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Home , History of sociology, Mass society, Social theory

A Short of Sociological Thought Also by Alan Swingewood

The of Literature {co-author) Marx and Modern Social The Novel and Revolution The Myth of Mass Sociological Poetics and Aesthetic Theory A Short History of Sociological Thought

Second Edition

Alan Swingewood Lecturer in Sociology, School of Economics

Macmillan Education ISBN 978-0-333-55861-4 ISBN 978-1-349-21642-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-21642-0 ©Alan Swingewood 1984, 1991 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 2nd edition 1991 All rights reserved. For information, write: Scholarly and Reference Division, St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, No Y. 10010

First edition published in the of America in 1984

Second revised edition first published in the United States of America in 1991

ISBN 978-0-312-06735-9 (hardcover) ISBN 978-0-312-06736-6 (paperback)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Swingewood, Alan. A short history of sociological thought I Alan Swingewood. - [2nd ed.] p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-06735-9 (hardcover).- ISBN 978-0-312-06736-6 (paperback) I. Sociology-History. I. Title HM19.S975 1991 301'.09-dc20 91-16561 CIP Contents

Introduction Note to the Second Edition 4

PART I FOUNDATIONS

1 Origins of Sociology 7 Human nature and 8 Vi co: and history 10 13 The Scottish Enlightenment 17 Problems of method 20 The emergence of class 22 The of 24

2 and the Rise of Sociological 29 and positivism 30 The and sociology 32 The concept of industrial : Saint-Simon 36 Comte and positive science 40 Positivism and 4 7 Sociology, and the 48 Evolutionism and sociological positivism: Mill and Spencer 51

v Contents

3 : A Positive Science of Capitalist Development 59 The development of Marxism 62 Alienation of labour 63 The concept of 72 Marx's method: 80 Class formation and class consciousness 84 Laws of development: the problem of historical determinism 88

PART II CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGY

4 Critique of Positivism: I Durkheim 97 Durkheim and the development of sociology 97 Durkheim's method: social facts and society 105 Division of labour, social cohesion and conflict Ill 116 and social 118 Functionalism, and political theory 124

5 Critique of Positivism: II Social Action 128 Understanding and the social : Dilthey 128 Formal sociology: Simmel and sociation 133 Understanding and the problem of method: Weber 142 Ideal types and social action 146 and social action: and the Protestant ethic 150 The logic of rationality: Simmel and Weber 158 Social action and social system: Pareto 163

6 The Sociology of Class and Domination 171 Marx's theory of domination 172 The and class domination 174 The theory of class: Weber 182 Capitalism, and democracy: Weber's theory of domination 185

Vl Contents

7 Marxism and Sociology 194 Marxism after Marx 194 Marxism as revolutionary consciousness: Lukacs and the concept of totality 199 Culture and domination: Gramsci and the concept of hegemony 205 Marxism and the sociology of intellectuals: Garmsci 209 Lukacs and Gramsci on sociology 214 Western Marxism and the problem of sociology 219

PART III MODERN SOCIOLOGY

8 Functionalism 225 Sociological functionalism: general features 231 The concept of system 234 Functionalism and the of social life: Merton 239 Functionalism, and social change 244 Functionalism and stratification 249

9 Self, Society and the Sociology of Everyday Life 252 Action theory and the concept of self: the early and later Parsons 252 Psycho-analysis and self: Freud 258 The social self: Mead and symbolic 262 Sociological phenomenology: Schutz and the reality of everyday life 268 Social action and interactionism: 272

10 , Ideology and Modern Society 275 Mannheim: the problem of ideology 276

Vll Contents

Ideology and Utopia 282 The theory of 283 The origins of critical theory 285 Habermas: crisis theory 289 Emancipation and 294

11 296 The development of structuralism: Saussure 297 The concept of structure 299 Marxism and structuralism 306 The problem of and structure: 311

12 , Industrialisation and 313 Marxism, industrialism and modernity 314 The theory of post- 316 Modernity and post-modernity 320

Further Reading 323

Bibliography 331

Index 343

Vlll HISTORY OF SOCIOLOGICAL THOUGHT

Origins

Eighteenth-century social thought (Vico, Montesquieu, Smith, Ferguson, Rousseau)

The development of nineteenth-century sociological positivism (Comte), sociological evolutionism (Spencer) and Marxism (Marx and Engels) t Classical Sociology

Weber, Simmel, Pareto Durkheim 's critique of the (the tradition of positivist tradition sociology and critique of positivism and evolutionism)

The development of Marxism after Marx involving a critique of materialism and evolutionism: Labriola, Gramsc* Sorel, Lukacs

Modern Sociology

Phenomenological Sociology (Schutz) Functionalism Freud, Mead, Mannheim and Action Theory (Parsons) Structuralism

Structuration Theory Critical Theory (Habermas)

