120 SOCIAL FORCES AND HIS RICHARD L. SIMPSON Universityof NorthCarolina

PITIRIM A. Sorokin has long been one of Finally he was arrested, imprisoned, and sentenced the leading figures in American sociology. to death; and only through the intervention of This paper will describe his career briefly friends was he saved from execution and allowed and discuss some of his main contributions to eventually to exile himself from the Soviet Union sociological thought. on pain of execution. He fled to Czechoslovakia Sorokin was born in a Russian peasant village where he found friendly asylum under the aegis in 1889. From there he went to St. Petersburg for of such notables as Thomas Masaryk and Edouard his secondary and higher education. In 1913, at Benes.' Soon after going to Czechoslovakia, the age of only 24, he became co-editor of New Sorokin was invited by Professors E. A. Ross and Ideas in Sociology, a journal devoted primarily to E. C. Hayes to deliver a series of lectures on the translations of foreign sociological writings but Russian at the Universities of Illinois with original Russian articles as well. In 1914 he and Wisconsin. He accepted this invitation, and began teaching at the Psycho-Neurological In- the has been his home ever since. stitute in St. Petersburg; in the same year he After lecturing for a time at Wisconsin and published his first book, . Illinois, Sorokin moved to the University of In 1916 he started to teach at the in 1924. Here he established himself St. Petersburg, continuing until the outbreak of rapidly as a leader in American sociology. The the Revolution in 1917. Sorokin wrote seven roles of Professors Hayes and Ross in bringing books in Russian before he came to this country, Sorokin to this country have not been sufficiently including a two-volume System of Sociology in recognized.2 1919. Not even his experiences during the revolu- Sorokin became head of the newly formed De- tionary years, when he was a starving fugitive partment of Sociology at in much of the time, made him cease his scholarly 1930. He remained in his position unusually long labors altogether. for a Harvard departmental chairman; chairman- During his early years Sorokin was an optimistic ships at Harvard normally rotate every three to social revolutionary, three times imprisoned by five years. He did not enjoy administrative work, the Czarist government for revolutionary activity. and asked several times to be relieved of his He emerged from the Revolution embittered and chairmanship; his request was granted in 1943. conservative. At the outbreak of the Revolution, At that time some members of the Departments of Sorokin became one of the founders of the All- Anthropology, Psychology, and Sociology at Russian Peasant Soviet and of the Council of the Harvard established the Department of Social Russian Republic, both revolutionary organiza- Relations. Sorokin neither opposed nor approved tions. When became prime this experiment. He limited his activity in it to minister of the provisional government in 1917, teaching during one semester per year, and set up Sorokin was chosen as his private secretary and and became director of the Harvard Research as editor-in-chief of the governmental newspaper, Center in Altruistic Integration and , The Will of the People. He was elected a member of a unit separate from the Department of Social the Constitutional Assembly in 1918. Before and Relations.3 The objective of this new center is after the ousted Kerensky, Sorokin scientific research in the nature of altruism and was a vigorous opponent of while an I undoubted progressive. Sorokin, The Sociology of Revolution (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1925), p. v. Sorokin's hostility to the government was 2 Sorokin has provided details of his coming to the with a After reciprocated vengeance. the October United States, especially of his relationship with Revolution in 1917 a large part of his activities Hayes and Ross, in a personal letter to Professor consisted of organizing resistance to the Bolshevist Howard W. Odum, June 24, 1952. regime, and when this failed, of fleeing half-starved 3These details are from a letter from Sorokin to through the woods to escape imprisonment. Professor Howard W. Odum, August 5, 1953. PITIRIM SOROKINAND HIS SOCIOLOGY 121 egoism, with the hope of discovering means by The Sociology of Revolution (1925) is strongly which altruism may be fostered and egoism com- colored by Sorokin's revolutionary experiences. batted. That the ultimate aim of Sorokin's new He explains revolution, not in terms of historical or program is social action does not mean that socio-economic movements as commonly conceived research is not the chief business of the Center; by writers on revolution, but as a destruction of the Sorokin and his associates feel that more knowledge precarious balance between reason and disorgan- is needed before guided social action can be wisely ized antisocial instincts, with uncontrolled impulses undertaken. Much of Sorokin's published work coming to the fore. Since revolution results from :sincethe Center was established has grown out of the victory of man's upset biological drives over its investigations. civilized reason, violent revolution is a disaster. Sorokin does not attempt to explain why unreason SOROKIN'S INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT overcomes reason at certain times but not at AND CONTRIBUTIONS others; his analysis is essentially psychological Sorokin's first book in English was Leavesfrom a rather than sociological or historical. This book Russian Diary (1924), a description of his bears the imprint of Freud, Pavlov, Pareto, and ideological change during the Revolution. It is others who stress the nonrational aspects of not surprising that a man who underwent the behavior. A behavioristic influence is manifested experiences recounted in Sorokin's diary emerged continually; Sorokin speaks of reflexes of property, with his faith in the beneficence of human institu- the stimulus to obedience, the reactions to au- tions shaken. He saw the he knew crumble thority. His main purpose is to chart the course of and give way to a Communist regime. Many internal events in typical . Every of his closest friends died of disease or starvation or revolution, he says, follows a cycle of license, were executed. Trade, industry, and agriculture reaction, repression, and new equilibrium. The came almost to a standstill over large areas of the belief seems implicit that no revolution really country, and the starvation of millions augmented alters the state of affairs materially; the French the death toll from the Revolution. Sorokin spent Revolution, for example, is treated not as a these years in constant fear for his own life and triumph of democracy or of the bourgeoisie but for those of his wife and friends. He was spirited simply as a temporary outburst of animalism from one end of European Russia to the other, like every other revolution. hiding from the police in the homes of friends and Social Mobility (1927) was a major contribution sympathetic peasants. Once he was captured and to sociology. Sorokin