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History and Sociology1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 February 2009

Morris Ginsberg
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Extract

In actual practice the relation between history and sociology is very close. The sociologist of necessity derives his material from the data furnished by anthropology and history. On his side the historian, however eager he may be to confine himself to detailed and close narration of actual fact, cannot avoid reference to problems of causation or assumptions regarding human nature or the general course of human evolution, and so is a sociologist malgré lui. Again, though there are still not wanting some historians, such as v. Below, who deny sociology any status, most writers on the theory and methodology of history have come to regard the two disciplines as Hilfwissenschaften to each other. Closer examination, however, reveals considerable uncertainty and hesitation. This is due, firstly to widely prevalent doubts as to the scope of sociology, with regard to which it is said, not without some exaggeration, the sociologists themselves are not in agreement. It is due, secondly, to the fact that the issues raised involve reference to difficult problems in the theory of knowledge generally, in regard to which, in the present position of epistemology, agreement is hardly to be expected. In this paper I shall attempt firstly to define briefly the scope of sociology and discuss the bearing of my definition upon some recent representative views of the nature of historical investigation. Secondly, in the light of this discussion, I will endeavour to restate the fundamental points of our problem in the hope of bringing out more clearly the main issues involved.

Type
Articles
Information
Philosophy , Volume 7 , Issue 28 , October 1932 , pp. 431 - 445
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1932

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References

page 431 note 2 Below, Georg Von, Probleme der Wirtschaftsgeschichte, p. 4.Google Scholar

page 431 note 3 Bernheim, E., Lehrbuch der historischen Methode, p. 97.Google Scholar

page 433 note1 Bury, J. B., Selected Essays (ed. Temperley), pp. 43–59.Google Scholar

page 433 note 2 ibid., p. 44.

page 434 note 1 Henri Berr, La synthise en histoire. Introduction générale in La Terre avant l'histoire, by E. Perrier (first volume of the L'£volution de I'Humanité).

page 434 note 2 ibid., pp. vi et seq.

page 436 note 1 Pirenne, H., La méthode comparative en histoire. Congrès des sciences historiques des Bruxelles, 1923.Google Scholar

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page 438 note 1 Cf. Sée, op. cit., Pt. II, ch. iii; Pirenne, “Les periodes de L”histoire sociale du capitalisme” (Bull, de I”Académie de Belgique, 1914), and Histoire de Belgique, t. I and II; Tawney, Foreword to Max Weber”s ssThe Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

page 439 note 1 Ginsberg, M., “The Concept of Evolution in Sociology,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 1930–1931.Google Scholar

page 440 note 1 Meillet, A., Linguistique historique et linguistique générale, pp. 44et seq.Google Scholar

page 442 note 1 Paul Vinogradoff, Custom and Right, Historical Jurisprudence.

page 443 note 1 Below, op. cit., p. 21.

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page 444 note 1 Eulenberg, Franz, “Sind historische Gesetze möglich?” in Hauptprobleme der Soziologie, Erinnerungsgabe für Max Weber, p. 31.Google Scholar