Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 58:230 (Apr 1901)
Article: Sociology A Psychological Study
Author: Walter E. C. Wright

BSac 58:230 (April 1901) p. 370

Sociology A Psychological Study

Prof. Walter E. C. Wright

Sociology deals with human beings in their mutual relations. It investigates how men live together. Historical sociology is concerned with every detail of that which has been, and is, in the interactions of man upon man. Theoretical sociology, basing itself on history, does not refuse to consider any possible interrelation of individual men. It is interested in the individual, however, only in his relation to others. Crusoe on his island is not a subject of sociological study until joined by the man Friday. Nevertheless every characteristic of every individual is of sociological interest, for the way men will react on each other depends on what they are in themselves.

The basal forces of sociology are the instincts, sentiments, and purposes that produce and influence associated life. These activities of the soul are conditioned by the powers man possesses for attaining their various ends. These powers again are conditioned and influenced by the forces of nature outside of man. Nothing that pertains to man within or without is foreign to sociology. Sumner has happily phrased this breadth of the science in saying, “Its elementary conditions are set by the nature of human beings and the nature of the earth.”1 In this statement, the nature of human beings” is properly put first, because it is fundamental; “the nature of the earth” is secondary, for it affects society only through its influence on human beings.

BSac 58:230 (April 1901) p. 371

The physical conditions of the earth have set around some wide regions barriers that society has so far found impassable. There is no society within hundreds of miles of the poles. There is none in several waterless regions of considerable extent in other zones. On the edge of the uninhabitable polar regions, and near the earth’s absolute deserts, a scattered population maintains only a crude society. It cannot reach high development where there is lack of numbers and of physical resources. On the other hand, tropical islands of genial climate and great fertility have seldom been the theater of a highly developed social state. Too easy physical conditions tend to depress human activity, and fail to develop self-restraint. Without industry, prudence, and foresight in individuals, society can be little more than an embryo. It does not follow that sociology is a physical science, as Buckle argued a generation ago, attempting to find almost the entire explanation of history in soil and climate.2 Equally extreme was Dr. Draper, who made isothermal lines account for Catholicism and Protestantism, as well as for the Civil War in t...