FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCIES IN MODERN JURISPRUDENCE

In his treatise on "CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY" (1904) Ward has collected no less than twelve meanings of the term "Sociology." He could undoubtedly have found more meanings for this iridescent word; all of which shows that the term has no significance whatsoever as a uniform characterization of a definite field of human knowledge. However, there has been very noticeable, running through these different meanings, one definite tendency. It is characterized by its very great reliance upon the methods of natural science in dealing with the physical world, and by certain far-reaching "analogies," by which modem jurisprudence is to be guided even in the least important and most individual problems.