ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY 1. Custom or group habits.—Just as an individual forms the habit of acting in a particular way under given conditions, so a group of people living in the same environment and subject to identical laws fall into the habit of doing things in the same way. In the country, for example, people eat dinner at midday ; in the city they usually dine in the evening. In the United States people are in the habit of eating three times a day, while in some European countries they eat five times a day. When groups of people have the same habits, these habits are called customs.
It is important that the business man know some thing about the origin and cause of custom. Society is a network. of customs. Unconsciously people are slaves of custom just as the individual is often the slave of habit. Hence the business man must take custom into account, both in the manufacturing and marketing of his goods.
2. Aim of the last century, scientific men have begun to recognize the importance of those group actions which are called customs and have made careful study of their nature, gradually reducing the fruits of their studies and investigations into that systematic form which is essential to science.
Thus has developed the new science which is called sociology. Its aim is to explain the conduct of men when acting in groups. It differs, therefore, from psychology, which is concerned only with the con duct of the individual.
Many customs have a psychological origin, owing their existence mainly to the satisfaction they give to the individuals constituting a group. The study of such customs is sometimes called sociological psy chology.
Sociology is evidently a very broad science. The word comes from a Latin word, socius (companion) and a Greek word logos (science) ; so etymologically it means the science of companionship or society. Its business is to explain a great multitude of phenomena arising out of human relationships. All human in stitutions, such as the schools, the university, the church, marriage, divorce, the poor houses, the asylums, the charitable organizations, t,..,nd the prisons,
fall within the scope of sociology. What are the causes of these and other institutions? What forces have made them? How can they be improved? The sociologist is concerned with questions of this sort.
Naturally, the field being so broad and the problems so numerous, no single man can hope to solve them all. Hence we have specialists in sociology, some devoting themselves to the theory or general principles of the science, others to the intensive study of par ticular customs or institutions.
Sociology is of importance to the business man, for business institutions and customs are among the sub jects of its investigation. The Trade Union, for ex ample, is an institution possessing interest to the Sociologist as well as to the economist.
In the Modern Business Texts no volume is de voted specifically to the science of sociology, yet thru out them all a subscriber will find many conclusions which are based upon the investigations of that science.
3. Socialism not must not be confused with socialism. The latter is not a science at all, but the dream of a new social state in which there shall be no poverty or want. The sociologist seeks first to find the causes of existing social institu tions and thus be able to point out the ways of better ment ; the socialist, instead of making a scientific study of existing institutions, assumes that certain of them are evil and should be entirely abolished by law. The socialist believes in the abolition of the private owner ship of capital, that the country's great machinery of production and distribution, its railroads and factories and shops, should be owned by the state, and that all men would then have employment. The sociologist is concerned with the causes of unemployment and with any evil influences affecting the conditions under which men live and work. He knows that he cannot prescribe a remedy for any ill until he has found its cause.