Recent Literature
American Journal of Sociology 18(6):863
May 1913
Ueber die zukünftige Soziophysiologie. — Sociology can become a natural science only by confining itself to the study of the physiological side of human relationships. Natural science deals with facts of experience, phenomena. The scientist disregards psychic processes in others than himself, as they are not phenomena. Modern sociology is full of erroneous conceptions of so-called social phenomena. Natural science is based on the principle that every external phenomenon has its cause in an external phenomenon. To explain means to establish a constant relation between phenomena of the same order. The naturalist may not have recourse to men’s psychical processes in explaining their conduct. He proceeds from the data of immediate experience — a viewpoint that may be called scientific solipsism — and comprehends all our reactions within the framework of objective physiological fact. We must rid ourselves completely of the idea of man as a psycho-physical organism, and must present him merely as an organism, ignoring his psychics entirely. Sociophysiology must base itself on the external physiology of the individual organism. Psychological sociology will attain a high degree of development only on the basis of a mature physiological sociology. — G. P. Zeliony, Archiv für Rassen- und Gesellschafts-Biologie, July–August, 1912.

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