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Book No. – 25 (Sociology)
Book Name – Masters of Sociological Thought
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1. THE WORK
1.1. THE OVERALL DOCTRINE
1.2 A PANORAMIC VIEW OF SOCIETY AND CULTURE
1.3. SOCIOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE
1.4. SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND SOCIAL MOBILITY
1.5. THE SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
2. THE MAN
2.1. FROM IKON PAINTER TO PROFESSIONAL REVOLUTIONARY
2.2. STUDENT AND SCHOLAR AT ST. PETERSBURG
2.3. THE REVOLUTION AND AFTER
2.4. THE FIRST YEARS IN AMERICA
2.5. THE HARVARD YEARS
3. THE INTELLECTUAL CONTEXT
3.1. POPULIST THOUGHT: HERZEN LAVROV AND AHKHAILOVSKY
3.2. DANILEVSKY AND THE REVOLT AGAINST THE IDEA OF LINEAR PROGRESS
3.3. ST PETERSBURG TEACHERS AND PEERS
4. THE SOCIAL CONTEXT
4.1. AN ABORTIVE REVOLUTION
4.2. THE PERPETUAL LONER FROM THE KOMI PEOPLE
4.3. A LONER IN AMERICA
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LANGUAGE
Pitirim A. Sorokin
Chapter – 13
Table of Contents
THE WORK
THE OVERALL DOCTRINE
- Sorokin’s sociological theory is based on the distinction between social statics (structural sociology) and social dynamics, with more focus on dynamics.
- Social statics did not significantly influence later sociological analyses, whereas his theories on social and cultural dynamics proved more original and fruitful.
- Sorokin identifies three essential elements in human interaction:
- Human actors as subjects of interaction
- Meanings, values, and norms that guide conduct
- Material phenomena as vehicles for objectifying and incorporating meanings and values.
- Like Max Weber, Sorokin rejected studying human affairs without reference to norms, meanings, and values, asserting that without these, human phenomena become mere biophysical phenomena, belonging to the biophysical sciences.
- Sorokin emphasized the importance of cultural factors as determinants of social conduct, with culture comprising meanings, norms, and values that are carried by material vehicles (e.g., ritual objects, works of art).
- In analyzing social interaction, Sorokin distinguishes between:
- Unorganized
- Organized
- Disorganized forms of interaction.
- He discusses types of legal and moral controls, and identifies solidary, antagonistic, and mixed systems of interaction.
- Sorokin also classifies social bonds as:
- Familistic
- Compulsory
- Mixed (contractual).
- He classifies organized groups based on their functional and meaningful ties, examining the intensity of group interaction and the closeness or slackness of ties.
- Groups can be uni-bonded, based on one main value (e.g., religious, occupational, or kinship groups), or multi-bonded, held together by multiple values (e.g., nation or social class).
- Both uni-bonded and multi-bonded groups can be either open or closed.
- Sorokin’s classification schemes for social interaction and group ties have had limited impact on his own work and others.
- His theory of social change, social mobility, and social stratification are more significant and deserving of attention.
A PANORAMIC VIEW OF SOCIETY AND CULTURE
- Sorokin’s “Social and Cultural Dynamics” attempts to develop a full explanatory scheme for social and cultural change, using detailed statistical investigations as supporting evidence.
- The work has a romantic cast, presenting a profusion of ideas and daring hypotheses, but lacks the poise, soberness, and careful argumentation of classical works.
- The work is best approached by considering its overall message and major contentions rather than detailed criticisms of particulars.
- Sorokin provides a panoramic survey of the course of human societies and cultures, supported by general propositions to illuminate historical variation in socio-cultural arrangements.
- He opposes unilinear explanations of human evolution and any approach, like Spengler’s, that uses quasi-biological analogies to describe the life cycle of cultures.
- Sorokin sees socio-cultural phenomena as based on relatively coherent and integrated aggregates of cultural outlooks, called mentalities, which influence specific periods in human history.
- He seeks the central principle or reason that gives sense and significance to a culture, creating cosmos from chaos of unintegrated fragments.
