The Folk-Ways of a Scientific Sociology Author(s): William Fielding Ogburn Source: The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 30, No. 4 (Apr., 1930), pp. 300-306 Published by: American Association for the Advancement of Science Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/14609 . Accessed: 02/05/2014 06:19 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
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venturethe hope that should the author apply themto securinga membershipin make a few dollars extra fromroyalties our association. Some of us need him in because of this hint of mine, he should our business.
THE
FOLK-WAYS OF A SCIENTIFIC SOCIOLOGY By Dr. WILLIAM
PROFESSOR
OF SOCIOLOGY,
UNIVERSITY
FIELDING
OF CHICAGO;
OGBURN
PRESIDENT
OF THE
AMERICAN
SOCIETY
OF SOCIOLOGY
FOR long it has been a practice of philosophy was the mother of the sociologiststo study the habits and man- sciences and that sociologyand psycholners of peoples. Therefore,it should be ogy are the latest to be separated from permissibleto examine the habits and her, if, indeed, the separation may be manners of sociologists,if the subject said to have been completed. were sufficiently significant. It becomes No doubt this differentiation of subsignificant,perhaps, and certainly in- ject-matterwill continue,yet-thereverse triguing, when one thinks not of the process has undoubtedlybeen operative, habits of present-day sociology but particularlyin the United States,during ratherof the practices of a sociologyof the past decade. The reason is that this the future, when it has become more differentiatingprocess has reached a truly scientificthan is the case to-day. stage where a particular science is quite Naturally we can not make precise pre- inadequate to deal in any realisticmandictions, but certain inferencescan be ner with many practical problems,any drawn; and, then, it should be remem- one of whichfalls in the several different bered that one of the customs of long fields of the various social sciences, so standingamongus is that a presidentof that the dividinglines betweenthe social a scientificsociety in his presidential scienceshave been breakingdown under address is not expected to be bound so the impact of certainresearchesparticurigidlyby the restrictionsof data, nor is larly in the practical world of social life his imaginationto be so disciplined as and the many problems which it prewould be the case if he were presenting sents. the results of a piece of scientificreBut it is anotherdifferentiating procsearch. I shall draw rathermorelargely ess which will be of special significance than usual on this freedom which I for the futureof sociology,a differentiaunderstandis allowed me. tion not so much of subject-matteras of One of the processes that will shape methods. In short, the more strictly the sociologyof the futureis that of dif- scientificmethodswill be differentiated ferentiation,describedat such lengthby frommethodsthat moreproperlybelong Herbert Spencer. It is, I know,not the to activitiesotherthan those of science. fashion to quote Spencer these days. I referto such activities as are found, But irrespective of our intellectual for instance, in ethics, religion, comstyles,division of labor and differentia- merce, education, journalism,literature tion continue to be powerful processes and propaganda. Sociologyas a science despite frequent exceptions. Histori- is not interestedin makingthe world a cally the growthof the sciences has oc- betterplace in which to live, in encourcurred by a processs of differentiation.aging beliefs,in spreading information, Indeed, it is customary to note that in dispensingnews, in settingforthim-
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pressions of life, in leading the multi- Hence the text will be shorterand the tudes or in guiding the ship of state. tables and records longer. It will cost Science is interested directly in one more to print them. Only part of the thing only, to wit, discovering new article will be read; the remainderwill knowledge. As a human being, I, of be for reference. This specialization in the exposition course,want to seek for knowledgethat will be of benefitto mankind. Similarly of science does not mean that there will as a humanbeing,I may want to spread be any diminutionin the popularization this new knowledgefar and wide, or to of science. There will be numerous affectthe beliefsof people or to writemy articles and books which will show the of life and events. These human significanceof these discoveries interpretations activitiesmay be just as important,or and measurements-publicationswhich more so, perhaps, than discoveringnew will dramatize science, which will reknowledge. Indeed, it is hard to rank write scientificresultsin termsof slang, themin values, since theyare all invalu- whichwill put in theman ethicalpunch. able. But in so far as I function in The scientisthimselfmay engage in such these respects,howeverworthytheymay