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THE AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL FORUM
PITIRIM A. SOROKIN
IN REVIEW
E d i t e d b
y
PHILIP J. ALLEN
DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Durham, N. C. 1963
(C) 1963, Duke University Press
Library
of
Congress Catalogue Card Number 63-7634
Cambridge University Press, London N.W. 1, England
This book is published with the assistance
of a grant to the Duke University Press
by the Ford Foundation
Printed in the United States
of
America
by the Seeman Printery, Inc., Durham, N. C.
Biographic Sketches of Contributors
Othmar F. Anderle, Director of the Institut fiir Theoretisclie Ge-
schichte in Salzburg, Austria, is Secretary-General of the Interna-
tional Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations. He has
pubhshed numerous volumes and journal articles in cultural mor-
phology and the philosophy of history.
Bernard Barber, Professor of Sociology at Barnard College, Colum-
bia University, previously taught at Harvard University and at
Smith College. His major publications and professional interests
lie in the sociology of science and social stratification. He is best
known, perhaps, for his volume Social Stratification. He is on the
Council for Atomic Age Studies.
Gosta Carlsson, Head of the Sociology Department at the Universi-
ty of Lund (Sweden), previously taught at the University of
Stockholm. His major research interests lie in methodology, his-
tory of sociology, pubhc opinion, and social stratification. Among
his pubhcations are Dimensions
of
Behavior (Lund, 1949); Social-
psykologisk metod (Stockholm, 1949); and Social Mobility and
Class Structure (Lund, 1958).
F. Richard Cowell has just retired from a lifetime of public service
with the British government. Up to his retirement he was Secretary
of the United Kingdom National Commission for UNESCO, a post
he had held since UNESCO's foundation in 1946. He has been
invested by H. M. Queen Elizabeth II with the Order of "Com-
panion of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint
George" (C.M.G.
),
the first investiture of Queen EHzabeth after
she ascended the throne. His major publications include Cicero
and the Roman Republic (1948 and 1956); Everyday
Life in
Ancient Rome
(1961);
History, Civilization and Culture: An Intro-
VI Biographic Sketches of Contributors
duction to the Historical and Social Philosophy
of
Pitirim A. Sorokin
(
1952
)
; and Culture in Private and Public
Life
(
1959 )
.
Joseph 6. Fore/, Professor of Sociology and Chairman of the De-
partment at San Fernando Valley State College in Los Angeles,
Cahfomia, has taught at several universities here and abroad. He
has published numerous articles in professional journals (American
and other), and he is now writing a volume with C. C. Zimmerman
on The Sociology
of
Change, to be pubhshed by Ronald Press.
Corrado Gini, President of the International Institute of Sociology,
is a most prodigious scholar, whose publications span a half-century.
He was Professor of Statistics at a number of ItaHan universities
before going to the University of Rome, where he was successively
Dean of the School of Statistics (1928-35) and Dean of the Faculty
of Statistical, Demographic, and Actuarial Sciences (1935-54).
He has been President of the Italian Society of Genetics and
Eugenics
(1924),
the Italian Sociological Society
(1937),
the
Itahan Society of Statistics
(1941),
and the 14th International
Congress of Sociology
(
1950 ) . He was a member of the League of
Nations Committee of Statistical Experts (1930-37), and he has
fiUed numerous other important offices in Italy and elsewhere.
Among his many publications are II sesso dal punto di vista statisti-
co
(
Sex from
the Statistical Standpoint, 1908
)
; I fattori demografici
delVevoluzione delle nazioni (a publication which Sorokin says
influenced him greatly while he was yet an undergraduate student);
11 neo-organicismo
( 1927
)
; The Cyclical Rise and Fall
of
Population
(1930);
La dinamica della popolazione {Dynamics
of
Population,
1932
)
; and many other volumes and journal articles.
Alex Inkeles is Professor of Sociology at Harvard University and
Director of Studies in Social Relations at the Russian Research Cen-
ter. He is author of Public Opinion in Soviet Russia, and co-author
of How the Soviet System Works and The Soviet Citizen. He has
published numerous articles in various professional journals in areas
of his major research interests: the interrelations of personality and
social structure.
Biographic SIcetches of Contributors vil
David R. Mace is Executive Director of the American Association
of Marriage Counselors and President of the National Council on
Family Relations. He has taught at Drew University and at the
School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. Since 1953
he has been Chairman of the International Commission on Marriage
Guidance, set up by the International Union of Family Organiza-
tions (headquarters in Paris), Consultative Body of UNESCO.
