A HISTORY OF SOCIAL THOUGHT
A HISTORY OF
SOCIAL THOUGHT
BY
EMORY S. BOGARDUS, PH.D.
_Professor and Head of Department of Sociology and Social Work
University of Southern California_
_Author of_
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY
ESSENTIALS OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
ESSENTIALS OF AMERICANIZATION
1922
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PRESS
3474 UNIVERSITY AVENUE
LOS ANGELES
Copyright 1922, University of Southern California Press
JESSE RAY MILLER
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PRESS
LOS ANGELES
DEDICATED TO MY STUDENTS
WHO ARE TRANSFORMING THEIR SOCIAL THOUGHT
INTO HELPFUL LIVING
CONTENTS
1. THE NATURE OF SOCIAL THOUGHT 11
2. EARLIEST SOCIAL THOUGHT 20
3. THE SOCIAL THOUGHT OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS 36
4. THE SOCIAL THOUGHT OF THE HEBREWS 54
5. PLATO AND GRECIAN SOCIAL THOUGHT 74
6. ARISTOTLE AND GRECIAN SOCIAL THOUGHT 101
7. ROMAN SOCIAL THOUGHT 114
8. EARLY CHRISTIAN SOCIAL THOUGHT 121
9. SOCIAL THOUGHT IN THE MIDDLE AGES 145
10. MORE AND UTOPIAN SOCIAL THOUGHT 154
11. INDIVIDUALISTIC SOCIAL THOUGHT 173
12. MALTHUS AND POPULATION CONCEPTS 199
13. COMTE AND POSITIVE SOCIAL THOUGHT 209
14. MARX AND SOCIALISTIC SOCIAL THOUGHT 226
15. BUCKLE AND GEOGRAPHIC SOCIAL THOUGHT 246
16. SPENCER AND ORGANIC SOCIAL THOUGHT 257
17. THE SOCIOLOGY OF LESTER F. WARD 277
18. ANTHROPOLOGIC SOCIOLOGY 301
19. EUGENIC SOCIOLOGY 325
20. CONFLICT THEORIES IN SOCIOLOGY 338
21. CO-OPERATION THEORIES IN SOCIOLOGY 352
22. PSYCHO-SOCIOLOGIC THOUGHT 367
23. PSYCHO-SOCIOLOGIC THOUGHT (_continued_) 389
24. THE TREND OF APPLIED SOCIOLOGY 423
25. THE RISE OF EDUCATIONAL SOCIOLOGY 442
26. THE SOCIOLOGY OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 451
27. METHODS OF SOCIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION 475
28. THE DISSEMINATION OF SOCIOLOGICAL THOUGHT 489
INDEX 504
PREFACE
This book is written for the world of students. In it any
seriously-minded person should find a fundamental background for
understanding the central theme of human progress, a substantial basis
for attacking the most important problems of the day, and a call to
renew his faith in the soundness of human aspirations.
Inasmuch as this treatise is written for students, it is not intended
to be the last word on the subject, but simply a first word. The theme
of each chapter is in itself a subject for further investigation.
In fact, the student with an alert mind will find in each chapter
many subjects concerning which he will want to learn more. If the
discussions in this book stimulate the student to make inquiries on his
own initiative, they will have accomplished more than the author could
have expected.
EMORY S. BOGARDUS.
_University of Southern California.
June 1, 1921._
A HISTORY OF SOCIAL THOUGHT
CHAPTER I
THE NATURE OF SOCIAL THOUGHT
Man faces a world of social problems. As a result he is perplexed
beyond description; his thinking often ends in confusion. Inasmuch as
the average citizen, for the first time in the world’s history, is
beginning to attack social problems, he is entitled to all the aid
that can be made available. Upon the success of the average person in
mastering the intricacies of social thinking, the cause of democracy
depends.
A large proportion of the analyses of social questions has been
academic. These discussions have often terminated in quibbles or
erudite generalizations. Insofar as social theories have been correct
they have unfortunately been reserved for the theorists alone. The
people themselves have not understood the nature of social thought;
they have not benefited; and hence, they have held social thought in
contempt. Sound social thought needs to be democratized, that is, to be
made available for all people.