deals with mobility of two condemned to death, and stayed in a filthy prison kinds: horizontal, or movement from place to for weeks awaiting his turn to die. During this place, and vertical, or movement up or down the period Sorokin changed from an optimistic liberal social ladder. He finds that while there is some to one of the severest critics of the contemporary vertical mobility in all societies, societies vary scene. Let him speak for himself, describing his widely in the emphasis they place on mobility as a state of mind after slinking through the woods for value and in the ease and means of social ascent some weeks, half-starved and half-clothed, to and descent. Contemporary western society, for escape capture by the government: example, stresses mobility more and provides more avenues for it than medieval society. Sorokin continuedto wanderover the bosom of Nature, demonstrates that the upper classes in most occasionallywishing we couldsee a little of civilization. societies have been superior mentally and physi- In free momentswe talkeda little aboutthe Revolution, cally to the lower classes. He attributes these and doubts which had been born in my mind at the differences mainly to inherent biological causes, beginningof the upheavalgrew to full size. In this wild and fears that the "racial fund" of vigor and forest the utter futility of all revolution,the vanity talent may be depleted through differential of all Socialismand Communismbecame clear to me. fertility. He finds that high mobility has his- ... Many dazzling illusions, beautiful dreams in with whose reality I had once believed, I lost during my torically been associated versatility, inven- meditationsin the forest.4 tion, and discovery; but also with cynicism, social isolation of the , skepticism, moral 4Sorokin, Leaves from a Russian Diary, rev. ed. disintegration, and suicide. (: The Beacon Press, 1950), pp. 171-172. ContemporarySociological Theories (1928) is a 122 SOCIAL FORCES

textbook in which a number of theories about years, being comparable in scope to the works of human behavior are presented and evaluated. Toynbee and Spengler. Sorokin was fully aware The theories consideredare not merely sociological of the magnitude of his task: in the narrow sense, but are drawn from all the social sciences. Sorokin attacks more theories and Starting with an investigation of a sociocultural system and its properties,we have studied systemati- propositions than he endorses, but his demolition cally the structureand compositionof the total culture; agree is convincing and the reader is usually led to the main "how's"of its change,of its space and time with him. uniformities,of the rhythms,periodicities, tempi, and During his stay at the Universities of Wisconsin other basic aspects of socioculturalBecoming. Having and Minnesota, Sorokin grew interested in rural clarifiedthe main "how's"we passedto a study of the sociology. The study of rural life had become a "why's"involved. Why the change?Why the rhythms, specialty at Wisconsin under Charles J. Galpin, periodicities,and tempi?Why the fluctuations,trends, and was well-cultivated at Minnesota by Carle C. and cycles?And finallywhy the super-rhythmof Idea- Zimmerman and others. Sorokin's increased tional, Idealistic, and Sensatephases? These problems concern with was a major step answered,our study nearsits close.' in his "Americanization" as a sociologist. His Sorokin's principal tool in analyzing cultures skill in treating social data quantitatively had and explaining their changes is his classification already been revealed in Social Mobility and of cultures and all their manifestations into three ContemporarySociological Theories; it reached a main types: Sensate, Idealistic, and Ideational- peak in his two collaborative works on rural coupled with his concept of "logico-meaningful" sociology. integration of cultural elements. Principles of Rural-Urban Sociology (with Events, relationships, and objects which are Carle C. Zimmerman, 1929) is devoted mainly to a logico-meaningfully integrated are those which considerationof rural-urbandifferences in physique, stem from the same value premises or criteria of temperament, and other traits. Theories of earlier truth, which seem somehow to fit together into a writers are searchingly evaluated. The authors common Weltanschauung or cluster of attitudes. cite studies of migrants from country to city to Thus a Gothic cathedral, a treatise in scholastic find out which types of rural people-if type , and the allocation of greater prestige selection occurs-are likely to leave the farm to clergymen than to tradesmen are logico- for the metropolis. meaningfully integrated because they all stem The Systematic Source Book in Rural Sociology from the religiously oriented culture mentality (with Zimmerman and Charles J. Galpin, three which prevailed in medieval Europe. Similarly volumes, 1930-1931) is a mine of valuable source integrated are the picture of a sparsely clad woman materials. These volumes transcend the usual on the jacket of a novel, a pragmatic philosophical parochial limitations of rural sociology. The work, and an emphasis on material wealth as a authors evidently believe that rural sociologists prime goal, because these reflect a mentality have no reason to use different methods of inquiry oriented toward earthly and sensual pleasures. from those used in other branches of sociology. Cultural items which are not consistent with any They do not treat the rural world as though it pattern-which do not seem to "belong" with existed in a vacuum. There appears at times what other items-are called "congeries." looks like a defense of the countryside against the The three principal types of culture integrations claims of the city, but this does not mar the use- -Ideational, Idealistic, and Sensate-never exist fulness of the materials presented. in pure form; they are ideal types. In recognition after the Sorokin left Minnesota for Harvard of this Sorokin adds a Mixed category. Actually Harvard he publication of the rural studies. At there are only two polar types of culture men- into the set to work on a monumental inquiry talities, the Ideational and the Sensate. The of world civilization to history and nature up Idealistic is a mixed type combining the virtues on this enter- the present. He spent several years of the polar types without their vices. first three prise, and in 1937 he published the The extreme Sensate mentality views reality volumes of Social and Cultural Dynamics. A fourth volume appeared in 1941. The Dynamics is Sorokin,Social and CulturalDynamics, IV (New the most ambitious sociological attempt in recent York: AmericanBook Company,1941), 773. PITIRIM SOROKINAND HIS SOCIOLOGY 123 as that which is perceivable by the sense organs, any more than one could maintain that a boy's and no more. It is atheistic or agnostic. It does not growth in stature during puberty makes his concern itself with the absolute or immutable, whiskers grow. believing that all things are in flux. Its underlying Besides explaining the movement of history and goal is the mastery of the observable