types of writing,but if so it will be in be, I am not engaged in scientific the capacity of another self, not as the functioningof his scientificself. activities. And so there will be a new type of process will split The differentiating off these various non-scientificpro- social science journal, not now in exiscedures that are now so intertwinedin tence, save perhaps in one instance, the so-called scientificpursuits of the which will devote itself to the publicasocial scientists. When this is done, the tion of scientificresults for a scientific sociologistswill have abandoned some of audience. The articlesin the new social theirexistinghabits and will have devel- science journals will be in some ways greatlyexpanded social scienceabstracts, oped somenew ones instead. One of these new habits will be the that is, an abstractin the sense that the writingof wholly colorlessartieles,and scientificessentials will be abstracted poputhe abandonmentof the presenthabit of fromthe irrelevantinterpretation, tryingto make the resultsof scienceinto larization and emotionalism. And so literature,the precedentsset in this re- readers will go to the sociological jourgard by Huxley and William James nals in the futurefor one thing only,to being considered a bad legacy for the findnew knowledge. They will not exapprentices of science. It will not be pect, as they do now, a gratificationof necessary,then, to end articles with an theirestheticsense,ethical edificationor or stimulifor the projeceloquentappeal or a scintillatingconclu- entertainment sion. It will be possible also to begin tion of theirpersonality. In the futureera of scientificsociology articles without referring to Plato, Aristotle or any other of the much- there will be a marked decline in the praised Greeks. Clarity and accuracy prestige of intellectualityas such, as will be the only virtues of exposition. compared with its vogue in the nineThe expressionof emotionwill be bad teenth and twentieth centuries. But form. The audience for these articles this decline in the prestige of intellecwill be the scientificguild, and no at- tuality will be only among the scientists tempt will be made to make these themselves,for the differencebetween articlesreadable for shop girls or forthe scientificactivitiesand intellectualactivhigh-schoolyouth. Articles will always ities will be more sharply drawn. All be accompaniedby the supportingdata. scientistsare intellectual,of course,but
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only a very few intellectualsare scientists. The differenceis very well noted in the comparisonof two addresses by Renan and by Pasteur, at the time of Pasteur's reception into the Academie Frangaise. Renan's was a great intellect, whichshonein full brilliancein his address of welcome,an address of wit and charm,of lightsand shades,abounding in intellectual subtleties,scholarly referencesand touching at times the profound. Pasteur, the scientist,in his address of acceptance,was not at home in the display of intellectas such. His was a simple, straightforwardand by comparisondull presentation. This does not mean, of course,that scientistsmay not be great intellects. Quite the contrary. Intelectual play or display may be the recreation of the future social scientist,but hardlyhis main work. The disciplining of the mental processes is too strictin scientificwork to permitintellectualismto flourishin the laboratory. Intellectual processes-as contrastedwith scientificthought-are combined usually with feelings,though of course always in logical form. Impressions are followedmore freelyin intellectual life, whereverassociations lead. But in the scientificwork of proof, of establishing real enduring knowledge, thinkingmust be freed fromthe bias of emotion. There must be eliminatedall the associations that disturb the closeness of the connection between the thinkingand the data. Of course the discipliningof thought is not so apparent in one of the steps in scientificwork, viz., the originatingof ideas, or in the slang equivalent, "the gettingof hunches." There imagination and free associationare the greatestaid to the scientist. It is for this reason that one says, and quite truly,but rather crudely,that there is somethingof the artist in everygreat scientist. So intellectualismis the proper atmospherefor the birth of ideas. Gettingthe idea is