In thinking about social problems, the so-called practical person has
proceeded in his own way. He has had personal experience--and that to
him has been sufficient. He has been motivated by a sense of injustice,
and stung into fervid thought by circumstances which seemed to him
unfair; he has concocted a make-shift remedy, or impulsively accepted a
ready-made program. Perhaps he has urged a single cause for all social
ills and prescribed a single remedy for all social diseases. Usually,
he has been very limited in his observations, untrained in making
proper inductions, and hence, narrow and intolerant in his conclusions.
He has been entirely baffled, or else he has felt cock-sure.
The practicalist is often a poor theorist. He may be even the most
dangerous type of theorist. He has scoffed at theory and then fallen
into the pit of incorrect theory. He has failed to see, for example,
that a good bridge does not project itself across a chasm, but that a
correct bridge-building theory is essential. With social practicalists
and theorists calling each other names, instead of co-operating and
unselfishly giving the world of people the benefit of their combined
points of view, the world has floundered and its social problems have
piled up, mountains high.
Another difficulty in the pathway of sound social thinking is found in
an absence of proper backgrounds. People are prone to offer solutions
for social questions without first equipping themselves with a
knowledge of foundational elements. Moreover, they are often unwilling
to acquaint themselves with these necessary factors. It is only by
accident, however, that current social movements can be understood
unless the historical sequences of social cause and effect are
perceived. Nearly all social problems are essentially the outcroppings
of tendencies which have had a long human history. A current social
maladjustment is generally indicative of a long line of antecedent
factors. A knowledge of societary fundamentals is essential to sound
thinking about present-day evils. A history of social thought furnishes
a minimum social background for the understanding of current social
processes and problems.
Social thought, as distinguished from individual thought, treats of
the welfare of one’s associates and of groups. It may be very simple,
merely observational, the result of daily experience, or it may be a
scientific study of social processes. Sociology as an organized science
has developed only during the past few decades. Inasmuch as sociology
has simply begun its work of formulating the principles of societary
progress, a large proportion of the thinking that has thus far been
done in human history about the welfare of _socii_ or associates is
either individual or social, rather than sociological. A history of
social thought, therefore, includes the larger social field as well as
the more specific one of recent development, namely, the sociological.
The time is hardly ripe for a history of distinctly sociological
thought.
Social thought, as here used, is a synthesis of the observations of
individuals about the welfare of other individuals, considered as
individuals or as groups. The focus of social thought is not the
welfare of the ego but of the alter, not of the self but of others,
not of the individual but of the class, group, organization, or
process. Social thought draws from the thought-life of persons who
have done unselfish thinking and who have focalized their attention
upon the nature and principles of associative activities. It tests
group progress by the degree in which human personalities secure
constructive, co-operative expression. It measures the individual in
his relationships to the social whole, whether that unit be the family,
school, church, state, or the world society. It rates the individual in
terms of a functioning unit in group life. It evaluates the group both
in regard to the quality of the personalities which it produces in its
membership, and to the loyalty which it manifests as a unit of a larger
group, even of human society itself.
Social thought is both concrete and abstract. Concrete thinking rarely
goes deep. It asks few questions, raises few doubts, and perceives few
connections. Abstract thinking seeks causal explanations, classifies
concretenesses, penetrates relationships, and proposes well-balanced
procedures. The distinction, however, is largely one of degree.
Concrete thinking is characteristic of every normal person, but
abstract perceptions are uncommon. The ability to do abstract thinking,
to get at the deeper meanings of phenomena, to penetrate the mysteries
of life, is rare. Concrete thinking constitutes the major sector of the
thought-life of every person, nearly all the time.
Here and there, however, in human history we find individuals who have
been freed or who have freed themselves from the daily struggle for a
living, from the race to make money, or from the selfish enticements
of life-long loafing, and have joined the world of scholars, seeking
to know the truth, the truth which makes men and women free--free to
develop useful personalities in a vast, changing complex of human
living. When man, having leisure to think abstractly, has set himself
to the task of thought research, his mind has ventured along at least
five pathways.
