CULTUROLOGY
SIR,—In his article 'Birth of a Science' Mr. Ronald Bryden proposes the term 'culturology' to describe the science of communications in 'literate evolved societies' and claims that the subject-matter of such a science must be excluded from sociology since it deals with 'immeasurables—beliefs, attitudes, legends and symbolisms impossible to render down in questionnaires or statistics.' May a sociologist offer two mild comments? Firstly, it is a pity that Mr. Bryden, with the best of intentions, should give fresh currency to this restricted view of sociology. There is really no ground for the' view that sociology' does not deal with 'immeasurable' aspects of human behaviour. Thele are few sociologists, even in the remotest back' waters, who would subscribe to so sterile a dogma: and there are very many whose life and work has been concerned with the humane study of non- measurable phenomena. Mr. Bryden has mistaken the part for the whole: questionnaires and statistics. however indispensable, do not exhaust the subject- inatter of the social sciences.
Secondly, a point of terminology. A new name maY or may not be needed for the science of communica- tions. But to call it 'culturology' will hardly clarifY matters at this stage. For Mr. Bryden's new word is not so new. In its German form it appeared as early as 1909 and it has been found in certain American writings since 1939—denoting, in a rather broad sense, the anthropological science of culture.
JULIUS 0001-1) Reader in Social Institutions The London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, Aldwych, WC2
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