Classification of Social

Activities 3S7

Tarde, Giddings, DeGreef and Small, 357. A further classification, 360. Creeds and sciences, or social ideas, 362. Social sentiments. Prevalent activities in which feeling predominates,

XV

364. The arts of life, social practices, 373. fourth kingdom of realities, 381,

The

XXI. Modes of Variation in Social Activities . . Social phenomena vary in prevalence, 383. Social phenomena vary in strength, 384. Compound social activities vary in uniformity, 386. Compound social activities vary in content, 388. Compound social activities vary in phase, 389.

XXII. Modes of Variation in Social Activities — Rationalized Social Activities 398

Rational acceptance, 398. Affinity of certain kinds of activity for certain phases, 400. Culture peoples and nature peoples, 403. Institutions, 405. Organization, 409.

XXIII. Natural Social Order 411

Static and dynamic, 413. The radical and conservative principles, 415. The first characteristic of a society, 417. The second characteristic of a society, 418. The third characteristic of a society, 419. Population and society, 419. Nature of the social unity, 422. Kinds of societies, 424. Societies and the social process, 426. Definitions, 427. The social realities, 430.

XXIV. Society and the Individual 431

Identity of individual and social activities, 431. Subjective individual and objective social reality, 432. Individual life composite, 434. The unit of investigation, 436. What determines individuality? 437. Paradoxes, 441. Sociology the study of life, 444.

Part III Social Evolution

XXV. The Perspective of Social Evolution .... 449 Comparative and genetic sociology, 449. An-

XVI thropology, ethnology and sociology, 451. Social evolution and cosmic evolution, 454. Social evolution continuous with biological evolution, 455. Animal invention, 458. Man and his poor relations, 461. Stages of social evolution, 463. The stages of social evolution according to Vierkandt, Steinmetz and Comte, 469. Economic stages or types, 471.

XXVI. Additional Elements in the Theory of Social

Evolution 474

Application of general principles of evolution to ■ social realities, 474. Invention, 477. Attention foci, 479. The fixation of social species, 480. Cross-fertilization of cultures, 482. Folkways and mores, 483. Natural selection, 485.

XXVII. Examples of Social Evolution 490

Implements, 490. Play as random experimentation, 491. Cooking, 492. Agriculture, 494. Domestication of animals, 496. Personal adornment, 499. The desire for visible distinction, 501. Esthetic conventionality, 502. Clothing, 506.

XXVIII. Examples of Social Evolution (Continued) . 508 Language, 508. Organic reactions are intelligible to others, 508. Mimicry, 509. Association of sounds with experiences, 510. The generalized notion of using sounds as symbols, 512.' Grammar, 513. Writing, measuring, and counting, 516. Property aiid commerce, 519.

XXIX. Examples of Social Evolution (Continued) . 525 The family, 525. Exogamy, 526. The classificatory system of relationships, 529. The matronymic family, 531. Transition to patronymic family, 532. Group marriage, polyandry, and polygamy, 534. Slavery, 536. Origin of the state, 538. Morality, 541.

XXX. Examples of Social Evolution (Continued) . The evolution of religion, 551. Magic, 552. Zoomorphism, 555. Ancestor worship, 559. Inspiration, 565. Miracles, 567. Homologies in religion, 569. The three stages of social evolution, 571.

Part IV Social Control

XXXI. The Problem and Principles of Social Control 581

The necessity of social control, 581. The principles of social control, 585. The perversion of social control, 586. Not law but personality is the ultimate basis of social order, 588. The first of the essential virtues — reliability, 588. Control of animalism, 590. The third essential trait, 591. The social spirit, 591. The reasonableness of good conduct, 592.

XXXII. Crime and Its Causes 596

The law as an agency of social control, 596. Vice, sin, immorality, tort and crime, 597. Classes of crime, 598. Classes of criminals, 599. Is there a criminal type ? 599. The extent of crime, 609.

XXXIII. Crime and Its Treatment 611

The motive of punishment, 611. Development of criminal procedure, 611. Trial by jury, 615. The training of criminal lawyers, 616. Individualization and criminal procedure, 618. Individualization after conviction, 619. Reformatory treatment, 620. The jail, 624. Other suggestions, 624. Juvenile courts, 625. War, 627. -

XXXIV. Religion, Public Opinion, and Politics as

Agencies of Social Control 632

Legal religion, 632. Public sentiment, 634. Politics in the light of sociological principles, xviu

637. Interest groups, 639. The inclusive political interest, 643. Politics and progress, 646. The principle of "unmitigated hostility," 648.

