It is not easy to agree about the task and the essence of sociology, but knowing how to ask questions in sociology and how to observe are obviously important, especially in view of the pressing need for historical research. Learning the right approach makes it possible to envisage the subject being investigated in different ways.

The following arguments are not intended to be instrumental in solving the great problems of sociology. They are intended merely to demonstrate the enlightening effects that questions formulated along sociological principles can have on a particular historical subject. In relation to the generally large themes of this Conference, this paper is only a very modest contribution, but it can show how it is possible to draw something useful from a still very incomplete science.

From the beginning, sociological investigation must make a fundamental distinction between sociological natural laws and the laws that might ideally be made by those who have power over ideas. To the first domain belongs knowledge, as in the circumstances of the extent of a sociological circle to the manner of the bonds of its members. The smallness of the circle corresponds to the personal and inward–looking immediacy of the ties, together with the danger of personal quarrels and separations. The largeness of the circle corresponds to the abstract and impersonal nature of the relationships, allied to the powerful and formal nature of the ties, together with the danger of the uniformity and powerlessness of the members.