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Development of Sociology in Turkey from Its Emergence to the 1960S1 Bingöl Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, http://busbed.bingol.edu.tr, Yıl: 9 • Cilt: 9 • Sayı: 17 • Bahar/Spring 2019 DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIOLOGY IN TURKEY FROM ITS EMERGENCE TO THE 1960S1 Ahmet ALP2 Geliş: 31.01.2019 / Kabul: 04.04.2019 DOI: 10.29029/busbed.520060 Abstract This study is a theoretical examination of the progress of Turkish sociology from its emergence to the 1950s and 60s. Many studies have been carried out for presenting the development of Turkish sociology and the stages that it has passed in terms of putting forward social knowledge for Turkish society. Although there is a rich literature about it, internationally and particularly, there is not much study in English. Therefore, the aim of this study is to present the development of Turkish sociology from its emergence in Turkey and its relationship with Euro- pean sociology during its development to the 1960s in order to introduce Turkish sociology to other societies’ sociologies. Turkish sociology has a large literature, it is, therefore, quite difficult to ex- hibit in this study from its emergence to today. Consequently, during the study, it has been attempt to analyze the characteristics of Turkish sociology and its devel- opment periodically until the 1960s. Keywords: Sociology, Modernity, Turkish Sociology, Development of Sociol- ogy, Western Sociology. 1 This study has been produced from the master’s thesis of Ahmet Alp, which is An Analysis of the Development of Sociology in Turkey. 2 Research Assistant, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Bingol University, [email protected], ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8239-969X. 635 Ahmet Alp, Development Of Sociology In Turkey From Its Emergence To The 1960s ORTAYA ÇIKIŞINDAN 1960’LARA KADAR TÜRKİYE’DE SOSYOLOJİ’NİN GELİŞİMİ Öz Bu çalışma, Türk sosyolojisinin ortaya çıkışından 1960’lara kadar ki süreç içerisinde geçirmiş olduğu gelişimin bir incelemesidir. Günümüze kadar, Türk so- syolojisinin Türk toplumu için toplumsal bilginin ortaya konulması bağlamında geçirmiş olduğu aşamalar ve gelişimini ortaya koyan birçok çalışma yapılmıştır. Bu konuda zengin bir literatür olmasına karşın, Türk sosyolojisinin diğer toplumların sosyolojileriyle ilişki kurmasını sağlayacak, uluslararası anlamda ve özellikle İngilizcede kendisini tanıtacak çalışmalar çok azdır. Bu nedenle, bu çalışmanın amacı Türk sosyolojisini diğer toplumların sosyolojilerine tanıtmak ve onun Türkiye’de ortaya çıkışından 1960’lı yıllara kadar ki gelişimi, karakter- istik özellikleri ve Avrupa sosyolojisi ile ilişkileri ele incelemektir. Türk sosyolojisinin zengin bir literatüre ve uzun bir geçmişe sahip olmasından dolayı, bu çalışma içerisinde onun ortaya çıkışından günümüze kadar ki dönem- leri ele almak oldukça zordur. Bu yüzden, bu çalışma boyunca, Türk sosyolo- jisinin karakteristiği ve 1960’lı yıllara kadar ki gelişimi periyodik olarak analiz edilmeye çalışılmaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Sosyoloji, Modernlik, Türk Sosyolojisi, Sosyolojinin Gelişimi, Batı Sosyolojisi. Introduction The development of Turkish sociology has had an oriented characteristic since it was introduced to Turkey in terms of copying western sociology and using its ideas and theories without revising them for analyzing Turkish society. Although Turkish sociology has such a characteristic, it has a century-long background, and hence, it has an impressive accumulation of knowledge in respect of analyzing and contributing knowledge for solving the problems of Turkish society. The main argument of this study is to analyze Turkish sociology and its char- acteristics from its emergence (from the Tanzimat period which is known the dec- laration of the rescript of Gülhane) in Turkey to the 1960s. Subsequently, it is pointed out putting forward and evaluating the characteristics of Turkish sociol- ogy that are essentially in relation to produce social knowledge and use western notions and theories without revising them to Turkish society’s characteristics. Turkish sociology developed based on western-oriented sociology tradition such as, French, German and American sociology etc… Its characteristics have been changed under the impacts of social changes and transformation of Turkish soci- ety. Therefore, it has different characteristics every period in Turkey. Even though 636 Bingöl Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, http://busbed.bingol.edu.tr, Yıl: 9 • Cilt: 9 • Sayı: 17 • Bahar/Spring 2019 Turkish sociology has been affected by those sociology traditions, firstly Turkish sociology should focus on analyzing Turkish society and suggest solutions to the problems of the society. Prior to this, many studies have been carried on regarding the history of Turk- ish