world for the nature of society, Sorokin provides us with a the sake of physical gratification. Its epistemology new system of truth, superior to all others because is empirical. it encompasses all others. Sensory observation, To the Ideational mentality, reality is im- while essential, has been overemphasized in material, everlasting Being. Its objectives are recent years. Reason, he feels, has accounted for a spiritual and its ways of achieving them involve greater portion of the world's enlightenment than man's adjustment to the existing world rather most modern thinkers give it credit for. Finally, than his manipulation of the world to bring it into Sorokin makes a case for intuition and faith, line with his wishes. Faith and revelation are its which have been neglected for some time, as valid roads to truth. sources of knowledge. None of these, he says, The Idealistic mentality is a synthesis of can lay claim to being the sole way to knowledge; Ideational and Sensate elements with Ideational each has its proper and necessary sphere. The predominating. It combines the best of the other senses tell us about mundane sensory phenomena; two mentalities with the addition of reason as a intuition gives us fruitful hunches and is our only way to knowledge. In the Idealistic view, reason source of deep communion with the absolute; is a sort of apex in an epistemological triangle reason orders and evaluates data gathered by with faith and sensory observation at the lower sense and intuition. The combination of these points. Sorokin's own outlook is Idealistic.6 three gives us the "integralist" system of truth. The history of all societies has been a fluctuation Sorokin himself uses integralism in his investiga- of these three great supersystems of integration. tions. On the basis of an exhaustive study of art forms, In Time Budgets of Human Behavior (with systems of truth, ethics, and law, social relation- Clarence Q. Berger, 1939) Sorokin and his col- ships, war, and revolution during the past 2,500 laborator had a number of subjects keep detailed years in the Western world, and of less thorough records of their behavior for four weeks, listing excursions into Oriental civilizations, Sorokin what they did, when and for how long they did it, finds that all elements of a culture except a few and, for half the investigation period, why they minor ones (congeries) are usually integrated under did it. The same subjects were asked to predict whichever supersystem is in sway at a given time. their activities for varying lengths of time, listing The culture of the early Middle Ages was Idea- separately any activity in which they expected to tional; that of the thirteenth century was Idealistic; engage for five minutes or longer on specific days. our own is Sensate. Elaborate charts and graphs It was found that the more distant the day for trace the rise and fall of cultural supersystems and which predictions were made, the less accurate their components during the recorded history of the predictions were; and that people who led the West. regular, clocklike lives were better predictors of Why do culture mentalities change? Sorokin their own behavior than were relatively dis- does not believe that change can be interpreted organized persons. Therefore, reason the authors, adequately by reference to "this or that external we would be rash to attempt any "scientific" factor." Instead he finds "immanent self-regula- social prediction and planning, in view of the tion and direction." No one part of a cultural unforeseeability of human actions. system can be held to cause the others to change, The Crisis of Our Age (1941) is a short and highly readable popularization of some of the 6 for a balance between the Lewis Mumford's plea ideas first presented in the Dynamics. We are technological mastery of the objective world, in which going through a profound crisis. The nature of the twentieth century excels, and the inner and sub- jective as expressed in art, which he finds underem- this crisis is misunderstood by those who seek to phasized in today's world, corresponds fairly closely explain it in terms of such factors as democracy, to Sorokin's encomium for the Idealistic culture men- liberty, totalitarianism, , militarism, tality. See Mumford, Art and Technics (New York: international rivalries, and the like. Sorokin does Columbia University Press, 1952). not deny the importance of these factors, but he 124 SOCIAL FORCES

sees them as manifestations of a deeper movement: our plight and remedies for it, and a call for the decline of an overripe Sensate supersystem. altruism to smooth our path to a new age. Recog- He predicts that we will pass through several nizing the interdependence of social, cultural, and stages in our process of decline and renascence: personality phenomena, Sorokin has little faith crisis, ordeal, catharsis, charisma, and resurrec- in analyses and cures which treat only limited tion. segments of life. He disposes of a number of Man and Societyin Calamity (1942) is a study in "quack cures for war and impotent plans for pathological human behavior. It extends the peace": democracy, the United Nations, world findings of The Sociology of Revolution into new government, capitalism, communism, socialism, areas of social life. In the four major varieties of fascism, education, science, technology, religion, social calamities-famine, pestilence, war, and legal and ethical cures, prosperity, the fine arts, revolution-there occurs a "polarization" of types and others. Sorokin feels that it is necessary to of action. Most people become bestial and de- get at the root of things, to attack the "basic graded, sinking so low in famine as to eat their premise"of modern culture, not merely its products. own children, while a few people are ennobled and The basic premise is the Sensate scheme of values, made altruistic by the crisis. which must give way to an Idealistic or Ideational Sociocultural Causality, Space, Time (1943) is world-view if we are to avert catastrophe. another restatement of some of the principles of the Since the superstructureof such a sociocultural Dynamics. It is aimed primarily at a scientific system is built upon its major premise, a rational audience, being written in a less popular vein than change of the entire system in a desirabledirection The Crisis of Our Age. It is less concerned with must concentratefirst Uponthis majorpremise.7 tracing the fluctuations of sociocultural phenom- ena and with a call for social action than with We must transfer man's attention from the expounding the principles and modes of analysis sensual, conscious, and subconscious levels to the that underlie Sorokin's integralist sociology. superconscious and the Infinite Manifold: that Russia and the United States (1944) might be true reality which can be comprehended only termed wartime propaganda for the peace. In it through the interplay of sense, reason, and intui- the Russian in Sorokin overcomes the anti- tion. Bolshevist. He argues that American and Russian Our situation calls for increases of altruism and culture have so much in common that these two of familistic