He has helped to develop marriage guidance services in South
Africa, West Africa, East Asia, Austraha, New Zealand, India, and
Ceylon. He has probably written more articles on marriage than
any other writer in the world, having had regularly serialized col-
umns in numerous newspapers and magazines in England, Australia,
New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States. His published
books include Does Sex Morality Matter?, Marriage Counselling,
Marriage Crisis, Hebrew Marriage, Whom God Hath Joined, Mar-
riage: The Art
of
Lasting Love, Success in Marriage, Youth Looks
Toward Marriage, and Marriage: East and West (with Mrs. David
R. Mace). In 1960 he visited the Soviet Union to collect material
for a forthcoming book on Soviet family life. His contribution to
the present volume draws perceptively upon such material.
Lucio Mendieta
y
Nunez has been Chief of Mexico's Department of
Population of the Bureau of Anthropology; Director, Revista Politica
Social; Director of the Institute of Social Investigations of the Uni-
versity Nacional de Mexico (since 1939); Director of the Revista
Mexicana de Sociologia (since 1939); member of the Mexican-U. S.
Institute of Cultural Relations; and President of the Instituto Mexi-
cano de Derecho Agrario. He has written many volumes, among
them: Las Pohlaciones indeginas de America ante el derecho actual
(1935),
La Universidad creadora
y
otros ensayos
(1936),
Valor
economia
y
social de las pohlaciones indeginas de Mexico
(1936),
La Economia del indio
(1938),
La Hahitacione indegina
(1938),
El problema agrario de Mexico (4th ed., 1940),
La Administracion
publica en Mexico
(
1942 )
.
Robert K. Merfon, Professor of Sociology and Chairman of the De-
partment at Columbia University, has directed, advised, and/or
served on many boards, foundations, councils, etc., and was Presi-
dent of the American Sociological Society
(1957). Among his
VIII Biographic Sketches of Contributors
numerous publications are Science, Technology and Society in 17th
Century England
(1938),
Mass Persuasion
(1946),
Social Theory
and Social Structure (1949 and
1957); he is co-author of The Fo-
cussed Interview
(
1952 and 1956
)
, and Freedom to Read
( 1957 )
.
He has also been contributor to and co-editor of Continuities in
Social Research
(
1950
)
, Social Policy and Social Research in Federal
Housing (1951),
Reader in Bureaucracy
(1952),
The Student
Physician
(1957),
Sociology Today
(1959),
and Contemporary
Social Problems (1961).
Mary E. Moore, Instructor in Psychology and Psychiatry at the
University of Pennsylvania, has collaborated with Matilda White
Riley on several methodological papers, notably in the area of
dyadic relationships. Currently she is associated with a research
project investigating the social and psychological correlates of
obesity.
Kanailal M. Munshi, attorney, philosopher, writer, and educator, has
served as a public servant in India in numerous capacities: Home
Minister, Government of Bombay; Member of the Constituent As-
sembly and Drafting Committee; Member of Parhament
(
1947-52
)
;
Agent-General for the Government of India (1947-48); Minister of
Food and Agriculture
(
1950-52
)
; Executive Chairman of the Indian
Law Institute; and Advocate of the Supreme Court of India. He
was an associate of Mahatma Gandhi, and he has published over
fifty books on India's life, history, philosophy, art, literature, and
contemporary affairs.
Matilda White Riley, Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University,
also teaches in the Graduate School at New York University. She
has for many years been active in the affairs of the American Soci-
ological Association, serving as its Executive Officer from 1949 to
1960. She has held both research and teaching appointments at
Harvard. During the war she served as Chief Consultant to the
War Production Board and has continued to advise on federal pro-
grams. She is the author of several books and many articles in the
field of sociology.
Biographic Sl<etches of Contributors IX
T. Lynn Smith, Research Professor of Sociology and chairman of the
Department at the University of Florida, has taught at and headed
the sociology departments of Louisiana State University (1931-47)
and Vanderbilt University where, in addition, he was Director of the
Institute of Brazilian Studies
(
1947-49). He has been with the U. S.
