1st Edition

Sorokin and Civilization A Centennial Assessment

By Joseph B. Ford Copyright 1996
    268 Pages
    by Routledge

    268 Pages
    by Routledge

    Sorokin and Civilization is a festschrift to Pitirim Sorokin, one of the most famed figures of twentieth-century sociology and first president of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations (ISCSC). He was a giant of the twentieth-century stage in the larger world as well. He debated with Trotsky, exchanged ideas with Pavlov, and received a personal invitation to meet with President Masaryk of Czechoslovakia. His principled dissent from sociological orthodoxy frequently anticipated that of Charles Wright Mills, Alfred McClung Lee, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn. He was, to paraphrase Joseph Ford, a scholar among statesmen and a statesman among scholars.

    The volume is divided into four parts: "A Life Remembered"; "Sorokin as Gadfly"; "Sorokin's Methodology"; and, "Applying Sorokin's Theories." Contributors and chapters to this volume include: "Sorokin's Life and Work" by Barry V. Johnston; "The Sorokin-Merton Correspondence on Puritanism, Pietism, and Science" by Robert K. Merton; "Sorokin and American Sociology: The Dynamics of a Moral Career in Science" by Lawrence T. Nichols; "Sorokin as Dialectician" by Robert C. Hanson; "Applying Sorokin's Typology" by Michel P. Richard; and "Transitions, Revolutions, and Wars" by William Eckhardt. Sorokin and Civilization will appeal to all those with an interest in cultural and historical processes and the life and theories of Sorokin.

    Preface
    Roger Williams Wescott
    Part I: A Life Remembered
    1. Sorokin's Life and Work
    Barry V. Johnston
    2. Sorokin Remembered
    Edward A. Tiryakian
    3. The Sorokin-Merton Correspondence on "Puritanism, Pietism, and Science," 1933 34
    Robert K. Merton
    Part II: Sorokin as Gadfly
    4. Snakes and Ladders: Parsons and Sorokin at Harvard
    William Buxton
    5. Sorokin and American Sociology: The Dynamics of a Moral Career in Science
    Lawrence T. Nichols
    6. Sorokin's Challenge to Modernity
    Palmer C. Talbutt
    Part III: Sorokin's Methodology
    7. Sorokin's Methodology: Integralism as the Key
    Joseph B. Ford
    8. Sorokin as Dialectician
    Robert C. Hanson
    9. Sorokin's Concept of Immanent Change
    Robert G. Perrin
    10. Civilizational Worldview as an Aggregate of Intuitions
    David Richardson
    Part IV: Applying Sorokin's Theories
    11. Sorokin versus Toynbee on Civilization
    David Wilkinson
    12. Applying Sorokin's Typology
    Michel P. Richard
    13. An Empirical Assessment of Sorokin's Theory of Change
    George A. Hillery, Jr.
    Susan V. Mead
    Robert G. Turner, Jr.
    14. A Study of Generational Fluctuations in Philosophical Beliefs
    Dean Keith Simonton
    15. Sorokin's Vision of Altruistic Love as a Bridge to Human Consensus
    Paul V. Crosbie
    Samuel P. Oliner
    16. Transitions, Revolutions, and Wars
    William Eckhardt
    Contributors
    Bibliography
    Name Index
    Subject Index

    Biography

    Joseph B. Ford