(1) Man has given considerable attention to his relation to the
universe. Primitive man conceived of a personal universe, peopled with
spirits. Throughout human history man has been a religious being,
trying to solve the problems of a universe ruled by spirits and gods
or by one supreme God. This type of thought has produced polytheisms,
monotheisms, theocracies. It has formulated theological creeds and led
to bitter ecclesiastical controversies. It has created fears, hopes,
faiths, social ideals, and sacrificial standards.
(2) Irrespective of religious needs, man has endeavored to discover
proper relations to his universe. He has philosophized. He has tried
to reduce to terms of thought this baffling, intangible, universal
environment. He has searched for a specific ground for explaining the
universe. He has sought unity in change and monism in multiplicity. He
has proclaimed that change itself is Lord of the universe, or perhaps
he has found solace in a creative evolution. At any rate, he has sought
ultimate meanings in as unbiased an interpretation of the universe as
is humanly possible.
(3) From the far-flung horizons of religious and philosophic theory,
man has turned his thought in an opposite direction--he has directed
his thought upon itself. He has maneuvered his thought processes
introspectively. He has puzzled over the structure and functions of his
own mind. These series of studies have led on the one hand to treatises
such as the _Critique of Pure Reason_, and on the other hand to the
current expressions of behavioristic psychology or of psychoanalysis.
(4) Man has sought to fathom the material secrets of the earth. Since
the Industrial Revolution in England, inquiring minds have focussed
tremendous energies upon attempts to master the physical elements.
Rocks and strata of rocks have been caused to yield a wealth of ores,
and subterranean caverns have been made to pour forth reservoirs of
gas and oil. Modern transportation has been made possible by the use of
steam, gasoline, electricity. Mechanical inventions have followed one
another in unanticipated fashion, paying awe-inspiring tribute to the
genius of man. Abstract thinking has given man a marvelous degree of
control over the material side of life.
(5) Recently, the problem of man’s adjustment and responsibility to his
fellowmen is being accorded a worthy hearing at the bar of scientific
thought. For millenniums man has pondered hard over his relations and
obligations to his God and to his universe, over the nature of his mind
and spirit, over ways and means of acquiring individual success through
a manipulation of the material resources of the earth. Incomprehensible
as it may seem, it is true, however, that man has neglected almost
wholly, until recently, the very heart of all successful living,
namely, his relations and obligations to his fellow men and to society.
Social thought, the center of all sound thinking, has been ignored.
Consequently, the world, beneath its load of social ills, has slipped
backward nearly as often as it has advanced.
In the present age, however, the world is making unprecedented
demands upon social thought, long before social thought is adequately
prepared for its gigantic tasks. Religion is seeking re-vitalization
through socialized thinking. In its modern endeavor to win the world,
Christianity is making tremendous demands upon applied sociology.
After many vain searches among false theories and impersonal ends,
philosophy is seeking to find itself in a social universe. Psychology,
likewise, is no longer individual, structural, and formal; it is now
trying to interpret itself in terms of human behavior. Group processes
are being searched for the origins of stimuli that will explain
individual conduct.
Economic thought, too, has reached a stage where it is endeavoring to
re-define its concepts in the light of sociological knowledge. The
material resources of the earth as well as industrial and business
enterprises, in fact all economic values, are being measured, and
re-valued in terms of their societary significance. The meaning of
industrial democracy is being sought in sociological terms.
In the distinctively associative life enormous demands are being made
upon sociology. It is invited to formulate the criteria by which the
worth of an educational system may be determined. Groups are trying to
provide for the use of the leisure time of their members by methods
that are socially valuable. Many attempts are being made for restoring
to the family its fundamental prerogatives as a social institution.
The history of social thought rises out of the beginnings of human life
on earth and with jagged edges extends along the full sweep of the
changing historical horizon. It finds expression through some of the
world’s best minds. Our quest will bring us in contact with the most
vital moments of the world’s most valuable thinkers.