IX Introduction

This book is neither a nor of sociological theory but a selective history of sociological thought from its origins in eighteenth-century , history and political economy. By sociological thought is meant an awareness of society as a distinctive o~ject of study, as a system or structure objectively determined by laws and processes. Eighteenth• century social thought was sociological in this sense although it failed to develop an adequate sociological concept of the social, too often assimilating it to political and economic elements. In effect eighteenth-century social thought posed many of the critical issues of sociology without resolving them sociologi• cally. In contrast, early nineteenth-century sociological thought (specifically Comte, Spencer, Marx) sought to define the social both in terms of society as a complex structural whole and in its relation with specific , notably the division of labour, social classes, religion, family and scientific/profes• sional associations. Society was industrial society and the broad themes of the early sociologists were those of social conflict, alienation, community, social cohesion and the pos• sibilities of and development. The task of was to identify the forces promoting historical change. Early sociological thought was concerned with the separation of an autonomous social sphere (or '') from centralised state institutions (or 'political society'). It is this notion of 'finalisation', that history has a meaning apart from the actions of everyday life, which differentiates early sociologi• cal thought from later, classical sociology and the various schools of 'sociologised' Marxism. Early sociological thought was broadly optimistic: the Introduction certainties of the natural sciences could be applied to the social sciences unproblematically. Classical sociology emerges as a reaction to this form of positivist scientistic thought. The broad themes of classical sociology were pessimistic: industrialisation produces social structures which alienate the individual from the community, transform cultural objects into commodities, rationalise human life into bureaucratic systems ofdomination and effectively strip the individual of autonomy. Classical sociology becomes centred not on large-scale changes but on the human : 'voluntarism' and action replace the historical determinism of nineteenth-century systems theory. It is this distinction which sets the agenda for the later develop• ment of modern sociology. Modern sociological thought begins with the breakdown of the classical, voluntarist model. The dominant becomes functionalism, its pre-eminence bound up with the emergence of American sociology in the years following the Second World War. Classical sociology had been almost entirely European: the rise of European Fascism, and the Second World War shifted the focus of sociological thought across the Atlantic. And it was not until the 1960s that new schools of sociology - phenomenology, action theory, structuralism, Marxist humanism - which drew much of their inspiration from classical sociology, emerged. In this book I have attempted to describe these develop• ments. In particular, there is extended discussion of Marxism both as a distinctive theory of society and for its influence on classical and modern sociology. It has become fashionable to argue that Marxism is a sociology. I suggest that Marxist thought is certainly sociological and as such has been absorbed into sociology itself and, increasingly, that Marxism assimi• lates sociological concepts and thought in order to offer adequate accounts of modern industrial society and historical development. Many of the crucial differences between soci• ology and Marxism resolve themselves around the relation of centralised state structure to decentred social structures. By defining its object of study as civil society sociology developed which emphasised the differentiated and potentially autonomous nature of modern industrial society. In contrast, Marxist thought articulated a theory of the social formation

2 Introduction

built around a deterministic relation of economic 'base' to socio-cultural 'superstructure'. It is this decentred, sociological concept of the social which links together the various schools of sociological thought. This does not imply a single sociology. Since the rise of classical sociology there have been many different sociologies but they share a common object of study and their focus is broadly similar. Part I examines the historical rise ofsociological thought and its development into positivism, evolutionism and Marxism. Part II describes the complex reaction to positivist social science and Marxism by classical sociologists such as Weber, Durkheim, Sombart and Simmel. Because Marx's thought played such an important role in the formation of classical sociology I have discussed his theory of class and power in Part II contrasting it with Weber's work on . This is not an argument that sociology developed through a 'debate with Marx's ghost'. Indeed, classical sociology 'debated' with Kant as much as Marx. Kant's and moral philosophy played as vital a role in the development of classical sociology as Hegelian dialectics in the development of Marxism. Part III explores the development of modern sociology, first in the form of sociological functionalism, and then in its attempts to rediscover the insights of classical sociology. It is the depth of this renewal which suggests a convergence of sociological thought in the midst of apparent fragmentation and diversity. The development of sociological thought is the result of collaborative, communicative and dialogic interaction involv• ing individuals, social groups and communities. Of all areas of the history of sociology this is perhaps the most complex and neglected although there have been valuable contributions by Coser, 197l;Jay, 1973; Clarke, 1973; Schwendinger, 1974 and Therborn, 1976. Certain themes- race and gender, for example - are not discussed, largely because they have not been in the forefront of sociological thought. This book is, as I have said, a selective history. At the end I have listed a number of works by chapter which refer the reader to further general discussion as well as more specialised studies. A history of sociological thought-from Vico to Bakhtin-can easily become a 'shopping list' of great names: I have tried to avoid this by concentrating

3 Introduction in some detail on major themes of sociological relevance as well as significant thinkers.

November 1983 ALAN SWINGEWOOD

Note to the Second Edition

For this second edition I have substantially revised the accounts of critical theory and structuralism. I have also made a number of minor changes to the chapters on Marx, Weber, Durkheim and Marxism after Marx. In this way I hope to have strengthened the basic argument of the book and made it more useful for students studying sociology and related subjects.

August 1990 ALAN SWINGEWOOD

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