as opposed to contractual or com- nations, destined to be the leading postwar pulsory social relationships. Altruistic actions are power centers, will have a secure basis for friend- those that are performed not from any expecta- ship. Both nations exemplify unity in diversity. tion of pleasure or utility, but because the actions Their cultures favor breadth of outlook, cos- are deemed worthy in themselves. Familistic mopolitanism, and a healthy self-esteem tempered relationships are those permeated by mutual love, with tolerance of other societies. devotion, and sacrifice. They are exemplified by Society, Culture, and Personality (1947) repre- the relationships between the members of a sents a summation and culmination of Sorokin's devoted family. In familistic relationships one scientific inquiries before he began his research finds the highest development of altruism. Sorokin program in altruism. In it are synthesized a vast suggests steps that might be taken toward in- array of facts and analyses of social structure, creasing the prevalence of altruism in our society. culture, and personality as viewed by the sociolo- He favors legislation "limiting the freedom of gist. Types of human groups, the bonds that hold marriage and divorce; discrediting panderers in them together, and the interaction within and all their high-brow and low-brow forms; and between different groups are explored. Society, depriving irresponsibleparents of certain privileges, Culture,and Personality proceeds from the micro- including the right to neglect and demoralize scopic to the macroscopic, from the nature of their children."8 He believes that the schools human associations to the rise and fall of socio- "must establish a carefully elaborated system for cultural supersystems. developing altruism in their pupils. They must The Reconstructionof Humanity (1948) presents 7 Sorokin, The Reconstruction of Humanity (Boston: another description of the contemporary crisis, a The Beacon Press, 1948), p. 99. rejection of various explanations of the causes of 8Ibid., p.149. PITIRIM SOROKIN AND HIS SOCIOLOGY 125 instill in them a set of universal values and norms, the history of sociology, has received scant atten- free from superstition and ignorance as well as tion in our journals. Since it has been unduly from the degrading, cynical, nihilistic, and pseudo- neglected, and since it is the start of a potentially scientific theories of our time."9 fruitful chapter of Sorokin's scholarly life, it In The Pattern of the Past (1949) Sorokin and will be considered in some detail here. Pieter Geyl, a Dutch historian, criticize Professor The lead article by Sorokin is entitled "Love: Its Arnold J. Toynbee's views on the rise and fall of Aspects, Production, Transformation, and Accu- civilizations. Sorokin's chief argument is that the mulation." The various forms of love-religious, civilization, as Toynbee conceives it, is not the ethical, ontological, physical, biological, psycho- proper unit of study. Toynbee, like the functional logical, and social-are discussed. Sorokin surveys anthropologists (says Sorokin), wrongly assumes the forms of love and prescriptions for its further- that a civilization is an integrated system without ance in a number of cultures, Eastern and Western, congeries elements. ancient and modern. While ranging over all the In Social of an Age of Crisis (1950) major religions in quest of worthy maxims about Sorokin presents and evaluates critically the love and analyses of it, he finds the ancient theories of world history propounded by Nikolai scriptures of India the most valuable source of Danilevsky, , Arnold J. Toynbee, knowledge in this area. Love can be analyzed into Walter Schubart, , F. S. C. five components or dimensions: intensity, ex- Northrop, Alfred L. Kroeber, Albert Schweitzer, tensity, duration, purity, and adequacy. Sorokin and other writers. He finds that recent systems of expresses regret at the nonscalar nature of these social philosophy have been symptomatic of a dimensions and the difficulty of defining their decaying Sensate order heading pell-mell for quantitative relationships. The five dimensions of chaos and eclecticism. The theories under con- love are reminiscent of the Sensate Jeremy Ben- sideration all appear to take this social disintegra- tham's felicific calculus. tion into account and to be influenced by it in Sorokin speaks of the love for humanity of Jesus, one way or another. Northrop's and Kroeber's Gandhi, and other spiritual leaders as "unrequited." theories agree fundamentally with those of Since all they got for their altruistic actions was Sorokin, he says. Northrop in positing his dichot- martyrdom, he reasons, the source of their love- omy between an esthetic and a theoretic com- energy must be sought outside the customary ponent in cultural phenomena makes his greatest human channels. mistake in lumping elements together in his The most probablehypothesis ... is that an inflow some of which Sorokin con- esthetic component of love comes from an intangible, little-studied,pos- errs siders Sensate and some Ideational. Kroeber sibly superempiricalsource called "God," "the God- chiefly in relying on a Sensate source, The head," "the Soul of the Universe,"the center of the Encyclopedia Britannica, for his data; this source highest energy in the universe, the "Ultimate and is riddled with bias in favor of Sensate achieve- Highest Value," the "Heavenly Father," "Truth," ments. Though the other authors are guilty of and so on.10 more mistakes than Kroeber or Northrop, there Love-energy is a very real thing. It "is even are several major areas in which they all agree. more imperishable than any other form of energy, Sorokin believes that these areas of agreement including radioactivity; not a particle of it is among experts represent valid findings. lost.""1This energy can be stored up in institutions Sorokin's Harvard Research Center in Altruistic and organizations. Mortification of the flesh Integration and Creativity produced its first book helps to produce love-energy; such practices as the in 1950: Explorations in Altruistic Love and isolation of the hermit have been found effective. Behavior, edited by Sorokin and featuring three As a beginning in the empirical description and him. Many sociologists confronting a articles by analysis of love, Sorokin reports two studies he "Can book in which are asked such questions as has made of affiliative and hostile tendencies in Eros be separated from Agape?" may find them- human beings. The processes of love production in selves on unfamiliar ground; perhaps this is 10 Sorokin (ed.), Explorations in Altruistic Love and why this book, edited by one of the leading men in Behavior (Boston: The Beacon Press, 1950), p. 41. 9 Ibid., p. 153. 11Ibid., p. 64. 126 SOCIAL FORCES