- Sorokin acknowledges that no culture is fully integrated, but believes socio-cultural phenomena reveal the operation of a few major premises when analyzed from his perspective.
- Three fundamental premises for conceiving reality:
- Sensate Culture: reality is directly accessible through the senses.
- Ideational Culture: reality is transcendent, seen through a vision of the eternal, as in Platonic idealism.
- Idealistic Culture: an intermediate form that synthesizes sensate and ideational elements in a dialectical balance.
- Corresponding to these premises are three forms of truth: sensory, spiritual, and rational.
- At different periods in history, one of the three premises dominates and characterizes the main ways of thinking, feeling, or experiencing an epoch.
- The dominant cultural premise influences the principal institutions of society (law, art, philosophy, science, religion), reflecting the prevailing mental outlook.
- During a Sensate period, for instance, science becomes empirical, art strives for realism, and religion focuses on concrete moral experience rather than faith or reason.
- Sorokin explains that all major social change is recurrent, driven by characteristic rhythms in history that are not random or subject to external whims.
- Cultural systems are subject to an inner necessity and their own peculiar destiny.
- The dominance of one cultural mentality leads to its demise through the exhaustion of its premises, which Sorokin calls the principle of immanent change.
- As a cultural system reaches its zenith, it becomes less capable of adapting and satisfying the needs of its bearers, eventually distorting the truth it once embodied.
- This distortion prepares the system’s demise and the birth of a new cultural system.
- The dialectic of Sorokin’s theory resembles Hegelian ideas, where change involves both the rise of a new life and the dissolution of the old one.
- Sorokin’s principle of limits explains the rhythmic periodicity of all socio-cultural phenomena.
- Sorokin’s cultural mentalities follow a reliable sequence: Sensate forms are followed by Ideational, then by Idealistic forms of cultural integration.
- After a complete cycle, a new Sensate culture initiates a new cycle.
- Western culture has completed two cycles since the early Greeks, and is now at the end of a Sensate phase that has lasted for several hundred years.
- The current Sensate stage is overripe and has reached its limits, leading to a disintegrating culture unable to give meaning or significance to our lives.
- Ideas once dominant no longer serve as guides, and the culture is in decline, with the first signs of a new Ideational integration emerging.
- Sorokin describes the current world as one where the center no longer holds and where even the best lack conviction, but those with vision can sense potential redemption.
- Sorokin’s statistical labors on trends in art, philosophy, ethics, legal norms, and social relationships during times of peace and conflict are in the first three volumes of his magnum opus but have been critiqued by experts.
- Hans Speier criticized Sorokin’s study of history, saying it was imbued with the spirit of the doctrine he sought to refute, since his methods were empirically driven.
- Sorokin might argue that even attempts to refute Sensate empiricism must rely on the tools of his time, acknowledging that his romantic contributions should be judged by the fruitfulness of his theoretical leads for future scholars.
- Despite some general contentions being debunked, Sorokin’s anticipations, especially regarding technology and culture in the 1970s, show a prophetic sense of future developments.
- Sorokin’s stress on immanent change, as opposed to externally induced change, might gain renewed significance in the context of the debate on modernization and underdevelopment.
- Scholars questioning why the external impact of Western culture has had varied results in Third World nations may benefit from Sorokin’s perspective, asking whether cultures in Ideational or Idealistic phases are more resistant to Sensate influences than those already conditioned by Sensate ideas.
- The differences in acceptance of modern birth control methods in countries like Japan or Korea (more receptive) compared to India or Egypt (less receptive) may be related to their phase in cultural mentalities.
- Sorokin’s principle of limits, although presented in a dogmatic and grandiose manner, could be an interesting hypothesis if refined.
- Claude Levi-Strauss’s method of analysis shows similarities to Sorokin’s principle of limits, suggesting that social types are not isolated but are the result of endless combinations of fundamental elements seeking to solve the same problems.
- Sorokin’s overall view is closely tied to his sociology of knowledge, a field to which he made significant contributions.