PITIRIM A. SOROKIN: SOCIAL SCIENCE IN THE 'GRAND MANNER'

In: Social science quarterly, Band 49, Heft 1, S. 142-151

Abstract

P. A. Sorokin's work is conveniently classified into 6 categories: autobiographical items, 'conventional' sociol'al works, cultural studies, critiques of theory & methods, popular essays, considerations of love & altruism. The centrally important category is that of cultural analysis, under which Sorokin's major work on SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DYNAMICS (see SA 4402) falls. The meaning of sensate, ideational & idealistic forms is reviewed & Sorokin's too easy tendency to take culture style-discrepancies as evidence of basic cultural divergence is criticized. Sorokin on culture is then compared with his contemporaries, Alfred L. Kroeber & Talcott Parsons. Kroeber was more reliable. Parsons is a tidier theorist, who has developed a more impressive conceptualization of the relations of cultural & soc dimensions. Sorokin's work remains worth while, his DYNAMICS particularly so. AA.