two groups, one composed of nursery-school these years can be illustrated by listing his books: children and the other of Harvard students, are Leaves from a Russian Diary, The Sociology of described. Revolution, Social Mobility, ContemporarySocio- A number of other writers, mainly psychologists logical Theories, Principles of Rural-Urban So- and biologists, contribute articles dealing with ciology, and the Systematic Source Book in Rural various aspects of altruism. Ashley Montagu, Sociology. Sorokin began this period a disillusioned the distinguished anthropologist, has a chapter former liberal but an adherent of some of the on the biological basis of altruistic cooperation. approaches common in the social science of the Montagu has since published a short book in time. Strong traces of behaviorism and Paretanism which he points out the overemphasis by Darwin appear in his earlier writings of this period, and his followers on tooth-and-claw competition in especially in The Sociology of Revolution. A para- evolution and makes a scientific case for a belief mount idea is that human actions are irrationally in cooperation, quoting liberally from the works determined. In Principles of Rural-Urban So- of leading modern biologists.12 Montagu and ciology, written toward the end of this period in Sorokin agree that there is a firm biological basis 1929, the behavioristic emphasis has become less for human altruism. noticeable and the conservative social values Altruistic Love (1950) is a study of the lives and which are to be strongly featured in Sorokin's characteristics of 3,090 Roman Catholic saints, later works begin to appear. 415 Russian Orthodox saints, 500 contemporary After going to Harvard in 1930, Sorokin began Americans honored for neighborly deeds on his monumental study of world civilization which Tom Breneman's "Breakfast in Hollywood" radio led to the work for which he is best known, Social program, and 112 commended for and Cultural Dynamics. This work set the tone neighborliness by a group of Harvard students. for the condemnation of our Sensate culture which In an effort to find out what makes a saint or a is prominent in all of Sorokin's writings since 1937. good neighbor, Sorokin and his assistants cata- Sorokin's extensive study convinced him that our logued such things as the age, sex, marital status, civilization is overly materialistic, disorganized, family size, socio-economic background, political and in imminent danger of collapse. He spent the views, and type of altruistic behavior of their next dozen years in warning the public of the subjects. In this way Sorokin hopes to make the danger and seeking a way out. first steps toward discovering what kinds of people By the late 1940's he began to see what he felt are likely to become saintly or neighborly, and was a solution. What is needed urgently, he eventually to lay the groundwork for producing decided, is an understanding of the ways in which more of these types than we have heretofore been altruistic behavior can be fostered. Only by making blessed with. men more altruistic can we attack the Sensate The of Our Crisis (1951) is the last major premise on which our society is foundering. book by Sorokin available to the writer. It is In 1946 Sorokin established the research center in another concise indictment of the ills of our world, altruism, and since 1950 his books have been the with remarks on totalitarianism and on the "law of product of this center's program. His interest in polarization" in time of crisis, whereby ordinary altruism has developed logically from his study of people turn into saints or sinners. social and cultural dynamics. He is attacking the roots of the problems he first raised in the 1930's. SUMMARY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOROKIN S THOUGHT EVALUATION AND COMMENT Sorokin's work in English fits nicely into The enormousamount of historical and statistical three periods: (1) an early period of miscellaneous material gathered together in Social and Cultural writings, (2) sociocultural dynamics and social Dynamics has probably been Sorokin's greatest criticism, and (3) altruism. contribution to date. He and his assistants did a His early period began when he came to this more complete and systematic job of classifying country and ended when he left Minnesota for cultural items and tracing their fluctuations than his Harvard. The broad range of interests during anyone before or since has attempted. Staggering 12Ashley Montagu, Darwin: Competition and Co- numbers of artistic and literary works, legal and operation (New York: Henry Schuman, Inc., 1952). ethical codes, and forms of social relationships PITIRIM SOROKIN AND HIS SOCIOLOGY 127 are classified, and their changing proportions of Actually he is unclear, or perhaps contradictory, Sensatism and Ideationalism are graphed. Sorokin on the matter of what causes sociocultural change. has shown quantitatively, where others have only One usually has the impression in reading his argued qualitatively, to what extent fluctuations work that a society's view of reality and goodness- in thought patterns parallel fluctuations in other its major premise-once incorporated into its departments of life. His numerical time charts culture and institutions, determines everything should enable historians in the future to delineate else, within broad limits. In his more recent works the boundaries of such periods as the Middle Ages he often says that our Sensate major premise is and the Hellenistic Age with a precision never causing all our trouble and is what needs to be before possible. changed. At other times, however, he speaks of Sorokin's miscellaneous contributions to so- immanent self-regulation, and argues against the ciology are many. Contemporary Sociological "fallacy" that any one part of a sociocultural Theories, in which he classifies and evaluates a system causes other parts to change. He frequently number of schools and individuals, has probably warns against an attempt to explain sociocultural not been surpassed; its continued wide use today, change on the basis of "this or that external 25 years after it was published, attests its quality. factor"-by which he means factors external to His ventures in rural sociology bring together a the system whose change is being studied-yet at large variety of theories and investigations in a times he acknowledges that external factors can form which allows an average student to benefit affect a system. His resolution of this seeming from them. His analyses of the structure and difficulty appears to be that external causes can functioning of diverse social groups and collec- accelerate or retard, reinforce or hinder the un- tivities, most concisely presented in Society, folding of the potentialities of a system, and can Cultutre,and Personality but scattered also through even kill the system, but cannot change the basic the Dynamics, provide many suggestive insights. nature of the system or its inner potentialities; His research in altruism has not yet proceeded but this is not always clear to the reader. far enough to lend itself to valid judgment; we Sorokin's sociology of knowledge has been must wait and see what comes of it. criticized on the ground that he quantifies the Sorokin's division of cultural supersystems into unquantifiable, that one cannot properly use Ideational, Idealistic, and Sensate types and his index numbers and time series to study such