oftensaid to be the firststep in the scientificprocess,but moreoftenit does not lead to the new step-it onlyleads to the productionof literature. But it mustbe rememberedthat gettingan idea is not establishingreal knowledge. An idea of value to science must be formulatedin some sort of formcapable of demonstration or proof; thenmustfollowthe proof or verification. An unrestrictedpropagation of ideas will not produce science. The shaman or medicine-manof the American Indians was not a scientist and did not produce scientificmedicine, althoughhe was very fertilein the production of ideas. The originating of ideas is a necessarystep in the scientific work,but ideas must be formulatedand testedby reality. With the decline in intellectualismit will be less easy to get fameas a theorist, and with the rise of science reputations will be built upon proofs,records and measurement. But at times,fortunately goneby, in someof our social disciplines, a man had rather have been called a theoristthan a scientist,a mostpeculiar twist in values, for in the natural sciences it is rathera matterof shameto be labeled as onlyhavingset fortha theory. The publication of guesses, hypotheses or hunches in this future era will be tabu. There will be no virtue in a merelystimulatingartiele. The sine qua ntonof scientificpublicationwill be verification and evidence. Verificationin this future state of scientificsociology will amount almost to a fetish. There will inevitablybe a greatmanyunimportant and uninterestingthings verified. Thus sciencewill utilize the dull and uninterestingperson, just as logic utilizes the paranoiac, as social philosophy utilizesthe fanaticand as intellectualism utilizes the day-dreamer. For science will reston a base of a greatdeal of long, careful, painstaking work. And many stupid persons can be careful, patient, methodical,
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It must always be rememberedthat there will be no professorsof statistics. science growsby accretion,by the accu- Statistics will disappear as a distinct mulationof littlebits and pieces of new field of knowledgebecause it will be alknowledge. Occasionally one of these mostuniversal,not only in sociologyand little pieces of new knowledgebecomes in economics,but perhaps in social psyof very great significanceand it is then chology and in political science also. called a greatdiscoveryor a great inven- All the journals in the differentsocial tion. But one can not predict when sciences will publish statistical articles. these very significant pieces of new With the growthof statisticalresearch, knowledgewill be discovered. The ac- it will become more and more apparent cumulative nature of the growth of that statistical methodas such can not science is usually not appreciated be- well be divorcedfromthe data. Hence, cause of the prevailing opinion, influ- statisticswill be identifiedwith the subenced in part by the Comteanpostulates, ject-matterin each social science rather that the stage of proof and verification than be set apart as a special discipline. in the developmentof science must be Indeed, this tendency is making great preceded by a long period of theory. headway in the United States at the Such a sequence is true enough in the present time-much more so than in case of the verificationof a particular Europe. hypothesisbut not necessarilyso of the In the past the great names in socioldevelopmentof a science. The growth ogy have been social theoristsand social of science is ratherthe accumulationbit philosophers. But this will not be the by bit of new and lasting knowledge. case in the future. For social theory The accumulationof these new discover- and social philosophywill decline, that ies calls for an organizationof workers, is, in the field of scientificsociology. not all of whomwill be stupid,however, Social theory will have no place in a for brains are useful in science as in scientificsociology,for it is not built every other form of enterprise, and upon sufficient data. Of course,certain therewill be geniusesin science as truly syntheses of broad researches may be as in scholarship. called theory,a new meaningfor an old In this futurestate every one will be term. But such syntheseswill be based a statisticiaii,that is, nearly every one. on evidence. Social theoryin good part All the universitieswill have statistical is a product of wishfulthinking,taking laboratoriesand the individual workers formin the Zeitgeist in which it is dewill have plentyof machines,all of them veloped. But so were the superstitions electric. Indeed, there are likely to be of the primitive cultures, such as, for moremachinesthan thinkers. For some instance,the theoriesas to the originsof time,perhaps a verylong time,however, the world and how it was peopled. a goodlyportionof researchin sociology Many of the great social theories will will make no use of statistics. It is obvi- collapse, just as the theory of superous, however,that quantitativesociology natural beings once collapsed, for it is is bound to have an enormousgrowth, possible for a great body of intellectual not onlybecause of its undoubtedlygreat ideas of a people to have no abiding usefulnessbut also because we have the truthin them. A scientificsociologywill wealth to collect the statistics and the be quite sharply separated from social organization to provide for their philosophy,for it will be recognizedhow analyses. While all sociologistswill be much social philosophyis a rationalizastatisticians,statistics as a recognized tion of wishes. Social philosopherswill field of knowledgewill disappear, and continueto exist, however,and serve a
