Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Milic, Vojin

Titel

Philosophico-Historical Idealism and Gnoseological Eclecticism of Sorokin's Sociology of Knowledge

Ist Teil von

• Sociologija, 1975-01, Vol.17 (4), p.545-597

Erscheinungsjahr

1975

Quelle

Sociological Abstracts

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Two periods can be distinguished in P. A. Sorokin's ideas. (1) Lasting into the 1930s, his standpoint was marked by sociological empiricism with strong formalist & behaviorist leanings. (2) An idealist theory of culture, society, & sociocultural change, & SofK, becomes evident & is presented most systematically in his Social and Cultural Dynamics (no publication information available). Sorokin's idealistic theory contains three basic presuppositions: (A) the concept of immaterial, spaceless, & timeless meanings which dominates over material reality & human beings, (B) a "supraconscious" spiritualist anthropology, & (C) a culture & society determined by basic premises about the nature of reality & man's vocation. There is a cyclical theory of sociocultural change involving these three levels of truth which is clearly gnoseological. The various aspects of truth correspond to different realms of being & none of them is absolute. Every kind of truth exhibits an inherent tendency to stagnate & degenerate, especially after a period of ascendancy. Sorokin suggests a means of escape from cultural crisis through a synthesis of several kinds of truth in which mystical & religious contents strongly prevail. Sorokin was inspired by N. Berdyaev in his criticism of contemporary "sensate" cultural super-systems; he idealized medieval culture & society as an alternative model. In substantiating his theories, Sorokin relied on modern sociological research procedures, & his index of the influence of outstanding ideas fails to distinguish their influence over the social conditions in which they emerged from their influence over subsequent epochs. Sorokin's study of knowledge & culture is based on a statistical method involving time series, but he fails to relate the series to each other, to explain qualitative changes in the structure of knowledge & culture, & to point out their social causes, promoters, & effects. Modified HA.