Department of State (1942-46), assigned to embassies in Rio de
Janeiro, Bogota, and San Salvador. He has served as Visiting Profes-
sor at numerous universities in the United States and abroad, and he
has lectured extensively abroad under the auspices of the U. S. De-
partment of State. Among his publications are The Sociology
of
Rural
Life (1940, 1947, and 1953), Population Analysis
(1948),
Brazil: People and Institutions (1946 and 1954); Rural Sociology:
A Trend Report
( 1957
)
, Fundamentals
of
Population Study
(
1960 )
.
Nicholas S. Timasheff is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Ford-
ham University. He taught at the Polytechnic Institute at St.
Petersburg, Russia, at the University of Prague, and at Harvard
University before going to Fordham in 1940. He also was a mem-
ber of the Institute of Slavic Studies and Franco-Russian Institute
of Political and Social Science, in Paris (1927-36). Among his
publications are Criminology, Introduction to the Sociology
of
Law,
The Great Retreat, The Law
of
Soviet Russia, Sociological Theory:
Its Nature and Growth.
Arnold J. Toynbee, British historian and philosopher of history,
was a Fellow and tutor at Balliol College (1912-15); member of
the staff of Political Intelligence, Department of Foreign Office
(1918);
member of the Middle Eastern section of the British Dele-
gation to the Peace Conference; Professor of Byzantine and Modem
Greek Language, Literature and History at London University
(1919-24); Director of Studies of the Royal Institute of Interna-
tional Affairs
(
1925-55
)
; Research Professor of History at the Lon-
don School of Economics
(
1925-55
)
; and has occupied many other
positions of importance in England. Among his numerous publica-
tions are Nationality and the War
(1915),
The Western Question
in Greece and Turkey
(1922), A Survey
of
International
A-ffairs
(with V. M. Boulter, 1924), A lourney to China
(1931),
A Study
of
History
(12 volumes, 1934-61), Civilization on Trial
(1948),
The World and the West
(
1953
)
, An Historians Approach to Re-
X Biographic Sketches of Contributors
ligion (1956),
Christianity Among the Religions
of
the World
(1958),
East to West: A Journey Around the World
(1958),
Hel-
lenism (1959).
Alexandre Vexliard, now Professor of Psychology and Pedagogy at
the University of Ankara, Turkey, has been Director of Technical
Colleges at Avignon and Clermont-Ferrand (1942-47) and has
taught Applied Psychology at the University of Clermont-Ferrand.
He was Attache des Recherches at the National Scientific Research
Center in France
(
1948-53
)
; and psychologist at the French Inter-
national Labor Ofiice in Geneva. His many publications include
Le Clochard, Etude de Psychologie Sociale, Introduction a'la Soci-
ologie du Vagabondage, and over one hundred articles in various
professional journals dealing with psychology, sociology, history,
and other fields.
Translators
Lia Beretta, who helped to translate Corrado Gini's essay, is Assistant
Professor of Modern Foreign Languages at Mary Washington College of
the University of Virginia.
Marion A. Greene, who helped to translate Alexandre Vexliard's essay,
is Associate Professor of Modern Foreign Languages at Mary Washington
College of the University of Virginia.
Edwin H. Jones, who helped to translate Alexandre Vexliard's essay,
is Associate Professor of Modern Foreign Languages at Mary Washing-
ton College of the University of Virginia.
Kurt F. Leidecker, who translated Othmar F. Anderle's essay, is Professor
of Philosophy at Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia.
Clifton B. Mcintosh, who helped to translate Lucio Mendieta
y
Nunez's
essay, is Associate Professor of Modern Foreign Languages at Mary
Washington College of the University of Virginia.
T. Lynn Smith, who has already been identified as one of the con-
tributors, helped to translate the above-mentioned Mendieta
y
Nunez
essay from the Spanish. In correspondence with him, he has asked that
credit be given to W. Kennedy Upham and Fabio Barhosa da Silva, two
of his associates at the University of Florida.
General Foreword
The American Sociological Forum is a continuing project with
two major aims:
(1)
a critical assessment of the writings of un-
usually creative behavioral scientists, and
(2)
a critical examina-
tion and analysis, from divergent disciplinary approaches, of con-
temporary social problems which are widely recognized as most
pressing.
As Professor Arnold
J.