XXXV. Education . 652

Educational aims from the social viewpoint, 652. The variability of individuals and of society, 659. Education the chief agency of social control, 665. Education and progress, 666.

XXXVI. Educational Agencies Outside the School . . 669 The family, 669. Divorce, 673. Art and play, 674. Manners and ceremony as agencies of control, 679. The press as an agency of social control, 680. The church, 685.

Bibliography Index . . .

691 709

INTRODUCTION

Chapter I The Nature Of The Study

Sociology Studies Good and Bad Alike. — ^Apparently many persons turn to sociology with the idea that it is a study of vice, crime, and poverty, and that the typical sociological exercise is "slumming." It is, however, at least as important scientifically to understand the normal as to understand the abnormal, and at least as important practically to know how to promote the good as to know how to combat the evil. We should at the outset divest ourselves of the one-sided idea that sociology is a study of evils, and look forward rather to a study of social life as a whole, good and evil existing together.

In this respect sociology does not differ from any other science that deals with a department of life. Sociology has as much to do with poverty, vice, and crime as botany has to do with parasitism and the diseases of plants, and it also has as much to do with the normal, life of society as botany has to do with the normal life of plants. The illustration may be made still more accurate by saying that slavery, war, and parts of that which, at our stage of civilization, is called vice, are as natural, and in that sense as normal, as honest industry. Weeds are at least as natural as wheat, and the sociologist as well as the botanist or any other scientist must study the realities as they are naturally produced before he is prepared to exercise a selective control over their production. He must study the activities that go on in society as they are, and they are in part good and in part bad, according to our standards ; it may be as important both for science and for those practical activities which may be guided by science that we understand the one as the other.

The Point of View. — Whatever else sociology may mean, it stands for the adoption of a distinct and consistent attitude, or point of view, in the discussion of intellectual problems the solution of which practically aifects the life of man.

I. It means, first, that social problems are to be discussed with primary reference not to the gains of the wealthy, nor to the stability ^ij4 strength of states, but to the welfare of all the people. From this it results that a set of problems, once largely neglected, comes into the center of attention, namely, the problems of the distribution of wealth, opportunity, education, health, and the joys and worth of life. Machiavelli could teach that even the conscience of the individual should be sacrificed to the welfare of the state. Not long ago the liaison of a prince made history, but in the same year ten thousand subjects might starve and the fa,ct be omitted by historians. Then an economic writer could declare that "high wages are the great obstacle to British trade"; but we regard high wages as the best evidence of the success of business, for we see wages not as an expense to be kept down but, by a reversal in point of view, as a product to be increased, as shares in the distribution of the proceeds received by participants in industry. Business and the state we regard as existing for the general good, and good or evil experienced by each individual counts at par. .

Economics may be quite justified in insisting that it is a science of wealth rather than of welfare, or comprehensive ethical aims ; and political science may be equally justified in regarding itself as the study of methods by which policies may be carried out, rather than as a study of social policies. If so, it is clear that each of these, though immensely important in itself, deals with a limited aspect of the field of social reality.

Sociology aims at nothing less than the transfer of ethics from the domain of speculative philosophy to the domain of objective science. It regards human welfare, which can be realized only in society, as a distinct kind of reality, the causation of which calls for scientific investigation. It has been common to say: "Science deals with what is, and only philosophy can deal with what ought to be." Sociology replies that good and evil are parts of what is, that human experience is as real as any other reality, and .that the promotion of good and the limitation' of evil must rest upofi scientific comprehension as truly as the control of any other results.

The thorough-going adoption by sociology of the ethical point of view involves not only a distinct set of special practical problems, but also a distinct set of general fundamental problems such as: (a) what, as a matter of fact, are the ultimate values involved in social life; (b) what are the existing conscience codes and social policies of different peoples; (c) how have these widely varying codes arisen; (d) what justification in facts is there for the demands of these codes or of any codes of conduct; (e) what change in existing codes does this matter of fact criterion require? Sociology proposes to be a general science of values and of valuations; of valuations as they arise and become intrenched in social sentiments and dominate the contrasting life of different societies, and of values as they exist for human experience with special reference to the modes of causation by which these values are promoted or destroyed. First then, the sociological point of view is ethical.

