Civics: as Applied Sociology eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 145 pages of information about Civics.

Civics: as Applied Sociology eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 145 pages of information about Civics.

This set of views is obviously not easy of precise analysis of exact classification.  In broad outline, however, a summary may be made, and even tabulated as follows:—­

THE EVERYDAY TOWN AND ITS ACTIVITIES.

PEOPLE AFFAIRS PLACES
(a) INDIVIDUALS (a) COMMERCE (a) MARKET, BANK, etc
(Self and others).  INDUSTRY, etc.  FACTORY, MINE, etc
                           SPORT.

(b) GOVERNMENT(S) (b) WAR (b) FORT, FIELD, etc
Temporal and Spiritual and Peace
(State and Church). (Latent War).

Next note how from the everyday world of action, there arises a corresponding thought-world also.  This has, [Page:  69] of course, no less numerous and varied elements, with its resultantly complex local colour; But a selection will suffice, of which the headings may be printed below those of the preceding scheme, to denote how to the objective elements there are subjective elements corresponding—­literal reflections upon the pools of memory—­the slowly flowing stream of tradition.  Thus the extended diagram, its objective elements expressed in yet more general terms, may now be read anew (noting that mirror images are fully reversed).

PEOPLE AFFAIRS PLACES

“TOWN” (a) INDIVIDUALS (a) OCCUPATIONS (a) WORK-PLACES
          (b) INSTITUTIONS (b) WAR (b) WAR-PLACES

“SCHOOLS” (b) HISTORY (b) STATISTICS AND (b) GEOGRAPHY
            ("Constitutional”) HISTORY
                                 ("Military”)
          (a) BIOGRAPHY (a) ECONOMICS (a) TOPOGRAPHY

Here then we have that general relation of the town life and its “schools,” alike of thought and of education, which must now be fully investigated.

Such diagrammatic presentments, while of course primarily for the purpose of clear expression and comparison, are also frequently suggestive—­by “inspection,” as geometers say—­of relations not previously noticed.  In both ways, we may see more clearly how prevalent ideas and doctrines have arisen as “reflections upon” the life of action, and even account for their qualities and their defects—­their partial truth or their corresponding inadequacy, according to our own appreciative or depreciative standpoint.  Thus as regards “People,” in the first column we see expressed briefly how to (a) the individual life, with the corresponding vivid interest in biography, corresponds the “great man theory” of history.  Conversely with (b) alone is associated the insistance upon institutional developments as the main factor.  Passing to the middle column, that of “Affairs,” we may note in connection with (b) say the rise of statistics in association with the needs of war, a point connected with its too empiric character; or note again, a too common

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Civics: as Applied Sociology from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.