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Sociology and Modern Social Problems

C >> Charles A. Ellwood >> Sociology and Modern Social Problems




An important branch of political science is jurisprudence, or the
science of law. This, again, is closely related with sociology, on both
its theoretical and practical sides. Law is, perhaps, the most important
means of social control made use of by society, and the sociologist
needs to understand something of the principles of law in order to
understand the nature of the existing social order. On the other hand,
the jurist needs to know the principles of social organization and
evolution in general before he can understand the nature and purpose of
law.

(E) _Relations to Ethics._ [Footnote: For a full statement of my
views regarding the relations of sociology and ethics, see my article on
"The Sociological Basis of Ethics," in the _International Journal of
Ethics_ for April, 1910.] Ethics is the science which deals with the
right or wrong of human conduct. Its problems are the nature of morality
and of moral obligation, the validity of moral ideals, the norms by
which conduct is to be judged, and the like. While ethics was once
considered to be a science of individual conduct it is now generally
conceived as being essentially a social science. The moral and the
social are indeed not clearly separable, but we may consider the moral
to be the ideal aspect of the social.

This view of morality, which, for the most part, is indorsed by modern
thought, makes ethics dependent upon sociology for its criteria of
rightness or wrongness. Indeed, we cannot argue any moral question
nowadays unless we argue it in social terms. If we discuss the rightness
or wrongness of the drink habit we try to show its social consequences.
So, too, if we discuss the rightness or wrongness of such an institution
as polygamy we find ourselves forced to do so mainly in social terms.
This is not denying, of course, that there are religious and
metaphysical aspects to morality,--these are not necessarily in conflict
with the social aspects,--but it is saying that modern ethical theory is
coming more and more to base itself upon the study of the remote social
consequences of conduct, and that we cannot judge what is right or wrong
in our complex society unless we know something of the social
consequences.

Ethics must be regarded, therefore, as a normative science to which
sociology and the other social sciences lead up. It is, indeed, very
difficult to separate ethics from sociology. It is the business of
sociology to furnish norms and standards to ethics, and it is the
business of ethics as a science to take the norms and standards
furnished by the social sciences, to develop them, and to criticize
them. This text therefore, will not attempt to exclude ethical
implications and judgments from sociological discussions, because that
would be futile and childish.

(F) _Relations to Education._ Among the applied sciences, sociology
is especially closely related to education, for education is not simply
the art of developing the powers and capacities of the individual; it is
rather the fitting of individuals for efficient membership, for proper
functioning, in social life. On its individual side, education should
initiate the individual into the social life and fit him for social
service. It should create the good citizen. On the social or public
side, education should be the chief means of social progress. It should
regenerate society, by fitting the individual for a higher type of
social life than at present achieved. We must have a socialized
education if our present complex civilization is to endure. Social
problems touch education on every side, and, on the other hand,
education must bear upon every social problem. It is evident, therefore,
that sociology has a very great bearing upon the problems of education;
and the teacher who comes to his task equipped with a knowledge of
social conditions and of the laws and principles of social organization
and evolution will find a significance and meaning in his work which he
could hardly otherwise find.

(G) _Relations to Philanthropy._[Footnote: This topic is more fully
discussed in my article on "Philanthropy and Sociology" in The Survey
for June 4, 1910.] The great science which deals directly with the
depressed classes in society and with their uplift may be called the
science of philanthropy. It may be regarded as an applied department of
sociology. The science of philanthropy is especially concerned with the
prevention, as well as with the curative treatment, of dependency,
defectiveness, and delinquency. That part which deals with the social
treatment of the criminal class is generally called penology, while the
subdivision which treats of dependents and defectives is generally known
as "charities" or "charitology."

It is evident that there are very close relations between the science of
philanthropy and sociology. The elimination of hereditary defects, the
overcoming of the social maladjustment of individuals, and the
correction of defective social conditions, the three great tasks of
scientific philanthropy, all require great knowledge of human society.
The social or philanthropic worker, therefore, requires thorough
equipment in sociology that he may approach his tasks aright.

