SMALL Albion, What Is A Sociologist
SMALL Albion, What Is A Sociologist
SMALL Albion, What Is A Sociologist
What is a Sociologist?
Albion Small
The really flagrant sins that have been committed in the name
of sociology in recent years have been inflammatory utterances,
in terms that found quick response in popular feeling, while there
was no proper social knowledge behind them. They conveyed
definite impressions, but they were simply audacious appeals to
prejudice. Serious sociology is a deliberate plan to discredit that
sort of thing and to find a basis for social opinion in a sufficient
analysis of social facts. The details of this analysis will not be
edifying to the multitude. They will seem academic and pedantic.
No doubt they will be, to a considerable extent, as this has been
the case in nearly every other field of knowledge. In the end,
however, sound learning will be promoted sooner and faster by
discussing unsettled problems in the technical language
appropriate to problems, than by a parade of simplicity which
encourages the public to assume that open questions are settled.
ALBION W. SMALL.
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO.