The Sociological Society.

  • Sociological Society.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Sociological Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    here. I told him what I had been doing; and the result was, after we sawr Mr. Bryce, Mr. Loch, Mr. Haddon, and others, on the one hand a meeting of a few to take steps to promote this Conference. On the other hand, I have offered the Principal of the University of London ,£1,000 to start a preliminary course or courses in Sociology. The proposed Society and the proposed Lectures are of course independent; but I think the University would be greatly assisted by the existence of a Society bringing together all interested in Social Science and Philosophy, whilst the Society would be helped indirectly by the University teaching. The University and a Society working at the same group of studies would advance Sociological knowledge and thought greatly more than either could alone. I trust you will pardon my brief statement of the history of the movement, but I thought it might interest and encourage you, and I wished to point out how much you are indebted to Mr. Branford, more even than his excellent pamphlet indicates. I have much pleasure in supporting the motion. Professor Hewins, speaking in support of the motion, maintained that if this Society were formed it would make for the co-ordination of Sociological work already in progress. Mr. J. M. Robertson said:—I have great pleasure in associating myself with the general attitude of welcome to the new Society; and I may say, with regard to what I understood to be the suggestions of Dr. Haddon, that I do not see how any other Society can do the work that is proposed to be done by this. None of those named does any work that can be pronounced directly Sociological; and while we on our part should certainly derive help from the work of some of them, for instance, the Folk-Lore Society, it would not be our business to make fresh researches in Folk-Lore. Of the old Social Science Association it used to be said that it was certainly very Social, but it never got the length of Science; and it finally died for that very reason. Our country comes very late into the field in this movement. Others, like myself, have doubtless often wondered why, when most other civilised countries have Chairs of Sociology, and the United States in particular quite a number, Great Britain has not a single one. But I am inclined to think that we may gain by being late. In the American Universities, the Professor of Sociology, I am told, is apt to be warned off their ground by the Professors of Law and Economics and History, and he often, in consequence, limits himself to the handling of concrete social questions, so that his department is sometimes called that of