On the one hand, the precise relationship of the states
named love, sympathy, disinterestedness; and, on the other hand, the
common basis of domination, resentment, pride, egotism,--should be
distinctly cleared up, as is possible only in psychological study
strictly so called. The workings of the religious sentiment cannot be
shown sociologically, without a previous analysis of the constituent
emotions.
[SOCIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF ETHICS.]
An allusion so very slender to so vast a subject as sociology would be a
waste of words, but for the conviction, that through sociology is the
way to the great field of Ethics. This is to reverse the traditional
arrangement--ethics, politics, or government--followed even by Bentham.
The lights of ethics are, in the first instance, psychological; its
discussions presuppose a number of definitions and distinctions that are
pure psychology. But before these have to be adduced, the subject has to
be set forth as a problem of sociology. "How is the King's government to
be carried on?" "How is society to be held together?" is the first
consideration; and the sociologist--as constitution-builder,
administrator, judge--is the person to grapple with the problem.
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