that absorb the
sociologist. He uses the data and conclusions of the political
scientists, but in a more general way. It is the same with the
sociologist and history. History supplies much of the data of the
sociologist from the records of the past. It deals with social life in
the concrete, and historical interpretation is essential to an
understanding of social phenomena, but sociology takes the past with
the present, analyzes both, and generalizes from both as to the laws
of the social process. Pedagogy deals with the history and principles
of education. Sociology is interested in the educational function of
the family, of the community, and of the nation, but again its
interest is from the standpoint of abstraction and generalization.
Ethics is a science that treats of the right and wrong conduct of
human beings. It is very closely associated with sociology, because
the valuation of conduct depends on social effects, but the moral
functioning of the group is but one phase of social life, and,
therefore, ethics is far narrower in its range than sociology.
Theology, the science of religion, has sociological implications. As
far as it is a science and not a philosophy, it rests upon human
interest and human experience, and it is becoming increasingly
recognized that these human interests depend on social relationships,
but all the religious interests of men are but one part of the field
of sociology.

It is clear that each of the social sciences holds a relation to
sociology of the particular to the general. Sociology seeks out the
laws and principles that unify all the rest. It does not include them
all, as does the term social science, but it correlates and interprets
them all. It is not the same as philosophy, for that subject has for
its field all knowledge, and especially tries to probe to the secrets
of all being, and to learn the meaning of the universe as a whole,
while sociology is restricted to social life. Each has its distinct
place among the studies of the human mind, and each should be
distinguished carefully from its rivals and associates.

391. =Social Classification.=--When we enter into the field of
sociology itself we find other distinctions to be necessary. The
novice frequently confounds similar terms. Not infrequently sociology
and socialism are used as synonymous terms by persons who know little
of either, so that it is necessary to point out that socialism is a
particular theory of social org