treatment of how the different aspects of life vary subjective things as musical masterpieces and according to which supersystem is dominant can beliefs about reality. This does not seem a valid be considered a sociology of knowledge."3 He criticism so long as he confines himself to tracing views the relation between ideas and the social the potency and influence of such mental products situations of thinkers from the direction opposite and does not try to assess their value or truth. to that which has been customary in this field. He has, unfortunately, allowed innumerable value Mannheim and Durkheim have investigated the judgments to mar the objectivity of his work, but role of social existence in forming men's ideas; to the writer does not believe that any appreciable Sorokin, ideas lie back of social existence. Sorokin bias has crept into his delineation of cultural frequently inveighs against one-cause theories of supersystems or his description of their fluctuations. society, but it may well be asked if he has not Certainly one will not err in placing a painting of assigned causative priority in his system to beliefs a Christian saint in a different category from a about the supreme good and ultimate reality.14 magazine picture advertising a shiny new Buick, or the Bible in an opposite class from a racy novel. 13 The sociology of knowledge may be defined roughly Perhaps the classifications of family and other as the study of the relation between ideas and the social backgrounds of the men who produce ideas. social relationships are open to more question, Historians have dealt with this problem for years, but since personal values are less easily excluded from the name "sociology of knowledge" seems justified on categorizations of this kind; but even if we did the ground that sociologists like Mannheim and Durk- not choose to accept the Sensate-Idealistic- heim have brought new approaches and insights to the Ideational classification we would be indebted to field. 14 Jacques J. Maquet in his study of Mannheim's and in history. See Maquet, The Sociology of Knowledge, Sorokin's sociologies of knowledge states several times trans. by John F. Locke (Boston: The Beacon Press, that Sorokin makes ideas the dominant causal force 1952). 128 SOCIAL FORCES

Sorokin for showing how types of social relation- sociocultural sewers.""5Our literature and art are ships have fluctuated. "physio-dirty," dealing with "rogues, gamins, A more serious methodological question arises ragamuffins, hypocrites, mistresses, profligates ... from Sorokin's implicit assumption that the mass prostitutes; the victims of gigantic passions, culture of a period is adequately represented in unbalanced and abnormal."16We try to make our its visible remains. This assumption is particularly prisons better than our first-class hotels, thus dangerous when applied to societies where mass favoring criminals over noncriminals.17Our litera- education is lacking or power is oligarchic. Can ture is "standardized pabulum."18 We are one deduce from the priestly writings of the afflicted with insecurity, unhappiness, empiricism, Middle Ages that the peasants of that day were music critics, and baseball players."9 While occupied with thoughts of God to the exclusion of Ideational culture is not perfect, those who con- thoughts of the stomach and sex glands, any more demn it are "intellectual lilliputians"20 writing than one can infer from today's scholarly writings "tittle-tattle.""2Idealistic culture is harmonious;22 that most Americans are deeply concerned with it requires an intellect far above average;23 it is nuclear physics, sonnets, and the music of Bach sublime;24it is marvelous.25 and Beethoven? Similarly it is questionable Throughout the Dynamics and Sorokin's more whether the cathedrals of the Middle Ages neces- recent books one sees condemnations of our present sarily indicate that piety at that time was uni- Sensate culture like those presented above. These versal, any more than the pyramids of Egypt nonscientific elements are not segregated from the make it evident that the Egyptian masses were body of the work and labeled as editorials rather mainly interested in the welfare of the Pharaohs in than news; on the contrary, the whole of the the world to come. Dynamics is interlarded with asides on the horror The threefold classification of Sensate, Idealistic, of the twentieth century. Many critics have found and Ideational supersystems is open to the same these infusions of sentiment objectionable in a objections that are raised against all such systems. writer who states that "the task of an investigator Sorokin at times seems to be forcing his data to is to indicate the essential characteristics of each make them fit. This is especially true when he culture, leaving the evaluations to the sense or tries to distinguish between Idealistic periods and nonsense of others."26 Assuming that Sorokin is Mixed or eclectic ones. The only distinction ap- an investigator, he has gone beyond his allotted pears to be based on an evaluation of the Idealistic task. type as a sublime, harmonious blend and of the Sorokin makes no secret of being a philosopher Mixed type as an unintegrated hash. The criteria as well as a sociologist when he outlines his new for this distinction are nowhere made exact or epistemology, the integralist theory of truth. operational. Sorokin nevertheless does not seem This new system of truth encompasses reason, to torture his data to make them fit his pattern observation, and intuition, and he believes it is to nearly the same extent as Toynbee, Spengler, therefore superior to any one of the three taken and other global systematizers. alone. Some questions come to mind concerning A number of critics have intimated that in this epistemology, particularly regarding the reading the Dynamics the words "good" and "bad" validity of intuition. By intuition he means the might profitably be substituted for Ideational and way of cognition, different from sensory perception Sensate. They are not quite correct in this. or logical-mathematical and syllogistic deduction Sorokin prefers the Idealistic mentality to either 16 Sorokin, Social and Cultural Dynamics, IV, 775. of the two polar types, since he finds in it a balance 16 Ibid., I, 644. of their best elements and an absence of their 17 Ibid., I, 500. excesses and blind spots. In the Idealistic culture 18 Ibid., I, 659. mentality we have a healthy cultivation of the 19Ibid., I, 565, and II, 52. whole man; neither his animal needs nor his 20 Ibid., II, 93. capabilities for spiritual striving are neglected. 21 Ibid., I, 134. 22 While Sorokin favors the Idealistic mentality Ibid., , 75. 23 Ibid., I, 143. above all, he seems to prefer the Ideational to the 24 Ibid., I, 321. Sensate. Repeatedly he condemns the contem- 25 Ibid., II, 102. porary Sensate culture in no uncertain terms. 