Toynbee states elsewhere in the present
volume:
The blinkers that have been inserted between the so-called disciplines
into which the study of human affairs has been arbitrarily partitioned
are as much against the interests of mankind as any political iron-curtain
is. In the Atomic Age that has now overtaken us, it is a good deed to
provoke people, if one cannot entice them, to cross these perverse man-
made barriers. If the trans-frontier traflBc becomes brisk enough, the
barriers will gradually be worn down, and to get rid of them is one of
the present vital interests of the human race. In the Atomic Age, as we
know, the choice confronting us is "one world or none." Sorokin has
overridden the conventional barriers between the "disciplines." He has
taken human affairs as a whole, and has studied them from any promising
angle by any promising method. Perhaps this is the greatest of his
many services to mankind's common cause.
To fulfil its first aim the Forum intends, from time to time, to
publish a volume on a social scientistsociologist, social-psycholo-
gist, cultural anthropologist, or otherwhose publications, having
evoked widespread interest and reaction, call for serious assessment
by competent contemporaries. Together with such assessment,
each volume will include: (a) sl sociological autobiography that
endeavors to bring to light important factors and events in the life-
history of the scholar under review, which may provide an insight
into his major motivations and achievements, and (b) a carefully
deliberated reply to the assessment by the scholar being evaluated.
To fulfil its second aim, the Forum will attempt, from time to
time, to analyze what may be considered major social problems and
XII General Foreword
issues in the social sciences, by way of confronting diverging or
conflicting social analysts with each other, encouraging them to
communicate within and across disciplinary lines. The long-range
aim is a cross-fertilization of ideas, as well as an optimum utiliza-
tion of human energy and resources for a more comprehensive attack
upon pressing problems themselves, with a minimum wastage of
such human energy and resources, which is sometimes found in
unilateral approaches, or in segmental approaches that cancel out
each other's efforts.
P.J.A.
Editor's Introduction
The idea of The American Sociological Forum was conceived
in an intellectual climate of mild exasperation at Northwestern
University during the years 1938-40. It resulted from a multiplicity
of influences converging from graduate courses taken in diverse
fields : sociology, social psychology, scientific methodology, statistics,
philosophy, ethics, and others. Taking some of these courses simul-
taneously, I experienced the enlightening amazement of the student
who is on the receiving end of lectures delivered by professors who
are obhvious of each other and whose intellectual operations are
often carried on within mutually exclusive frames of reference.
Gradually I became painfully aware of the reciprocal intransigence
and mutual unintelligibility of some specialists digging in different
academic fields and, on occasion, of subspecialists working in the
same field.
It is well known that speciafization is almost invariably ac-
companied by a corresponding differentiation of the speciafist from
his fellows in other academic disciplines. Even within each disci-
phne, when subspecialists have emerged and established them-
selves, they have tended to promote a further differentiating
process. It is precisely the differentiation accompanying special-
ization that gradually and nearly imperceptibly tends to mold
and shape attitudes, to redirect emotions, and to slant a point
of view to fit a given frame of reference, one that is internalized
as part of the psychological structuring apparatus of indi-
vidual specialists. Often, after specialists have been molded,
shaped, and pofished over according to specifications of a given set
of Ph.D. requirements of a particular disciphne, they seem to exhibit
a trained incapacity to communicate effectively with specialists
from other disciplines.
This difficulty in communication between specialists from dif-
ferent discipHnes assumed, in time, the proportions of a large enough
XIV
Editor's Introduction
problem, in my judgment, to merit special examination and analysis.
It was my reading of Karl Manheim's Ideology and Utopia, which
deals with the sociology of knowledgea field, as I later learned,
which had been systematically explored by Sorokinthat enabled
me more clearly to see and understand the nature of the problem.
I tried to explore various facets of this problem with individual
professors, but in vain. Each seemed to be psychologically en-
trenched within a particular frame of reference and he could not be
easily dislodged. I noted, too, the contempt with which some
philosophers viewed psychologists and sociologists, and the culti-
vated indifference toward philosophers with which the behavioral
scientists responded.
In 1939 Professor Edward Alsworth Ross came to teach at
Northwestern University, and I happily enrolled in two of his
courses. Ross's impatience with philosophers, found in many of his
publications, showed up repeatedly in the classroom. But it was
couched in a magnanimity so characteristic of Ross that it was
usually well received, even by graduate students with major com-
mitments to philosophy.
I found Professor Ross delightfully stimulating in the classroom.
As one of the founders of sociology and social psychology in
America, he had a perspective that no other living sociologist pos-
sessed. But it was in personal consultations on my thesis project
that he proved most helpful.