sociology so far. For instance, Baykan Sezer (1979), Emre Kongar (1988), H. Bayram Kaçmazoğlu (2002, 2010 and 2011), and M. Çağatay Özdemir (2008) have produced some valuable studies about presenting the history of Turkish so- ciology. Nevertheless, when Turkish sociology and knowledge regarding it are considered internationally, it might be seen the lack of literature, and it is thought that this study will contribute knowledge about Turkish sociology to international literature. This study has been divided some parts based upon this. Firstly, the emergence of Sociology in Europe and Turkey as well as its relationship with modernity, secondly, its development and the issues that it handled for Turkish society have been considered. Thirdly, after the great transformation of Turkey from empire to the republic and its impacts on the development of Turkish sociology have been handled while in the last part, the emergence of new schools (Ankara school as well as existed Istanbul school) and new study fields of Turkish sociology have been dealt with. Sociology and Modernity in Europe and Turkey in the 19th and 20th Cen- turies Sociology and modernity have significant relationships and it might be quite difficult to separate and see them as different phenomena from each other in terms of their history. Sociology, As a modern social science, started to emerge in the 19th century in order to help to develop the ideas of modernity, which appeared, as consequences of the impacts of the Enlightenment in Europe. The concept of modernity has been thought of consisting of various forms of economic social, political and cultural by many thinkers. Therefore, it may be considered moder- nity a new paradigm which evolved a challenge against Aristotelian thought in the 17th century (Hamilton, 1993: 51-58). The Enlightenment had the most important effects on the emergence of modernity during this period because social sciences and modern societies were established in this age in terms of social needs of soci- eties. As a result of this, it could be asserted that the representatives of Enlighten- ment manifested the thought of modernity as a project that mainly started in west- ern societies against the church. Hall and Gieben (1993) express this challenge that “modernity was the creation of a new paradigm or aspect of ideas regarding humankind, society, and nature, which encountered existing conceptions rooted in a traditional world perspective, dominated by Christian religion and ideas” 637 Ahmet Alp, Development Of Sociology In Turkey From Its Emergence To The 1960s (Alp, 2012: 6). According to them, the main domain in which the Enlightenment thinkers encountered the clergy, who supported the existing conceptions of the world. As a consequence of this challenge, they announced new ideas and they had important effects on their varied cultural innovations in painting, printing, writing, arts, sculpture, music etc. Therefore, the Enlightenment thinkers started thinking of researching the world empirically so as to obtain a practical goal to create a “better”, more rational world for humankind in this period. As a Con- sequence of these efforts, the Enlightenment philosophers succeeded to reject the beliefs of traditional authority that had serious impact on western societies. Thus, the philosophers, who were representatives of the Enlightenment, found this irrational and running counter to human nature and posing a dilemma of hu- man development when they assessed traditional values and institutions (Ritzer, 1996: 10). These all evaluations show that modernity has begun to be dominant as life style and ideologically in western societies since the 18th century. Further- more, philosophers and scientists could have freedom of thought, and thanks to the project of modernity, it was led them to think of using the methods of sciences and developing. For example, sociology could have a development chance as a scientific study of societies in this period. Put differently, the birth conditions of sociology were mainly prepared in the 19th century by the Enlightenment, French and Industrial revolutions. Accordingly, it can be asserted that sociology gained an important role to respond to the demands of Western societies which became more complicated as a result of fast industrialization and urbanization movements in this period (Kaçmazoğlu, 2010: 1-8). Although modernity brought new ideas and became dominant in western soci- eties, it also created many social problems as indicated above. In other words, so- cial life is always very dynamic and “when a society develop or pass a new stage as classical sociologists indicated, then the existing paradigm cannot respond to the demands of a society and it strains. Hence, a new stage requires a new para- digm to respond to the needs of the society (Kuhn, 1962: 62-66). By referring
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