26 Ibid., I, 678. Similar statements are made in I, We are sinking deeper into the "muck of the p. 669; and in II, 14. PITIRIM SOROKINAND HIS SOCIOLOGY 129 and induction, that comes from a supersensory three answerswere completelytrue, it would give an source. The value of intuition, says Sorokin, is adequate knowledge of reality-it would allow the demonstrated in three ways: (1) Most scientific best adaptationto reality.It wouldbe incomprehensible would not eliminate the other discoveries have resulted from intuitions; they that such an attitude two. If, on the other hand, one of the attitudes were have only been confirmed, not originated, by entirelyfalse, its total inadequatenessto reality would observation and logic. (2) Inspiration is the source preventit from survivinglong.28 of beauty in art and poetry. (3) Intuition affords us our only deep communion with the Absolute.27 This position is vulnerable. It is questionable One could object that: (1) No scientist would whether any idea which helps men to get along here deny the occurrence or value of "hunches"; but on this planet is therefore ultimately true. That many would deny that a hunch per se demonstrates an idea is useful proves only that it is useful. anything; it merely suggests, perhaps rightly and Men have always believed, with pleasant conse- perhaps wrongly. (2) Intuitional inspiration in the quences, a great number of things which are creative artist or in the scientist may be nothing utterly wrong. The argument is weakened further more than a name given to a psychological process by the fact that Sorokindescribes the contemporary which has not yet been adequately described in mentality as one which denies the existence of naturalistic terms. (3) No one has proved to the anything beyond what our senses can perceive, satisfaction of all competent thinkers that there while the Ideational and Idealistic mentalities is any such thing as the Absolute; or that, if there affirm the existence of a supersensory world. is, we are actually in communion with it when we These belief systems are mutually exclusive; one think we are. One can show only by intuition or the other of them simply has to be wrong. itself that there is such a thing as intuition in Sorokin states a number of times, and most Sorokin's sense. reviewers and summarizers of his work repeat, The objection that his epistemology is not of that he finds in history neither linear evolution demonstrated validity could of course be raised nor recurring cycles of social change, but merely against anyone, not merely against Sorokin. No "fluctuation" or "incessant variation." This does one has ever proved the validity of any theory of not seem correct if by cycles one means recurring, truth except as a workable tool within an agreed- patterned, predictable events or relationships. upon frame of reference. As a workable tool, The conclusion that seems to emerge from the however, intuition cannot be said to rank with books is this: Western civilization has thus far observation and logic for most scientific purposes. made two journeys through a cycle which runs Nearly all men of sound mind think and see in as follows: Ideational, Idealistic, Sensate, Chaos. much the same way, and can reach substantial We are now entering an age of Chaos, from which agreement on matters of observation and logic if we will move into an Ideational period. Wars, their assumptions are the same. (This is a very revolutions, famines, and pestilences can be ex- important "if.") Intuition, however, is too in- pected to increase in number and intensity, since definable, too subjective, and too much affected that is what happens when a Sensate culture is by men's social backgrounds. Intuitions of the dying and its Ideational successor has not yet Absolute cannot be subjected to any satisfactory risen from its ashes. This would appear to be a test of universal validity. What shall we do if cyclical theory.29 Sorokin intuits that reality is an Infinite Manifold while I intuit that reality is myself and that all 28 Maquet, op. cit. Sorokin expresses such a viewpoint else is but an illusory creation of my brain? in Social and CulturalDynamics, IV, 741-743. Sorokin and some of his followers are on treach- 29 Sorokin in analyzing his curves of historical change life recurs repeatedly to erous ground when they try to show that intuition, in various compartments of the notion that things fluctuate but do not change in a logic, and the senses are all valid, though all circular or linear fashion. See, for instance, Social and incomplete, as sources of truth. In the words of Cultural Dynamics, II, 33, 203, 226, 251, 273, and 513; Jacques J. Maquet, who agrees with Sorokin: III, 131, 160, 192, 247, 357, and 481; and IV, 732 ff. The fact that none of these three answers to the His curves do indeed seem to show, first, that fluctua- question of the nature of reality has succeeded in tion in each area of life such as the amount of warfare, eliminatingthe other two, is explainedby the partial the forms of art, the dominant ethical beliefs, and so validity of each one of them. Actually, if one of the on, does not proceed in a line or in cycles throughout history; and second, that there can be found few, if any, 27Ibid., IV, 746-761. invariant correlations between certain types of change 130 SOCIAL FORCES

Sorokin is more consistently an advocate of a source of altruism, Sorokin departs from the social action in The Reconstructionof Humanity accustomed paths of social analysis and arrives than in any of his other books. Apart from dis- at an integralist explanation for the altruism of agreements with his political philosophy, which great leaders like Jesus, Gandhi, and St. Francis. stands well to the right of center, one might Since the love of these men for humanity is legitimately question some of his recommendations unrequited, he says, the usual view that love is a on more objective grounds. In the field of politics, response to being loved by others will not suffice for example, he favors stripping nations of their in these cases; we must consider the new and sovereignty and political parties of their power. little-studied possibility that men of this kind He recommends disarmament and the setting up receive an inflow of altruism from God or some of a world government (pp. 161-165). These hitherto unknown source.0 This explanation is in recommendations may come as a surprise to a fact not a new one, and it has been studied, or at reader, since on pages 17-24 of the same book any rate talked about, frequently and at great Sorokin has attempted to refute the arguments length. It is perhaps permissible to question in favor of world government, particularly the whether the love of Gandhi and Jesus was in fact assertion that the coexistence of a multitude of unrequited. Little children came to Jesus, and sovereign states is the cause of war. Sorokin lepers sought him that they might be cured. would like the salaries of government officials in Thousands of Indians followed Gandhi to the the new world state to be low, so that no one sea to make salt with him in defiance of the British would enter politics for purposes of greed. It is colonial government. Few of us receive this much doubtful that one could show that where political love from other people. salaries are lowest, political morality is highest; By 1950, Sorokin had fully freed himself from