At one of these individual conferences one day, I ventured to
broach to him my idea of a sociological forum in which divergent
views on a particular problem could be expressed by competent
scholars, sociologists, and others from different disciplines. To
my pleasant surprise, Professor Ross responded with hearty ap-
proval. He agreed that there was plenty of room for any device
that aimed to promote a "meeting of minds" and reduce the amount
of "talking past each other."
Meanwhile, in the spring of 1940, I made the acquaintance of
Professor Paul Arthur Schilpp of Northwestem's philosophy de-
partment. We talked about various matters of common interest.
In the course of our conversation, I mentioned my discussions with
E. A. Ross on the idea of some sociological forum. Professor
Schilpp hastened to point out that, not only had he himself en-
countered a problem among philosophers similar to the one then of
Editor's Introduction XV
concern to me, but that he had actually embarked upon a venture
that aimed to meet it for philosophers, by way of his recently estab-
lished "Library of Living Philosophers," which had just published
its first volume on The Philosophy
of
John Dewey.
In Professor Schilpp, at long last, I found a man with whom it
seemed possible to communicate fruitfully. We were so concordant
in views exchanged on problems we discussed that, then and there,
at this first meeting, Professor Schilpp invited me to become his
assistant in "The Library of Living Philosophers," as soon as his
present assistant secured his degree, in
June.
I pointed out to Pro-
fessor Schilpp that my major interests were in sociology, and he
replied that I could continue working toward my Ph.D. in sociology,
while I assisted him in his "Library." I promptly accepted.
My association with Professor Schilpp, during 1940-41, was
most profitable to me. More than once, as we worked together,
sharing the same office, he urged me to go out and do for sociologists
what he was doing for philosophers.^ Originally, my idea, as
broached to Professor E. A. Ross, had been one that involved identi-
fying and defining problem areas; then, inviting scholars to examine
and analyze a given problem from different disciplinary approaches;
next, submitting the analytical papers to a third scholar, preferably
one who had managed to tuck away "two disciplines under one
skull," for his assessment; this would then be submitted to the
original scholars for their reactions to this assessment and to each
other's analyses; and these, finally, were to be followed by the as-
sessor's concluding remarks. This, it seemed to me, could become
a grand dialogue, a delightful and enlightening forum.
My work with Professor Schilpp, in time, persuaded me that his
own approachthat of taking one outstanding scholar, having his
writings criticized by various contemporaries, and then providing
him an opportunity to answer their criticismshad great merit.^
^Professor Schilpp continued to urge me to be sure to start a "library" in
sociology while, at the same time, he urged another graduate student of his, whose
primary interests were in theology, to go out and start such a "library" in theology.
The other graduate student, Charles Kegley, finally acted upon this suggestion and
started his theology series, calling it "The Library of Living Theology" (of which
volume I was on The Theology
of
Paul Tillich, 1952, and volume II was on The
Theology
of
Reinhold Niebuhr, 1956, both published by Macmillan).
^
Professor Schilpp launched his "Library of Living Philosophers" series in 1939,
with the publication of The Philosophy
of
John Dewey. He proposed to claTiy
issues in philosophy by publishing "at more or less regular intervals a volume on
each of the greater among the world's hving philosophers." Each volume would
XVI Editor's Introduction
Indeed, the sociological forum could be launched in this form, it
seemed to me, although scholars participating would have to be
selected from diverse disciplines to achieve the primary goal I had
earlier visualized.
While the core of the idea of The American Sociological
Forum, therefore, was conceived before I met Professor Schilpp,
in classes I had with Ernest R. Mowrer, Arthur
J.
Todd, Irl G.
Whitchurch, Murray Leiffer, and E. A. Ross, the idea underwent
considerable change as a consequence of my fruitful association
with Professor Schilpp. This present volume of the Forum series
shows configurations that clearly reflect my profitable association
with Professor Schilpp.
As the idea of the Forum took shape, I began to think seriously
of enlisting the co-operation of Professor E. A. Ross, to try to per-
suade him to be the first subject for analysis and assessment in the
Forum. Not only was he a controversial figure, academically, but
his numerous influential publications fully justified his selection.
In the next few months, therefore, I undertook to work out a tenta-
tive outline for a volume on Ross. When I completed this, I sub-
mitted it to Ross and then waited for his reply.
