ABSTRACT
This chapter explores that it is a special property of those sociologists trained in philosophy to think of social science as a carrier of rationality against the higher irrationality of ideology. It includes a couple of brief appreciations by Sir Sidney Caine and Lord Lionel Robbins. The papers by H. B. Acton and H. P. Rickman are worthwhile summaries that manage to elucidate Ginsberg's philosophic positions without artificially constructing a synthetic viewpoint or omitting some real logical inconsistencies in themes of science and progress. The chapter includes a sampling of Ginsberg's papers on the responsibility of sociology. The sad truth is that Ginsberg, his nobility of character and seriousness of intellectual purpose notwithstanding, stood in the second rather than first rank of twentieth-century sociologists. He demanded rationality as the admission ticket to the practice of sociology.