The Relation of Sociology to Socialism.--Curiously enough sociology is
often confused with socialism by those who pay but little attention to
scientific matters. This comes from the fact that some of the adherents
of socialism claim that socialism is a science. As a matter of fact,
socialism is primarily a party program. It is the platform of a social
and political party that has as the main tenet of its creed the
abolition of private property in the means of production. Socialism, in
other words, is a scheme to revolutionize the present order of society.
It cannot claim to be a science in any sense, though it may rest upon
theories which its adherents believe to be scientific. Sociology, on the
other hand, is a science, and is concerned not with revolutionizing the
social order, but with studying and understanding social conditions,
especially the more fundamental conditions upon which social
organization and social changes depend. As a science it aims simply at
understanding society, at getting at the truth. It is no more related
logically to socialism than to the platform of the Republican or the
Democratic party.

The theories upon which revolutionary socialism rest may be proved or
disproved by scientific sociology. It is perhaps too early to say
finally whether sociology will pronounce the theoretical assumptions of
socialism correct or incorrect; but so far as we can see it seems
probable that the theories of social evolution advocated by the Marxian
socialists at least will be pronounced erroneous. In any case, there is
no logical connection between sociology as a science and socialism as a
program for social reconstruction.

Nevertheless, there has been a close connection between sociology and
socialism historically. It has been largely the agitations of the
socialists and other radical social reformers which have called
attention to the need of a scientific understanding of human society.
The socialists and other radical reformers, in other words, have very
largely set the problem which sociology attempts to solve. Practically,
moreover, the indictments and charges of the socialists and anarchists
against the present social order have made necessary some study of that
order to see whether these charges were well founded or not. In this
sense sociology may be said to be a scientific answer to socialism, not
in the sense that sociology is devoted to refuting socialism, but in the
sense that sociology has been devoted very largely to inquiring into
many of the theoretical assumptions which revolutionary socialism makes.

The further relations of sociology to socialism will be taken up later.
Here we are only concerned to have the reader see that there is a sharp
distinction between the sociological movement on the one hand, that is,
the movement to obtain fuller and more accurate knowledge concerning
human social life, and the socialist movement, the movement to
revolutionize the present social and economic order. Moreover, it may be
remarked that while socialism seems to be mainly an economic program, it
involves such total and radical reconstruction of social organization
that in the long run the claims of socialism to a scientific validity
must be passed upon by sociology rather than by economics.

The Relation of Sociology to Social Reform.--From what has been said it
is also evident that sociology must not be confused with any particular
social reform movement or with the movement for social reform in
general. Sociology, as a science, cannot afford to be developed in the
interest of any social reform. Certain social reforms, sociology may
give its approval to; others it may designate as unwise; but this
approval or disapproval will be simply incidental to its discovery of
the full truth about human social relations. This is not saying, of
course, that social theory should be divorced from social practice, or
that the knowledge which sociology and the other social sciences offer
concerning human society has no practical bearing upon present social
conditions. On the contrary, while all science aims abstractly at the
truth, all science is practical also in a deeper sense. No science would
ever have been developed if it were not conceived that the knowledge
which it discovers will ultimately be of benefit to man. All science
exists, therefore, to benefit man, to enable him to master his
environment, and the social sciences not less than the other sciences.
The physical sciences have already enabled man to attain to a
considerable mastery over his physical environment. When the social
sciences have been developed it is safe to say that they will enable man
not less to master his social environment. Therefore, while sociology
and the special social sciences present as yet no program for action,
aiming simply at the discovery of the abstract truth, they will
undoubtedly in time bring about vast changes for the betterment of
social conditions.


