Social science has already secured wide interest, and the forms in which this interest has manifested itself are as varied as they are numerous. In this article we shall concentrate on one central idea: the need of co-ordination of the vast amount of literature on social problems. The need of some such co-ordination is urgent. Ever since the publication of the Papal Encyclicals on Social Order, pamphlets and books have become so numerous that the student of social science might be alarmed at the number of works he must peruse in order to acquire a comprehensive knowledge of the literature of his subject.

It is very much to be regretted that no work exists that can be considered an exhaustive and scientific treatise on social science. The lack of such a treatise makes serious study of this subject too complex a task. Pamphlets and short treatises on particular problems are useful, but they can never be satisfactory from a scientific point of view; they are of necessity sketchy, and therefore inadequate. There is, moreover, a great danger that quantities of unrelated material will beget confusion of thought and smother enthusiasm. Consequently any attempt to give to the study of social science a scientific basis by stating and co-ordinating its principles is to be welcomed, and the more so when it is made by authors who are gifted with clarity of thought and who despite specialization keep in mind the larger view of a complete social science.

The Précis de Sociologie is the fruit of close collaboration. The essays, as thorough and substantiated as we may expect in a Précis, are confined to Sociology: the family, economic life, political life, religion, art and science.