Citation

Reuter EB. Am. J. Sociol. 1927; 32(5): 705-718.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1927, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/214233

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Science is the study of natural process. Sociology as a science is a study of the natural process by which personality is formed and cultural continuity maintained. Biology is a study of the organic process by which individuals are produced and species continuity maintained. Social change is gradual and cumulative; organic change is sudden and selective. Sociology accepts the individual as a datum; biology is not interested in, and cannot talk sense about, anything except the individual. Many problems of concrete reality involve elements of both processes. In such case either process may be abstracted for purposes of scientific study. Either process may give rise to problems in the other field.