SOCIAL SCIENCES.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17666, 19 January 1923, Page 9

SOCIAL SCIENCES.

THEIR SCOPE AND IMPORTANCE,

PAPER BY DR. J. HIGHT.

Dr. J". Might, who was unable to attend the Seierfce Congress at Wellington, forwarded an interesting note on the social sciences, which was read on Wednesday in the division of social and statistical science.

In the general appreciation of knowledge—by the public, Universities, Governments, learned associations —the social sciences aro now given a definite rank. This they owe to the growing realisation of the weighty message with which they are fraught for the advancement of humanity, to the energy, enthusiasm, and improved methods of research and exposition of their devotees, and to contemporary circumstances favouring the development of a social mood of introspection and eagerness to grasp at suggestions for the re-making of the world. Of the social sciences proper it may bo said that we have arrived at a point in the advancement of knowledge when their extension is of greater moment to the race than that of tho physical and natural sciences. These have given man a control over the forces of external Nature out of proportion to his means of turning it to the best advantage of the race. He understands much of Nature and her ways, but as yet comparatively little of the social implications of that knowledge. It would seem as though ho must slacken in the process of mastering the secrets of the material world, and give deeper thought to devising means of using that power as a condition favouring the realisation of the Good Life. This suggestion of the supreme importance of the social sciences is emphasised by the thought expressed by men like Bateson in his Herbert Spencer Memorial Lecture, 1912, that the tremendous material progress of the present age may prove to be quite exceptional in human experience. The slower tho rate of growth of our progress towards complete knowledge of Nature, the more imperative that we learn the lessons to apply it to the attainment and the maximum good. For this our sole hope is through tho social sciences. The study and advancement of these present great and peculiar difficulties, arising, on the one hand, from the nature of their subject matter, from the fact that man is largely a reasoning and volitional being with ideas of social values, and from the complexity of the causes aud the intermingling of effects involved in every social problem, and, on the other hand, from the prejudices of the student and investigator and the imperfection of tho methods available to him compared with thoso at the command of the worker in the other sciences. He can seldom directly observo the relevant facts, and true experiment is almost impossible. With these difficulties and the many special forms they take we are familiar. I mention them only because their recollection enforces tho need to which I believe attention ought to bo directed. Yet, in spite of these difficulties, :• substantial body of systomatised knowledge, scientific in the best sense of tho term, though most of it is not capable of statement in quantitative form, has been already built up. A very great time is needed to master these sciences, as well as to set going and control tho processes of adding to their contents by research. They present many phases—abstract and concrete, subjective and objective—each of which demands from the student a peculiar bent, temperament, or intellectual quality. These considerations necessitate first, a certain subdivision of the whole field of social knowledge and social enquiry and specialisation of the work, not, however, possible without much overlapping and intertwining; and, secondly, much cooperation among the workers in the different divisions with synthesis of the results in order to make them applicable to tho urgent practical problems of human society, which functioning as a .whole, cannot be treated with complete success by laws or maxims that are exclusively, say, economic or political, ethical, or juristic. Scope of the Sciences.

This suggests the main use of the social sciences, and no higher purpose can be served here on earth than the pursuit, realisation, and enjoyment of the good life, to which all the social sciences contribute something as their special function and the sole sanction of their existence. The many elements common to the social sciences—in purpose, data, method, etc., and the implications of each of those sciences in all the others make it necessary that special care be bestowed on the organisation of the sciences themselves as machinery for the extension of knowledge. Is this special need sufficiently attended to in these newer lands, where society is young and plastic and peculiarly amenable to guidanco by tho light of the principles discoverable by a scientific anal}'sis of human communities and their evolution The comparative absence of national traditions, of racial and dynastic rivalries on the' one hand makes social investigations less difficult than in older lands, rendering it easier to estimate the effects of given factors at work in the less complex medium, ,and on the other, favours the development of a national mind more receptive of new ideas and tho laws and institutions that seek to embody them. Outside this Association and its closely related bodies, the Royal Societies and Philosophical Institutes, there are few who give any thought to. the organisation of 6ocial investigation. Tho objects of this Association are "to give a stronger impulse and a more systematic direction to soientific enquiry. ... to promote the intercourse of "those who cultivate science. ... to obtain more general attention to the objects of science and a removal of any disadvantages of a public kind which may impede its progress." The Association functions through sections. Of these, excluding biology, which has many points of contact and even overlaps with the social sciences, there are five sections con-stitut-ed almost -wholly of social sciences, yiz:—Section E, geography and history; Section F. ethnoiogy and anthroDology; Section G, social and statistical science; Section I, sanitary science and hygiene: Section J, mental science and education. The term "social science" which i 3 becoming more and more specialised to the principles of community and the synthesis of the individual sciences of social man is here used as though it were exclusive of such branches of knowledge as ethics, history, education, ethnology. The terminology calls fur revision; and there is no specific mention of such vital subjects • as economics and politics. Tho separation of these studies implied in the existing division into sections is a bar to their progress and an indication of a wrong point of view. The social sciences generally draw copiously from certain sciences that may be regarded as primary or fundamental among them—history, psychology, and that part of geography which deals with the relation between tho natural environment or habitat and the human habitant —for premises and assumptiotis, and means of testing reasoning and conclusions. The essential contributions of these primary studies to the other sciences

and tho inter-relations of all of them, arc obvious to the scholar. Psychology. A brief reference may be permitted by way of illustration to the position of psychology. Let us glance at its relation to wnat is the oldest of the social sciences, that of politics. Political science, theory, or philosophy, which seeks to explain the state or discover the ideal State, an essentially human an J. social phenomenon, with human individuals and groups as its constituent and active elements, necessarily founds itself largely on a psychological basis. U) A political thinker must have a certain clear view of those characteristics of human nature which affect man's attitude towards association for political ends or the motives of political behaviour. What are the assumptions expressed or implied, of the great political theorists in respect of the chief attributes of tho human mind — of the motives of human behaviour, especially the motives of all social reactions? (2) This is so whatever view he may take of tho origin or the nature of the State or of its development. Psychological assumptions ai\j cotmmon to theorists of ull schools. (3) Political thought in so far as it is normative or a part of the art of politics and citizenship should aim. to give the citizen a true idea of the forces that work, often unconsciously, upon his mind. As a recent writer says:

"Always the heart of the change- (in man's onward progress) is this, that another group of his actions formerly under the solo control of the unconscious, is brought to tho knowledge and judgment of tho conscious mind, is approved or condemned, but in any case made conscious of itself. Here generally as against the unseen force of suggestion, there is but one essential precaution that trie subject shall be aware of the forces that practise on him."

(4) Psychology helps us to understand the part played, by environment in shaping the ideas of tho political theorist. "The direction of the thinking of those political scientists whose work became most influental in their nation was determined by tihe political attitude prevailing in their own state. Their thought in turn reacted upon the attitude making it more satisfying to thoughtful people by removing doubts as to its wisdom as compared with the different political attitudes of rival states." I quote from Williams, The Foundations of Social Science, 7. Tho same writer says :

"The history of the social sciences shows in each science an attempt to reach fundamental psychological assumptions. . . . From this psychological aspect of each social science social psychology is to be clearly distinguished. The trend of thought of the psychological social scientists signifies an aim to arrive at truer assumptions, and to keep an open mind towards the psychological as well as the other aspects of those assumptions. Obviously it is the function of social psychology to assist the' political scientist, the jurist, the economist, the sociologist, and others in the psychological aspect of this, their search for true assumptions. . . . Social scientists also need the aid of the social psychologist if they are to make interpretations that begin to realise the possibilities of interpretations' in their particular fields. Prediction in social science cannot pretend to the exactness of Drediction in natural science, _ because the principles of social science must change as reason reacts upon instinctive -recesses. . . . The truest predictions, the wisest recommendations, are those based not on assumption, as to human nature derived from traditional social relations, but on assumptions to which social psychology has contributed adequate conceptions-" Nearly all thinkers consider the human mind from the social as well as the individual standpoint; but only recent thinkers have tended to realise the importance of the social mind. The development bt social psychology has profoundly affected the character of political thought. Work in social psycholosy has greatly modified the notion of the individual. Tho individual is now regarded largely as a social product; individuals act together, not alone: the selective processes have turned on collective utilities.

