Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I THE SCIENCE OF SOCIOLOGY I. Man unsocial by nature, a. Human and animal societies contrasted. 3. Pure and applied sociology. 4. Mathematical sociology. 5. Meaning of the term science. 6. Sociology a science. 7. The progress of science. 8. Progress of sociology. 1. Man is not naturally a social being; human Man society is purely a product of his reason and arose by insensible degrees, pari passu with the development of his brain. In other words, human association is the result of the perceived advantage which it yields, and came into existence only in proportion as that advantage was perceived by the only faculty capable of perceiving it, the intellect. 2. For these reasons human society is generically Human distinct from all animal societies.1 It is essentially andanimal societies rational and artificial, while animal association is contrasted, essentially instinctive and natural. The adaptation in the former is incomplete, while in the latter it is practically complete. Hence the same principles do not apply to human and animal sociology. The latter is essentially a biological study; and while psychological considerations are potent in both, those that belong to animal sociology relate exclusively to feel- 1 Espinas, Des sociftes animates. ing, while those that belong to human sociology relate chiefly to the intellect. The science of sociology, therefore, is the study of human association, including whatever conduces to it or modifies it. In calling sociology a science it is not claimed that it has as yet been established as a science. But it is maintained that it is in process of establishment, and this by the same method by which all other sciences are established. Pure and 3- It is but natural that those who regard socio... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.