indeed, arguments have been advanced for an the restrictions of conventional sociology. In a opposite belief. The value of any one of Sorokin's statement reminiscent of Keats, he said: recommendations for planned change in the schools, in government, or elsewhere becomes Metaphysically, Truth (science, religion, philos- suspect if we accept his finding in Time Budgets ophy), Beauty (the fine arts), and Goodness(ethics) of Human Behavior that planning is useless be- are threemain value-aspects of one UndividedGodhead or the Manifold Infinity. Empirically,each "energy" cause human actions are unpredictable. of this trinity can be transformedinto other [sic] two In seeking to demonstrate that the Godhead is energies: Truth is transformableinto Beauty and in one department of life and certain changes in another Goodness, Goodness into Truth and Beauty, and department. For example, during a change from a Beauty into Truth and Goodness.Real Truth is beauti- predominance of totalitarian to democratic govern- ful and good; real Beauty is true and good; and real ments, wars may be either increasing or decreasing in Goodnessis true and beautiful.3' number and severity, and sexuality in literature may be either waxing or waning. On the over-all level of Probably the most general criticism that can sociocultural supersystems, however, he does appear to be made of Sorokin's work is that he has not kept have established a cycle which runs from Ideational his promise to investigate social events dispas- through Idealistic to Sensate, with an increase of calami- sionately and let others evaluate them. It is ties and disturbances when Idealistic gives way to regrettable that he has not, for his infusion of Sensate and when Sensate bows to Ideational. Western metaphysics and crusading zeal into sociological civilization has run this course twice, and Sorokin works has obscured for some of the more natural- predicts for the immediate future a rise in calamities, istically inclined sociologists the value of his many followed by an Ideational period. Each of these types of dominant mentality is associated, though not per- contributions to historical and sociological analysis. fectly, with the domination of certain forms in the It would be good if someone would abstract from lesser compartments of life, especially in those which Sorokin's works all that is written in such a way are pre-eminently "mental" such as religion and art. as to fit the conventional, naturalistic social science If there were no such association, no period would be orientation and bring it together in one place, integrated and all would be made up principally of congeries. If there were no uniformities in social change, 30 Sorokin (ed.), Explorations in Altruistic Love and but only trendless fluctuation, Sorokin could scarcely Behavior, p. 41. predict the decline of our present Sensate culture and 31 Sorokin, Social Philosophies of an Age of Crisis the emergence of an Ideational one. (Boston: The Beacon Press, 1950), p. 270. SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF ELECTION CAMPAIGNS 131

separated from that part of his writings that is sociological analysis than is necessary to make more metaphysical and evaluative than socio- their meaning clear. If this were done his sociology logical in the usual sense. Similarly, his normative might win a fairer hearing than it has been ac- and hortatory writings could be collected and corded among sociologists, and his call to action freed from the encumbrance of any more purely still not be sacrificed.

A CONCEPTUAL SCHEME FOR THE SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF ELECTION CAMPAIGNS* WILLIS A. SUTTON, JR. Universityof Kentucky

INTRODUCTION campaigns which, on the one hand, reinforce PROCESSES through which agents of govern- values, and, on the other, define policy. ment are selected constitute fundamental A conceptual scheme to fill these needs was elements in the structure of modern society. formulated and used by the writer in a study of One of the most important of these procedures in the five gubernatorial campaigns of the late non-totalitarian states is the election campaign. Eugene Talmadge of Georgia.2 It is the purpose This is a complex process in which two or more of this paper to present the main outlines of this candidates for the same administrative, judicial, or conceptual framework. legislative office contend for the approval given First, a few remarks to make clearer the rela- by a particular electorate in a final ballot which tionships between the character of a society and ends the contest.' the general nature of campaigns are set forth. From the societal standpoint, election campaigns Secondly, the nature of certain key clusters of seem to serve two major functions in addition to variables in the internal structure of an election the choosing of governmental officers: they re- campaign is briefly sketched and, at the same time, inforce group values and they provide one of the a typology for classifying particular manifestations important means for defining policy. Thus, the of each of these variable clusters in various cam- sociological study of such campaigns would seem paigns is presented. Subsequently, combinations to require a framework of colncepts which would of these types of components will be used to facilitate: (1) a clearer understanding of the rela- suggest a general classificatory system for total tionship between an election campaign and the campaign structures. Next, some preliminary social conditions within which it occurs; (2) the exploration of the usefulness of the two extreme identification of the important variables and their types in this classificatory system is made. And interrelationships operative in determining the finally, some propositions about the factors con- outcome of election campaigns; and (3) the ditioning the outcome of election campaigns are specification of the characteristics of election formulated. * Read before the sixteenth annual meeting of the SOCIETAL SITUATION Southern Sociological Society, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Every campaign is an outgrowth from its en- March 29, 1953. compassing society and develops within a par- 1 a the broader field of This phenomenon is part of ticular situation.3 The internal structure of a politics which has frequently been defined as the study of all struggles over power. See: H. H. Gerth and C. 2 Willis A. Sutton, Jr., The Talmadge Campaigns, Wright Mills (eds. and trs.), From Max Weber:Essays A Sociological Analysis of Political Power (unpublished in Sociology (New York: Oxford Press, 1946), pp. 77- Doctoral Dissertation, University of North Carolina, 78; Joseph S. Roucek, "Political Behavior as a Struggle Chapel Hill, N. C., 1952). for Power," Journal of Social Philosophy, 6 (July 1941), 3W. I. Thomas, "The Behavior Pattern and the pp. 341-351; and Harold D. Lasswell, Politics, Who Situation," Publications of the American Sociological Gets What, When, How? (New York: McGraw-Hill, Society: Papers and Proceedings, 22 (1928), pp. 1-14; Inc., 1936), p. 19. Edmond H. Volkart, Social Behavior and Personality: