Humanism in Sociology: Its Historical Roots and Contemporary Problems
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HUMANISM IN SOCIOLOGY: ITS HISTORICAL ROOTS AND CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS Aleksander Gella Sue Curry Jansen and Donald F. Sabo, Jr. WUlltlr,s UOllAllY G\'J'fr'H~r~n ,_ ;;)ffif:Y COJ1EGE 1 0 G\ /YliUJfJ V:\LL _:_'(1 P;t l'.J1137 University Pr~ss'" 191 of America~ .J ~' Copyright © 1978 by University Press of America, Inc." 4710 Auth Place, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20023 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America ISBN' 0-8191-0598-8 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number' 78-613 94 This modest book is dedicated to all who--under diverse political systems- have suffered the results of anti humanistic trends in our time, in our presence, throughout the world: from Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, the known warrior, to unknown victims like the Boat People. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., for permission to use the quotation included -here in Chapter I from Select~d Essays of T.S. Eliot, "The Humanism of Irving Babbit." I am equally grateful to the Rand Corporation for allowing me to quote in Chapter X from Herbert Goldhamer (ed.), The Social Effects of Communication. FOREWORD This book has rather an unusual origin. It was conceived at the graduate student seminar on 'Humanistic Sociology 1 which I had led during the Sprini Semester 1975 in the Department of Soci ology. SUNY at Buffalo. The seminar had an experimental character. I proposed to a group of eight students that it would be more in teresting to work together on one bigger essay or even a small book, than to have a conventional seminar. Although the present book was actually completed during the next two years, its conception took place during this seminar. So, I am very happy to keep the promise I gave, to mention the names of all the participants of my seminar. They were: David Gregorio, Sue Jansen, Elaine Lenkei, Dennis Lindberg, Don Mason, Paul Porter, Donald Sabo and Robert Wise. During fifteen meetings of this seminar, xeroxed chapters (or parts of them) written by me were distributed among the partici pants. They were the basis for our seminar discussions. My young collaborators were assigned to read and summarize some additional material or to prepare certain footnotes to particular points. However, one semester's seminar was too short a time to complete a book. After the seminar ended, I decided to C'ontinue working on it. Three of my collaborators who wanted to keep working with me further were Sue Jansen, Dennis Lindberg and Don8ld Sabo. (Donald knew more of my ideas than the others because during the three pre vious years he worked as my teaching and research assistant.) Of these three, Dennis Lindberg prepared a first draft of a chapter on Max Weber but he had to leave Buffalo in the Bummer of 1975 for a teaching position in Davis and Elkins College, West Virginia, and our cooperation unfortunately ceased. Dennis was one of the most enthusiastic collaborators during my experimental seminar. The chapter on Max Weber on which he began to work was greatly enlarged and completed by me with the cooperation of Sue and Don ald. In my further work on this book I enjoyed the C'ontinuing help of Sue and Donald. He wrote a chapter on Sorokin, Sue largely con- iii contributed to it and I had only to add some short remarks. She wrote a first draft on Mannheim of which ten typed pages are in cluded in what I have finally prepared. Donald's greatest con tribution was to Part Three. He wrote the first draft of both chapters X and XI. Then I worked on them and added only a few pages to chapter X but half the material in chapter XI. Sue has her valuable inserts in many other chapters written by me and worked as a manuscript reviser of all chapters. She is the exclu sive author of the Appendix. For all their help and contributions I have offered to these two young friends, Sue Jansen and Donald Sabo, the co-authorship. I alone am responsible for all other chapters as well as the concept of this book, its main ideas as well as mistakes. I would like to express my appreciation to Audrey Mang, my former assistant, for her skillful, careful and thoughtful typing of the manuscript in a very short time. I would also like to thank Anastasia Johnson, Assistant to the Chairman, for her coor dinating efforts, and Rose Rabb, Margaret Holton, Diane Marlinski, and Edna Paine for their patient typing of the first drafts of this book. Aleksander Gella iv TABLE OF CONTENTS HUMANISM IN SOCIOLOGY: ITS HISTORICAL ROOTS AND CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS Acknowledgements i Foreword iii Introduction vii Part One Humanism versus Positivism Chapter I Meanings of Humanism 1 Chapter II Positivism: Idolatry in Academic Sociology 24 Chapter III A Crack in the Idol: The Contemporary Crisis in Science 32 Chapter IV The Search for a Humanistic Sociology 42 Part Two Historical Roots Chapter v Humanistic Revolution in 19th Century Philosophy: Dilthey, Windel band, and Rickert 57 Chapter VI