Perhaps,  again,  the  dissociation  of  society  into
ostensibly  independent  actors  and  seekers  is  a
precondition  for  the  search  for  the  anatomy  of
society.  This  search,  to  return  to  the  previous  point,
can  logically  have  no  end.  It  cannot  exclude  the
secret  or  the  sacred — both  of  which  are  necessary
features  of  oil  societies,  as  subsequent  thought  and
research  has  now  clearly  shown.  Sociology  cannot
proceed,  therefore,  until  a  radical  measure  of  intel-
lectual freedom  is  safe.  This  freedom  is  continuous
with  the  freedom  requisite  for  the  physical  sciences,
but  presents  its  own  additional  complications.  The
social  sciences  benefited  from  the  struggles  that  had
to  be  fought,  against  a  variety  of  vested  interests,  so
that  the  theories  of  Newton  or  Galileo,  the  dissec-
tion of  the  body,  and  the  teaching  of  evolution
could  be  sufficiently  accepted  as  legitimate  re-
sources in  the  further  development  of  valid
knowledge.
The  only  writer  prominent  in  these  two  volumes
whose  thought  involved  him  in  serious  and  con-
tinuing conflict  with  significant  parts  of  his  social
environment  was  Freud.  If  a  dramatic  struggle  with
an  opposing  world  is  a  necessary  mark  for  greatness
of  intellect,  sociology  has  not  produced  many  great
men  so  far.  In  any  case,  sociology  depends  on  the
freedom  to  see  the  constraining  and  liberating
qualities  of  social  arrangements,  while  looking  be-
yond their  "heaviness"  and  treating  any  one  group
or  institution  as  though  it  could  also  be  otherwise.
