The Scientific Method in Social and Health Work1

Abstract

SOCIAL relief and social welfare are modern manifestations of the very ancient human instinct to give help, for the readiness to grant human aid is as old as human civilization itself. At the outset the granting of individual assistance was based on the law of love of one's neighbor and on religious precepts. The modern tendency towards collective action, a feature of present-day society, has given legislative effect to the will to help, and has led to the adoption of legislative and scientific principles to govern the granting of assistance. What was voluntary has become obligatory and the generous impulse of the individual has given way to regular practice based on exact principles. The whole system of relief in the modern state and in modern economy has become nothing less than a matter of administration in the field of demography. The aim and the object of demography are the management of the organic capital represented by the human beings in a community. If this capital is to be wisely administered, to be preserved, to be in certain circumstances increased and improved in quality-we must apply a system based on economy, more especially on human economy. Instead of the individual act springing from a kindhearted impulse, we now have an administrative system covering the whole human order and, since to every system of administration exact principles are essential, social care and welfare are strictly derived from exact premises. Logical action is the result of similar premises. Since, therefore, exact or scientific