SELECT REFERENCES


_For Brief Reading:_

WARD, _Outlines of Sociology,_ Chaps. I-VIII.
ROSS, _The foundations of Sociology,_ Chaps. I and II.
DEALEY, _Sociology, Its simpler Teachings and Applications,_ Chap. I.


_For More Extended Reading:_

GIDDINGS, _The Principles of Sociology,_ 3d edition.
SMALL, _General Sociology._
SPENCER, _The Study of Sociology._
STUCKENBERG, _Sociology: The Science of Human Society._
WARD, _Pure Sociology._
_American Journal of Sociology_, many articles.
For a fairly extensive bibliography on sociology, consult Howard's
General Sociology: An Analytical Reference Syllabus.






CHAPTER II


THE BEARING OF THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION UPON SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Since Darwin wrote his _Origin of Species_ all the sciences in any
way connected with biology have been profoundly influenced by his theory
of evolution. It is important that the student of sociology, therefore,
should understand at the outset something of the bearing of Darwin's
theory upon social problems.

We may note at the beginning, however, that the word _evolution_
has two distinct, though related, meanings. First, it usually means
Darwin's doctrine of descent; secondly, it is used to designate
Spencer's theory of universal evolution. Let us note somewhat in detail
what evolution means in the first of these senses.

The Darwinian Theory of Descent.--Darwin's theory of descent is the
doctrine that all forms of life now existing or that have existed upon
the earth have sprung from a few simple primitive types. According to
this theory all forms of animals and plants have sprung from a few
primitive stocks, though not necessarily one, because even in the
beginning there may have existed a distinction at least between the
plant and the animal types. So far as the animal world is concerned,
then, this theory amounts to the assertion of the kinship of all life.
From one or more simple primitive unicellular forms have arisen the
great multitude of multicellular forms that now exist. Popularly,
Darwin's theory is supposed to be that man sprang from the apes, but
this, strictly speaking, is a misconception. Darwin's theory
necessitates the belief, not that man sprang from any existing species
of ape, but rather that the apes and man have sprung from some common
stock. It is equally true, however, that man and many other of the lower
animals, according to this theory, have come from a common stock. As was
said above, the theory is not a theory of the descent of man from any
particular animal type, but rather the theory of the kinship, the
genetic relationship, of all animal species.

It is evident that if we assume Darwin's theory of descent in sociology
we must look for the beginnings of many peculiarly human things in the
animal world below man. Human institutions, according to this theory,
could not be supposed to have an independent origin, or human society in
any of its forms to be a fact by itself, but rather all human things are
connected with the whole world of animal life below man. Thus if we are,
according to this theory, to look for the origin of the family, we
should have to turn first of all to the habits of animals nearest man.
This is only one of the many bearings which Darwin's theory has upon the
study of social problems; but it is evident even from this that it
revolutionizes sociology. So long as it was possible to look upon human
society as a distinct creation, as something isolated, by itself in
nature, it was possible to hold to intellectualistic views of the origin
of human institutions.

But some one may ask: Why should the sociologist accept Darwin's theory?
What proofs does it rest upon? What warrant has a student of sociology
for accepting a doctrine of such far-reaching consequences? The reply
is, that biologists, generally, during the last fifty years, after a
careful study of Darwin's arguments and after a careful examination of
all other evidence, have come substantially to agree with him. There is
no great biologist now living who does not accept the essentials of the
doctrine of descent. Five lines of proof may be offered in support of
Darwin's theories, and it may be well for us, as students of sociology,
briefly to review these.

(1) The homologies or similarities of structure of different animals.
There are very striking similarities of structure between all the higher
animals. Between the ape and man, for example, there are over one
hundred and fifty such anatomical homologies; that is, in the ape we
find bone for bone, and muscle for muscle, corresponding to the
structure of the human body. Even an animal so remotely related to man
as the cat has many more resemblances to man in anatomical structure
than dissimilarities. Now, the meaning of these anatomical homologies,
biologists say, is that these animals are genetically related, that is,
they had a common ancestry at some remote period in the past.