(a) Tho historical theories of individualism making individual competition, etc. the fundamental springs of human conduct, and the source of government, are destroyed-

(b) Instead of the idea of a social contract, thero is put that of a social growth. (c) A- more socialised view of human competition and rivalry is taken. (d) There is a new new of social transmission as a process largely replacing physical heredity. These principles nre capable of important deductions for political science and nractic.il politics. The older thinkers regarded man mainly as motived by renson. With them man ir. the main was a rational individualist. "We are aware now that man is descended from ancestors whose actions were largely instinctive and •emotional, and that the hulk of his actions throughout life have p.n instinctive and emotional source." The actions of modern man are controlled mainly by four forces: Inherited instincts, traditions and beliefs, environment as a whole, and reasoning processes. Another comparatively recent development in psychology with direct bearing on political thought, is the knowledge gained of the unconscious or subconscious mind. As in economics, the student of political science, dca-ls with data often quantitative, and uses psychological assumptions in his interpretation of these data. "The social psychologist analyses the assumed precesses and examines their relation to the processes

that are assumed by the political j scientist and the student at juris- j prudence. !

Social psychology aibO explains the processes of human nature that cco- ' nomic conditions facilitate lor ; the development of personality. H 1 likewise prescribes tor political and juristic development, Social us>etiology is tliereforo (in a sense), a cn-oruiual-ing science, less objective, less susceptible of quantitative treatment than other social sciences, but nevertheless concrete, inductive, with a distinct hold and method, and functioning as a. further stage in the intensive analysis ot social relations-" (3So) An Appeal for Organisation. Enough by way of illustration of the implications of each of the social scienco3 as now ordinarily understood in all the others. The work of students and researchers in these sciences should, it seem* to me, bo organised as far as possible on a plan that recognises this essential inter-relation, and _ provides for the maximum of co-operative effort over the. whole social science field. The lino that can be most distinctly and decisively drawn in the classification of the sciences, is that which marks off the social tram the- so-called natural and physical sciences. 'Within the social sciences field community of interest anions t*iworkors is very high and there is abundant room for economising; labour >i. the work of social investip/atioii in relation to the results achieved. This Association should, as one step forward, consider the advisability of substituting for the existing sections a circle (or group 1 ) devoted to the social sciences (or social science) —a Social Science Circle for Group). The circle should meet frequently at the biennial sessions for the discussion of questions concerning the social sciences generally—of method, re suits, synthesis of results, practical social problems, the promulgation c.i social principles, and so forth. The more special or technical work of the several social sciences might be presented and discussed at meetings of sections of the circle —history, psychology, ethics, economics, education, statistics, geography, political science, jurisprudence. At first two or more, oi these sciences might constitute a section. But there is an urgent need tor the creation of the wider fellowship of workers in the social science generally. As an example of the work that might be done at a circle meeting consider the question of civics, -which is being introduced into school and college curricula without any clear understanding on the part "of education authorities of the scope or method or social implications of the "subject,'-' and the unskilful presentation of which may do great harm. This is a question iii whichtbo help of economists, political scientists, educationists, psychologists, moral philosophers, and nearly every typo of social scientist is absolutely necessary if a satisfactory solution is to bo reached.

If the Association is ''to promote the intercourse" of those who are engaged in socia] science teaching and research, should it not consider the urgent question of periodical literature?

The attempts made in the past and a survey of present conditions do not encourage the belief that an Australasian periodical devoted exclusively to one science can be thoroughly successful. On the other hand as tar as the social sciences are concerned, the publication of a bi-monthly Social Sconces Journal or Review with sections on the several social sciences, would most likely become strongly and permanently established and should have far more influence and favour than a number ol weak more or less highly-specialised magazines. After a long period of neglect our universities have, begun to recognise the sociai sciences as worthy of a place in their curricula beside classics, mathematics, and the natural and physical sciences, and it is a particular pleasure to u s in New Zealand that our University Colleges and University have been prominent in this advance. But the authorities of the universities are very slow to realise the amount of labour involved in the prosecution of social studies, the great amount of time needed, the large sums required for providing a reasonable supply of the most authoritative literature, and in many cases equipment and money for experiment and other forms of research. This remark applies with even greater force to _ the Governments and the public opinion they represent. The direct public utility of social science studies has not yet been fully seized by the Governments and people. If other members feel the need of some positive action in strengthening tlie position of the social sciences in tho intellectual life of these countries for extending, co-ordinating and synthe&isin K the results of workers in these sciences, and for stirring the puuiic mind and the public conscience to a realisation of their importance and claims to public support, I hope that a committee might be set up at this meeting to examine into the position of the social sciences in research, education, and public opinion in Australia and fcew Zealand, and in particular to review the provision mad o for them in the orpnnwnbon of the Association-alt with the object of making specific recommendations for improvement to the next regular session of tie Association