Toward Interpretive Understanding: Max Weber 71 Chapter VII Humanistic Sociology of Florian Znaniecki 91 Chapter VIII Love has a Power of Its Own: Pitirim Sorokin 120 Chapter IX Sociological Culture: Karl Mannheim 139 v Part Three Societal Problems Chapter x Some Reflections on Techno- Scientific Optimism 159 Chapter XI Education in the Techno-Industrial Complex 176 Chapter XII Closing Remarks 192 Appendix Humanistic Trends in Recent Sociology: A Guide to Literature and Issues 202 Index of Names 246 vi INTRODUCTION The trend in sociological scholarship which is accurately labelled "humanistic" deserves particular attention during this period of great transformation through which humankind is now passing. Humanists in sociology recognize that man dwells in a hermeneutic circle: thus, they regard meaning and consciousness as the critical data upon which interpretations of social life are constructed. Because humanists in sociology have openly acknow ledged the legitimacy of their kinship to philosophy, they have been able to provide a forum for the continuous reappraisal of sociological knowledge and the methods used to obtain it. Simi larly, they have been sensitive to the role of values in society and in the scientific process itself. But, above all, humanism in sociology is distinguished by its commitment to the search for freedom of man in the machinery of social systems. It is also dedicated to the creation of a humane future. This book has two aims: first, to contribute to the develop ment of a greater awareness of the rich but neglected humanistic tradition in sociology which has a continuing significance for contemporary sociology; and, second, to demonstrate the relevance of the humanistic perspective for attempts to come to terms with the crisis in the modern world. To this end, various meanings of humanism are explored and their respective relations to the domi nant currents in western thought are discussed. Humanistic ele ments in the works of Dilthey, Weber, Znaniecki, Sorokin, and Mannheim are systematically reconsidered, Since recent developments in science underscore the need for a humanistic approach to societal problems, we will discuss human istic sociology within this context. During the past decade the dominant sociological paradigm which is derivative of the natural scientific tradition has come under intensive critical scrutiny. The relevance of conventional methods and theoretical exercises has been severely questioned. Yet, the urgent need for a means of comprehending societal problems has not receded. .Our age is shaking before a seemingly endless array of societal problems. The most compelling are: the increase in threats to the survival of humankind brought about by man's technological excesses as well as by the exhaustion of the world 1 s resources; the transformation from the stage of independent and often autarchic national states to a global interdependence of nations; and the increasingly wide spread dissatisfaction with modern science whose original character vii as a purely intellectual enterprise vanished in the parallel trends of subjugation by industry and growing service to and de pendence upon technology, The ideas and energies of this work were born of this sense of social and professional urgency. In considering contemporary world problems, we reached a disturbing conclusion concerning our own discipline. Much of the most prominent literature in sociology seems bereft of social relevance. Indeed, theoretical perambulations often exhibit a degree of abstract detachi:rent from individual experience and social realities which make their earthly genesis suspect. We therefore decided to make an effort to defend the rights of citi zenship in contemporary intellectual life of those sociological interests and studies which are suppressed by the domination of positivism and behaviorism, It must be recognized that social science today, despite its substantive and technical advances, cannot offer solutions to or even significantly broaden our understanding of pressing world problems, The positivistic character of the dominant methodologi cal models does not allow us to go beyond the limits prescribed by the principles on which these methods are founded, Often the specifistic inclinations and problematic foci of contemporary social science hinder formulation of the new conceptions of our humanity mandated by the imperatives of our shrinking globe. Many years ago, Robert Lynd warned social scientists, "Social science cannot perform its functions if the culture constrains it at certain points in ways foreign to the spirit of science; and at all points where such constraints limit the free use of intel ligence to pose problems, to analyze all relevant aspects of them, or to draw conclusions, it is necessary for social science to work directly to remove causes of these obstacles".l Although the quantitative approach is often regarded as the only legitimate form of inquiry within sociology, there are important subject matters and intellectual concerns which cannot be reduced to the precise methodological specifications of this version of the scientific enterprise.