(2) The presence of vestigial organs in the higher animals supplies
another argument for the belief in common descent. In man, for example,
there exist over one hundred of these vestigial or rudimentary organs,
as the vermiform appendix, the pineal gland, and the like. Many of these
vestigal organs, which are now functionless in man, perform functions in
lower animals, and this is held to show that at some remote period in
the past they also functioned in man's ancestors.

(3) The facts of embryology seem to point to the descent of the higher
types of animals from the lower types. The embryo or fetus in its
development seems to recapitulate the various stages through which the
species has passed. Thus the human embryo at one stage of its
development resembles the fish; at another stage, the embryo of a dog;
and for a long time it is impossible to distinguish between the human
embryo and that of one of the larger apes. These embryological facts,
biologists say, indicate genetic relation between the various animal
forms which the embryo in its different stages simulates.

(4) The fossil remains of extinct species of animals are found in the
earth's crust which are evidently ancestors of existing species. Until
the doctrine of descent was accepted there was no way of explaining the
presence of these fossil remains of extinct animals in the earth's
crust. It was supposed by some that the earth had passed through a
series of cataclysms in which all forms of life upon the earth had been
many times destroyed and many times re-created. It is now demonstrated,
however, that these fossils are related to existing species, and
sometimes it is possible to trace back the evolution of existing forms
to very primitive forms in this way. For example, it is possible to
trace the horse, which is now an animal with a single hoof, walking on a
single toe, back to an animal that walked upon four toes and had four
hoofs and was not much larger than a fox. It is not so generally known
that it is also possible to trace man back through fossil human remains
that have been discovered in the earth's crust to the time when he is
apparently just emerging from some apelike form. The latest discovery of
the fossil remains of man made by Dr. Dubois in Java in 1894 shows a
creature with about half the brain capacity of the existing civilized
man and with many apelike characteristics. Thus we cannot except even
man from the theory of evolution and suppose that he was especially
created, as Alfred Russel Wallace, Darwin's contemporary and colaborer,
and others, have supposed.

(5) The last line of argument in favor of the belief that all existing
species have descended from a few simple primitive forms is found in the
fact of the variation of animals through artificial selection under
domestication. For generations breeders have known that by carefully
selecting the type of animal or plant which they have desired, it is
possible to produce approximately that type. Thus have originated all
the breeds or varieties of domestic plants and animals. Now, Darwin
conceived that nature also exercises a selection by weeding out those
individuals that are not adapted to their environment. In other words,
nature, though unconscious, selects in a negative way the stronger and
the better adapted. Animals vary in nature as well as under
domestication from causes not yet well understood. The variations that
were favorable to survival, Darwin argued, would secure the survival,
through the passing on of these variations by heredity of the better
adapted types of plants and animals. The natural process of weeding out
the inferior or least adapted through early death, or through failure to
reproduce, Darwin called "natural selection", and likened it in its
effect upon organisms to the artificial selection which breeders
consciously use to secure types of plants or animals that they desire.
The only great addition to Darwin's theories which has been made since
he wrote is that of the Dutch botanist, Hugo de Vries, who has shown
that the variations which are fruitful for the production of new species
are probably great or discontinuous variations, which he terms
"mutations," instead of the small fluctuating variations which Darwin
thought were probably most important in the production of new species.
De Vries' theory in no way affects the doctrine of descent, nor does it
take away from the importance of natural selection in fixing the
variations. Darwin's theory, therefore, stands in all of its essentials
to-day unquestioned by men of science, and it must be assumed by the
student of sociology in any attempt to explain social evolution.