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very useful purpose in such fields as ethics and among publicists and statesmen. One of the qualities mostsoughtafter by scientificsociologistswill be patience, which will be accorded rank as one of the major virtues. Fame, publicityand emotional gratification will appear always as temptresses,but the scientist will be loyal to patience. Althoughthe dynamic qualities of human nature are furnishinghim with the drive to make his goal, nevertheless,without caution and suspended judgment,they will prevent him fromattainingthatgoal. Brilliance and originality will always be admired, but in a scientificsociology theywill neverbe admiredalone, that is, without the accompanying proof and measurementthat comes with perseverance and patience. This insistence upon "'suspended judgment" is not compatible with action, which tends to follow directly out of emotion. The cautionof the scientificmind in reachinga decisionis illustrated by the conversationof the scientist and his travelingcompanionas they looked out of the train window at a herd of sheep. To the remarkthat the sheep had been sheared, the scientist replied,"They seem to be on this side." Such extremecaution and insistenceon "suspended judgment" is not compatible withexecutiveability. It is, though, a desirable quality in judicial ability, althoughjudicial decisionis more often hastythan is scientificconclusion. The scientific sociologists will not, therefore, be statesmen, leaders or executives. And if they ever seem to guide the course of evolution-which neitherthey nor any one else ever can do-it will be indirectly,by furnishing the information necessary for such supremedirectionto somesterlingexecutive who will appear to do the actual guiding. In some rare cases a person may be both a scientistand an artist.
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But, if so, the guiding of the ship of state will be done by only one of his two personalities,the executive one. This differentiation of the scientistfromthe administratorhas already gone far in this country,farther than in Europe, and it is noticeable in our universities. While the sociologistas scientistwill not hold officeor lead movements,this does not mean that he will be an armchair sociologistor that he will necessarily live a secluded life. On the contrary,the scientificsociologistmust become more and more realistic and he must learn to know his data by the closest of connectionswith the sources whereverthey may be, in social movements or amidst social problems. He will be foundwiththe staffof the courts, in the factory,at the headquarters of the political party, in the community centers. He will be whereverdata on significantsocial problems are to be found. But he will be thereas a student to discovernew knowledgeand relationships ratherthan as a practical worker. The executive, the leader, the social workerwill be the group to put to use the information which the scientific sociologistfurnishes. For, as some wag has said, "Making butter is different fromspreadingit." In the futurethe subject-matter of the social workerand of the sociologistwill be the same, in large part, except that the fieldof the sociologistwill be larger and will encompass that of the social worker. The interests of the social worker and of the sociologistwill also have morein common,for a large group of sociologistswill deal with the practical problemof human betterment.And to a certainextentthe motivationof the social workerand of the sociologistas a human being will tend to be the same, forthe social scientist,being human,will be interestedin makingthe world a better place to live in--at least, most of themwill. But they will go about it in
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THE SOCIAL SCIENCES differentways. The sociologistwill of course work on the problemsthat tend to make sociologyan organized systematic body of knowledge,but also he will choose for his researchesthe study of thoseproblemsthe solutionof whichwill benefitthe human race and its culture, particularlythoseproblemsthat present the greatest acuteness. But the scientific sociologist will attack these problems once chosen with the sole idea of discovering new knowledge. Whereas the social workerwill be interestedin applying the new knowledgethus discoveredfor the alleviation of the ills of mankind,either as a social engineeror as a leader of a movementor the executive of institutions. But with the rising standard of living whichwill come with a loweredbirth-rate, withthe many new inventionsthat are inevitable and with our wonderful natural resources, the nature of the problems of the social workerwill tend not to be set offas a class dealing with poverty but rather with social problems in general. The social workerand someof the sociologists will thus work together at the same place, the one interestedin discovery and the other interested in practical achievement. The two functions may indeed findexistencein the same person. Both the sociologist and the social engineerwill require much more scientificdisciplinethan do the natural scientist and the mechanical engineer. One reason is the greatertemptationto distort conclusionsin the interestof emotional values. Furthermore,the social engineer will not be able to restrict himself to the application of proved knowledge,for social problemswill be so urgent that one can not wait on the "suspended judgment" of the scientist. Somethingwill have to be done. We must vote on the firstTuesday afterthe firstMonday in November,whetherour informationis completeor not. Social problems call for action as well as
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knowledge. Now, knowledgeis usually a matter of probability. Hence action will often be based upon approximate knowledge,when,forinstance,the probabilityappears greaterthan 50-50. Fair success in using approximateknowledge in importantissues will of course bring social approval. This means that high standardsof sciencewill always be hard to maintainin the social sciences. Also, unless social values change greatlyfrom what theyare to-day,the leader and the executivewill commandgreaterprestige than the scientist who discovers new knowledgefor the leader and executive to use. There will always thus be a great mongeringwith proximateinformation. But there will also be social engineerswho, like physicians in general, are not scientists,but who apply reliable scientificprocedures and relatively exact knowledge. But the scientist's work will be differentiatedfrom that of the handling of proximate informationand the applying of exact informationalready knownaccordingto formula. A great deal of researchwill be done outside of universities,an increasingly large proportion. A smallerand smaller proportion of research will be done single-handed by the lone researcher. This is regrettedby some schizophrenic persons who believe that one can not if one works in an organization. thinrk The fact that a clerk's life is a routine and that the punching of adding machinesis mechanicalis not evidencethat nowherein the organization are there persons who think. All governments, national,state and city,may be expected to increase their research functions greatly. But so also will trade unions, employersassociations,leagues and civic bodies,political parties, industriesand social work organizations. Increasing wealth will mak-esuch social research possible,and secondly, its effectiveness
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will be increasinglydemonstrated. All these various organizationswith special interestswill be doing research with a specific purpose to prove a particular hypothesisor to gain a desired end, but their research staffwill be dictated to only in the choice of the problem or hypothesis. They will be free to abide whollyby the evidence. To do this they must be sharply distinguishedfromthe executiveor policy-makingbranch. This difEerentiating processwhichwill mark offscience in sociology leaves us without a wholly attractive or ideal picture of science and scientists. But a forecasteris not interestedin whether what he sees is beautiful or not. His idea is to predict solely what will happen. But of course I realize that according to the folk-waysof America in the firstpart of the twentiethcentury, all addresses, like the moving pictures, theatersand short stories,are supposed to have happy endings-particularly presidentialaddresses. The happy ending for a scientific sociologywill be its achievement. It will be necessary to crush out emotion and to discipline the mind so stronglythat
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the fanciful pleasures of intellectuality will have to be eschewedin the verification process; it will be desirableto tabu our ethics and values (except in choosing problems), and it will be inevitable that we shall have to spend most of our time doinig hard, dull, tedious and routine tasks. Still the results will be pure gold and worththe trouble. While science will separate itself from education, propaganda, ethics, journalism, literature,religion and from executive leadership, of course all these excellent social activities will not cease. Social life will be thus just as rieh. And, finally,it is not necessaryfor a scientist to be a scientistall the time. He can temporarilyshut the door to his laboratoryand open for a whilehis door to the beauty of the stars, to the romance of life, to the service of his fellowman, to the leadership of the cause, to the applause of his audience or to adventure in the great out-of-doors.But when he returns to his laboratoryhe will leave thesebehind,althoughthereis a beauty, a romance,a service, a leadership and an adventureof a kind to be foundsometimes in the laboratory.
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