International Congress of Arts and Science, Volume 1: Philosophy and Metaphysics
Philosophy
International Congress of Arts and Science, Volume 1: Philosophy and Metaphysics
Conference proceedings; Medicine -- Congresses; Science and the humanities -- Congresses; Technology -- Congresses
In the division of Mental Sciences, we have the Department of Sociology.
We were, of course, aware that the sociological interest includes not
only the psychological, but also the physiological life of society, and
that it thus has relations to the physical sciences too. Yet these
relations are logically not more fundamental than those of the
individual mental life to the functions of the individual organism. Much
of the physiological side was further to be handed over to the
Department of Anthropology, and thus we felt justified in grouping
sociology with psychology under the Mental Sciences, as the psychology
of the social organism. Here, too, a larger number of sections was
intended and only the two most essential ones, Social Structure and
Social Psychology, were finally admitted.
The ramifications of the practical sciences had to follow the general
principle that their character is determined by purpose and not by
material. The difficulty was here merely in the extreme specialization
of the practical disciplines, which suggests on the whole the forming of
very small units, while our plan was to provide for fifty practical
sections only. It seemed, therefore, incongruous to have the whole of
Internal Medicine or the whole of Private Law condensed into one
section. Yet as the purpose of the scheme was a theoretical and not a
practical one, even where the theory of practical sciences was in
question, we felt justified in constructing coördinated sections, even
where the practical importance was very unequal. On the other hand, some
glaring defects just here are due merely to chance circumstances. That
there were, for instance, no sections on Criminal Law or Ecclesiastical
Law in the Department of Jurisprudence, nor on Legal Procedure, resulted
from the unfortunate accident that in these cases the speakers who were
to come from Europe were withheld by illness or public duties. The
absence of the Department of Art in the Division of Social Culture, and
thus of the Sections on the theory and practice of the different arts,
has been explained before. It is evident that also in the Economical
Department the practical development has interfered with the original
symmetrical arrangement of the sections. This is not true of the
Religious Department, whose six sections express the tendencies of the
original plan. The frequently expressed criticism that the different
religions and their denominations ought to have found place there shows
a misconception of our purpose; a Parliament of Religion did not belong
to this plan.
III
THE RESULTS OF THE CONGRESS
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