Spencer's Theory of Universal Evolution.--A second meaning given to the
word _evolution_ is that which Spencer popularized in his _First
Principles_. This is a philosophical theory of the universe which
asserts that not only have species of animals come to be what they are
through a process of development, but everything whatsoever that exists,
from molecules of matter to stars and planets. It is the view that the
universe is in a process of development. Evolution in this wider sense
includes all existing things whatsoever, while evolution in the sense of
Darwin's theory is confined to the organic world. While the theory that
all things existing have through a process of orderly change come to be
what they are, is a very old one, yet it was undoubtedly Spencer's
writings which popularized the theory, and to Spencer we also owe the
attempt in his Synthetic Philosophy to trace the working of evolution in
all the different realms of phenomena. The belief in universal evolution
which Spencer popularized has also come to be generally accepted by
scientific and philosophical thinkers. While Spencer's particular
theories of evolution may not be accepted, some form of universal
evolution is very generally believed in. The thought of evolution now
dominates all the sciences,--physical, biological, psychological, and
sociological. It is evident that the student of society, if he accepts
fully the modern scientific spirit, must also assume evolution in this
second or universal sense.

The Different Phases of Universal Evolution.--It may be well, in order
to correlate our knowledge of social evolution with knowledge in
general, to note the different well-marked phases of universal
evolution.

(1) _Cosmic Evolution._ This is the phase the astronomer and the
geologist are particularly interested in. It deals with the evolution of
worlds. In this phase we are dealing merely with physical matter, and it
is supposed that the active principle which works in this phase of
evolution is the attraction of particles of matter for one another. This
leads to the condensation of matter into suns and their planets, and the
geological evolution of the earth, for example. Laplace's nebular
hypothesis is an attempt to give an adequate statement of the cosmic
phase of evolution. While this hypothesis has been much criticized of
late, in its essentials it seems to stand. We are not, however, as
students of society, concerned with this phase of evolution.

(2) _Organic Evolution._ This is the phase of evolution with which
Darwin dealt and which biology, as a science of evolution of living
forms, deals with. The great merit of Darwin's work was that he showed
that the active principle in this phase of evolution is natural
selection; that is, the extermination of the unadapted through death or
through failure to reproduce. Types unsuited to their environment thus
die before reproduction. The stronger and better fitted survive, and
thus the type is raised. Natural selection may be regarded, then, as
essentially the creative force in this phase of evolution.

(3) _The Evolution of Mind._ This might be included in organic
evolution, but all organisms do not apparently have minds. It is evident
that among animals those that would stand the best chance of surviving
would not be simply those that have the strongest brute strength, but
rather those that have the keenest intelligence and that could adapt
themselves quickly to their environment, that could see approaching
danger and escape it. Natural selection has, therefore, favored in the
animal world the survival of those animals with the highest type of
intelligence. It cannot be said, however, that natural selection is the
only force which has created the mind in all its various expressions.

(4) _Social Evolution._ By social evolution we mean the evolution
of groups, or, in strict accordance with our definition of society,
groups of psychically interconnected individuals. Groups are to be found
throughout the animal world, and it is in the human species, as we have
already seen, that the highest types of association are found. This is
not an accident. Association, or living together in groups, has been one
of the devices by which animal species have been enabled to survive. It
is evident that not only would intelligence help an animal to survive
more than brute strength, but that ability to cooperate with one's
fellows would also help in the same way. Consequently we find a degree
of combination or coöperation almost at the very beginning of life, and
it is without doubt through coöperation that man has become the dominant
and supreme species upon the planet. Man's social instincts, in other
words, have been perhaps even more important for his survival than his
intelligence. The man who lies, cheats, and steals, or who indulges in
other unsocial conduct sets himself against his group and places his
group at a disadvantage as compared with other groups. Now, natural
selection is continually operating upon groups as well as upon
individuals, and the group which can command the most loyal, most
efficient membership, and has the best organization, is, other things
being equal, the group which survives. Natural selection is, then,
active in social evolution as well as in general organic evolution. But
the distinctive principle of social evolution is coöperation. In other
words, it is sympathetic feeling, altruism, which has made the higher
types of social evolution possible.

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