But the scientific importance of a change in knowledge of fact consists precisely in j its having consequences for a system of theory.

Theory not only formulates what we know but also tells us what we want to know, that is, the questions to which an answer is needed.

Spencers god was Evolution, sometimes also called Progress.

Sociology should... be thought of as a science of action-of the ultimate common value element in its relations to the other elements of action.

The hypothesis may be put forward, to be tested by the s subsequent investigation, that this development has been in large part a matter of the reciprocal interaction of new factual insights and knowledge on the one hand with changes in the theoretical system on the other.

But the scientific importance of a change in knowledge of fact consists precisely in j its having consequences for a system of theory.

It is that of increasing knowledge of empirical fact, intimately combined with changing interpretations of this body of fact - hence changing general statements about it - and, not least, a changing a structure of the theoretical system.