2. The sociological point of view is causal. Sociology regards the character and welfare of mankind, individually and collectively, not as a matter of fate, predestination, or class heritage, nor even of free will, considered as an exception to the universal reign of law, and requiring only exhortation to transform men and society ; but rather man's character and welfare are regarded as resulting from causal conditions, which up to the limits of the power of human intelligence must be understood. It is knowledge of causation which gives to man power over results. This has been proved in the realm of material phenomena. The knowledge that consequences issue in accordance with an orderly method of causation prompts man to conduct, which so conditions those consequences that they will turn out in accordance with his interests; for man is himself a part of the causal process of nature — in all his actions caused, and also a cause of his

6 INTRODUCTION TO SOClOLOG"y

own ruin or fulfillment, according to his ignorance or Us knowledge of the method by which this ruin or this fulfillment issues from those conditions of which his own activityforms a part. Holding this view, sociology is bound to seek the general principles of causal explanation that show, not only how values are realized or destroyed, and how conscience codes arise and become a social heritage, but also how all social sentiments, beliefs, and practices, customs, institutions, and correlated systems of social activity evolve.

3. The sociological point of view is functional. It requires the transfer of chief attention from the external forms and incidents of social life to the inner essence of it, finding that the ultimate facts to be explained are built out of prevalent ideas, sentiments, and practices, that the ultimate values to be promoted are in human experience, and that progress and reform fundamentally consist in development of wants, interests, judgments and ideas, and that the passage of laws, or the production or distribution of wealth, or anything else whatever, has little significance for progress save as it expresses or promotes such inner changes in the life of society. The meaning of this will not be clear to the reader until he has made considerable progress in the study of sociology, but he will come to see that its importance is as great as that of either of the other elements in the sociological point of view.

4. The sociological point of view is synthetic. It implies belief that the time for synthesis has come ; not that analysis has yielded all its fruits, but that instead of perpetuating the practice by which every social science exaggerates, and almost inevitably to some degree distorts, one set of factors by viewing it with too little regard for its interrelationship with other factors, one social science shall busy itself explicitly with the task of correlation, and with those generalizations which are based upon data, parts of which are furnished by each special social science, generalizations which find application in every subdivision of social reality, and which serve as safeguards against the dangers of narrow specialization, and as lamps to deeper insight.

As general biology is the science of physical life, so general sociology is the science of social life. As biology has generalizations which are based on data, furnished by every subdivision of biological facts, generalizations which also find application in every subdivision of biological reality, to mollusks and to vertebrate mammals, to the facts of cryptogamic botany and to the facts of physical anthropology, to all organic life from the toadstool to man, so general sociology has its generalizations based on data gathered from every subdivision of social life and applying to every subdivision of social life.

Former abuses of the supposed analogy between societies and biological organisms need not deter us from carrying out the comparison between general biology and general sociology as follows : (a) The principles of biological evolution are based on investigation which extends to all divisions of physical life, 'and they apply to the production of all types of physical life, so that the investigator of Mendel's law experiments, now with peas or other vegetables, and now with rabbits or other animals, and applies his generalizations to man. The data and the investigations involved and-the applications of the laws of physical evolution cover the entird fields of both botany and zoology in all their subdivisions. Likewise the data, investigation, and application of the principles of social evolution relate equally to the entire field of politics, religion, ethics, and all other social activities, (b) The same comparison as that between biological and social evolution may be drawn between biological ecology and the sociological study which traces the relations of social activities (ethical, religious, economic, political, and of every kind) to their material environment, (c) A similar comparison may be drawn between physiological chemistry and social psychology. Physiological chemistry sets forth processes of life, animal and vegetable, in all their subdivisions, much as social psychology investigates the intermental relations which afford the only fundamental explanation of customs and institutions of every kind, (d) Cellular histology resembles the analysis of institutions and customs into their repetitious elements.

This comparison to general biology does not exhaust the definition of general sociology, especially because there is nothing in general biology that can be compared to sociological ethics.

5. Adoption of the sociological point of view means that all prejudices and settled questions shall be subject to reexamination, in the light of adequate investigation and of the adopted conclusions of all previous sciences. We are to study, not as Republicans or Democrats, Northerners or Southerners, employers or employed, Americans or Europeans', but unprejudiced as if seated in a star and looking down upon earthly sects and parties — a hard requirement, to be approached, not easily to be fulfilled. All the social sciences aim to share in this fifth characteristic, but sociology, besides making this a conscious aim is peculiarly adapted to promote this intellectual achievement since it studies the method by which prejudices, sentiments, and beliefs arise and spread.

Sociology, then, is ( i ) ethical, regarding the weal and woe of all men as facts to be accounted for. (2) It views the facts of human experience as caused, and belonging to the orderly course of nature. (3) Though caused in part by material facts, the essence of the life of society is seen to be made up of a functional process of conscious activities. (4) Sociology sets itself to the task of synthesis, and searches out those principles which operate throughout the realm of social realities. (5) In the study of these facts, it aims to dissolve all bonds of party, sect, and prejudice.