Chapter XXVIII The Dissemination of Sociological Thought

Despite its youth, inchoateness, and naïveté, sociological thought is exerting a vital influence in the world. It is giving a new rating to all the established values of life, undermining some, strengthening others, and creating still others.

The chief values in sociological thought are that it constitutes the center of all worth while thought; it gives balance and proportion to thinking in any field; it defies race prejudice and social intolerance; it smites selfish living; it rivets attention to the essentially human values; it stimulates personal development in harmony with group and societary welfare. At the same time, it postulates group advancement, not upon paternalistic or autocratic grounds, but upon a constructive projection of personalities that harmonizes with unselfish group service.

For centuries genuine social thinking was confined largely to a few of the intellectually élite. These few lived, and did even their social thinking, in a more or less isolated way. It was not until the first decades of the last centuries that social thought began to be scientific in character, that is, became sociological. Sociological thinking, however, was isolated and uncorrelated for many years. In the last decade of the nineteenth century, sociology began to develop a considerable body of thinkers and to create a new morale. There were many disagreements that tended to break the new science asunder. The opening decades, however, of the twentieth century witnessed a development of sociological thought that was followed by the establishment of the teaching of sociology as a profession.

With the rise of professional sociologists, the dissemination of socialized thought became noteworthy. For a long time sociology was considered only as a post-graduate study. In the last few years, however, sociology has been making its way downward in college and university curricula, until it is being widely taught to college freshmen and sophomores. In this connection there is a variety of textbooks that have been written to meet the needs of beginning students. There are some teachers who would introduce sociology through anthropological studies, beginning with the origin of man. Others would give a survey or prospectus of social institutions, processes, and problems.XXVIII-1 Still others would deal only with social problems. Then there are those persons who would build a text-book around a central theme, tracing it through social relationships. For advanced work in sociological thought there is a variety of treatises dealing with systems at once profound, complex, and fundamental.

For high schools, the technique of sociological teaching is in the beginning stages. The importance in high schools of social science teaching is generally recognized, but there has been great difficulty in effecting an agreement among the various social science branches. Some high school teachers prefer a “social problems” course, although the demand is growing for a “social science” course, extending throughout the year, dividing the time more or less evenly between economics, sociology, and civics. There are other high school teachers who contend that sociology can be taught best in a general “citizenship” course. One of the specific difficulties is that the high school curriculum is full, and that the representatives of none of the established courses are willing to see the subjects in which they are interested crowded out. Another difficulty is the power which the self-culture and self-development concepts possess. The equal importance of the social culture and social development concepts is being recognized, but with amazing slowness.

In the grades the teaching of sociology is gaining ground. In the sense that there is an advanced group of mathematical studies for university men and women and an elemental mathematics for the grades, so there is advanced sociology, and also an elemental sociology centering around the activities of the primary groups, such as the family, play, neighborhood, and school groups. A child who is old enough to learn to obey is old enough to begin elemental sociology, in fact, when he learns to obey, he is already beginning to experience the meaning of a social, if not a sociological concept. Simple social studies are being prepared for the grades, even beginning with the first grade.

The dissemination of sociological thought is a practical question to which in the last score of years special attention has been given. The universities and colleges began to establish chairs of sociology in the closing decade of the last century. The movement has acquired a remarkable momentum in the United States. Normal schools and high schools have adopted the movement. Many churches are promulgating a socialized gospel. Literature is gradually assuming an appreciation of the sociological viewpoint.

From the social proverbs of primitive man to a treatise such as Ross’ Principles of Sociology, with its admirable analysis of significant societal processes, such as equalization, domination, individuation, socialization—this is the main span of social thought. Social thought began in the simplest form of observations about social relationships between individual and individual, between chieftain and tribal member, between master and servant. It experienced various stages of denunciation of social wrongs. It produced perspectives of perfect societies. It moved profoundly forward in the form of social philosophies. Now it is proceeding either as the investigator of new social facts, or the psychological interpreter of these facts in terms of social processes. It is assuming a scientific procedure, although a portion of the results of its undertakings finds expression in social philosophy. It is beginning to formulate sociological laws. It is inaugurating a technique for preventing the maladjustments that produce social evils; it is establishing a teaching technique. Although the masses of the human race are beginning to feel blindly the meaning of social values, they have not yet been able to make their highest social aspirations rationally articulate. Until that time comes, democracy will remain an experiment, and world progress a toy of autocratic forces.

A history of social thought is essentially a review of an irregular but positive acceptance of social values. Individual after individual, leader after leader, profession after profession, group after group, have felt and accepted the challenge of the sociological viewpoint. They have changed from living selfishly to living socially. They have even given up the ideal of service for self advancement, setting up in its place the ideal of service for the welfare of others. In so doing and living they have found expansion of personality and contributed to the advancement of society. Since the days of Comte in particular, the social sciences have been increasing in variety and scope until they number a score or more, and sociological influence has been widening until the related sciences are inviting sociology, which is the scientific study of group phenomena, to define their objectives for them. In fact, sociological concepts are permeating the farthermost reaches of personal living and societal control. A history of social thought is a history of the socializing of human attitudes and interests, presaging a human society in which personal achievement and group progress are equally and supremely sought.