DOI article:
Moulton, Harold G.: Institutes of Social Research in the United States
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57254#0444
INSTITUTES OF SOCIAL RESEARCH IN THE
UNITED STATES
ßy
Dr. HAROLD G.MOULTON
President of the Brookings Institution, Washington, D. C.
THE development of research Institutes in the United States during the last ten
or fifteen years, particularly in the field of the social Sciences, has attracted mach
attention. The primary cause of their development may be assigned to the failure
of the universities to make adequate Provision for the inductive and co-operative
research which modern conditions require.
Traditionally, research in the social Sciences has been individualistic in char-
acter. That is to say, the individual scholar has gathered, in the main single-
handed, the Information regarded as essential for the verification of his thesis, and
has contented himself as the manuscript was being prepared with the friendly
criticism of a colleague or two. In speculative, or philosophical, or strictly deduc-
tive, writings this process is no doubt satisfactory. ßut with investigations of an
inductive character, Organization for the gathering of material and co-operation in
its analysis and Interpretation are fundamental needs.
Such inquiries are frequently so time-consuming that the individual, even
though he might possess the requisite many-sided ability, could not possibly carry
the project through to completion during the remainder of his working years. In-
vestigations requiring extensive field work and the gathering of masses of quanti-
tative data, can be carried out successfully only by means of organized research
agencies. Experience has clearly demonstrated that such research cannot be con-
ducted effectively by single individuals working alone or even as members of the
ordinary university department, with its teaching and other distractions.
It should perhaps be pointed out at this place that there remain two different
conceptions of the processes by which important theoretical generalizations, xvhether
in the natural or the social Sciences, may be derived. One view is that they come
chiefly as a result of lonely reflection and artistic Inspiration. In the words of
Laski. “Some lonely thinker, brooding in solitude upon the meaning of facts, from
the significance of which he cannot escape . . . gets a sudden moment of Illumina-
tion, and he proceeds to test the hypothesis by fmding whether it will fit the facts
at his disposal . . . The great scientist, the great philosopher, the great historian,
have always been in their essence great artists.“
The other theory is that significant generalizations, particularly in the field of
the social Sciences, usually come only as a result of extensive inductive inquiries,
and that, by and large, the individual who is to make these pertinent generali-
zations must himself be a worker in the vineyard. If one is to brood fruitfully, he
must have something to brood upon, and the greater the body of factual Infor-
mation at his disposal, the more likely are his reflections to yield serviceable re-
sults. New points of view, challenging hypotheses, flashes of Inspiration, come to
individuals in various ways, — they come from reading the analyses and inter-
pretations of others, from contacts and discussion with practical men of affairs, as
well as with one’s colleagues; they come from reflection and ratiocination; but
428
UNITED STATES
ßy
Dr. HAROLD G.MOULTON
President of the Brookings Institution, Washington, D. C.
THE development of research Institutes in the United States during the last ten
or fifteen years, particularly in the field of the social Sciences, has attracted mach
attention. The primary cause of their development may be assigned to the failure
of the universities to make adequate Provision for the inductive and co-operative
research which modern conditions require.
Traditionally, research in the social Sciences has been individualistic in char-
acter. That is to say, the individual scholar has gathered, in the main single-
handed, the Information regarded as essential for the verification of his thesis, and
has contented himself as the manuscript was being prepared with the friendly
criticism of a colleague or two. In speculative, or philosophical, or strictly deduc-
tive, writings this process is no doubt satisfactory. ßut with investigations of an
inductive character, Organization for the gathering of material and co-operation in
its analysis and Interpretation are fundamental needs.
Such inquiries are frequently so time-consuming that the individual, even
though he might possess the requisite many-sided ability, could not possibly carry
the project through to completion during the remainder of his working years. In-
vestigations requiring extensive field work and the gathering of masses of quanti-
tative data, can be carried out successfully only by means of organized research
agencies. Experience has clearly demonstrated that such research cannot be con-
ducted effectively by single individuals working alone or even as members of the
ordinary university department, with its teaching and other distractions.
It should perhaps be pointed out at this place that there remain two different
conceptions of the processes by which important theoretical generalizations, xvhether
in the natural or the social Sciences, may be derived. One view is that they come
chiefly as a result of lonely reflection and artistic Inspiration. In the words of
Laski. “Some lonely thinker, brooding in solitude upon the meaning of facts, from
the significance of which he cannot escape . . . gets a sudden moment of Illumina-
tion, and he proceeds to test the hypothesis by fmding whether it will fit the facts
at his disposal . . . The great scientist, the great philosopher, the great historian,
have always been in their essence great artists.“
The other theory is that significant generalizations, particularly in the field of
the social Sciences, usually come only as a result of extensive inductive inquiries,
and that, by and large, the individual who is to make these pertinent generali-
zations must himself be a worker in the vineyard. If one is to brood fruitfully, he
must have something to brood upon, and the greater the body of factual Infor-
mation at his disposal, the more likely are his reflections to yield serviceable re-
sults. New points of view, challenging hypotheses, flashes of Inspiration, come to
individuals in various ways, — they come from reading the analyses and inter-
pretations of others, from contacts and discussion with practical men of affairs, as
well as with one’s colleagues; they come from reflection and ratiocination; but
428