To my pleasant surprise, Professor Ross responded with delight,
not to say enthusiasm. That first tentative table of contents con-
tained the names of nineteen potential contributors each of whom
was to assess a special area of his own demonstrated competence,
to which Ross had made a widely recognized contribution. The
first tentative list of contributors included Arthur
J.
Todd, Ernest
R. Mowrer (both of whom had consented to participate), P. A.
Sorokin, and others. After several rounds of correspondence with
Professor Ross, he wrote:
As to your projected volume, the chief thing I can say is that it's just too
good to come true. Such a volume should satisfy any thinker's demands.
... If you got one-third of the nineteen men you seek to interest to
contain: (1)
"critical articles written by leading exponents and opponents of the
philosopher's thought"; (2) a reply by the philosopher being criticized;
(3)
"an
intellectual autobiography" or biography of the philosopher; and (4)
an up-to-date
bibliography of his writings. The widespread acclaim accorded to the voliunes
published by Professor Schilpp in his "Library" speaks eloquently for the value of
this series to the world's philosophers. I desire, here, merely to acknowledge my
own debt to my very dear friend, Paul Arthur Schilpp, for all I learned from him
throughout my pleasant association with him at Northwestern University, and for
his constant encouragement.
Editor's Introduction
XVII
"come across" I should be more than tickled. So all I can say: If you
receive fair encouragement, you can count on me to do everything that
might help to make the book a success.
Meanwhile, at the 1940 annual meeting of the American Socio-
logical Society, Professor P. A. Sorokin delivered a major address,
which evoked heated responses from a number present. Sorokin
undertook to criticize adversely eflForts of some sociologists to
emulate the natural sciences. After Sorokin's paper, Professor
Ross and others arose on the conference floor to take issue with
Sorokin. This, to me, all the more dramatized the need for a
sociological forum such as I had visualized: one that encouraged
systematically planned confrontation of persons with divergent
opinions and points of view.
Some days after the meeting, I wrote to Professor Sorokin, com-
menting upon his address, and he replied: "I hope in my forth-
coming volume four of Dynamics to be able to substantiate most
of the statements put in my paper dogmatically." In my letter to
Sorokin I had expressed the hope that we might meet in person,
sometime, to discuss a project I had in mind. I had wanted to dis-
cuss, not only his participation in the Ross volume, but also the
tentative volume I had planned on Sorokin himself.
Unfortunately, this meeting never materialized; for shortly
thereafter, the war in Europe began to assume world-wide propor-
tions, threatening to involve the United States. Sometime after
this country's entry into the war, I was commissioned an oflBcer in
the Air Force and I did not return to civilian life until 1946. Mean-
while, Professor Ross had aged so greatly that I abandoned most
reluctantly the idea of the volume on him, since its success required
Ills very active and vigorous participation.
Subsequent events, academic and other, since that time, so
usurped my time and energy that I continued to postpone imple-
mentation of the Forum idea. It was not until the fall of 1958,
when Professor Sorokin was invited to lecture on our campus,
through The Richmond Area University Center,^ that I outlined the
present volume to him and secured his consent to participate in
the venture. He encouraged me to go ahead, promising every co-
^
I hereby wish to acknowledge with gratitude the modest financial support
provided by The Richmond Area University Center for the typing of the present
volume manuscript.
Editor's Introduction
operation he could give to help make the volume a success. So
I undertook to launch the Forum series. The present volume, at
long last, is the fruition of an idea nearly a quarter of a century
in gestation, and I am grateful to Professor Sorokin and all the
distinguished contributors for its reahzation.
Of all those w^ho early agreed to participate in this volume,
only Howard Becker, then President of the American Sociological
Association, w^as prevented by his untimely death from carrying
out his commitment. His death w^as a great loss, not only to those
of us working upon this volume, but to the American Sociological
Association and the rest of the sociological world.
Professor Sorokin has given of his time and energy most gen-
erously, co-operating in ways far beyond reasonable expectation,
for which I am profoundly grateful. The pubhcation date of this
volume so closely coincides with Professor Sorokin's seventy-fourth
birthday, January 21, that he may well consider it a grand birthday
present from his professional colleagues over the world.
I am indebted to many others, far more than can be named here.
Mention should be made of the publishers of Professor Sorokin's
various works for giving their generous consent to quote. I am
grateful to Miss Marguerite L. Carder, Reference Librarian at my
institution; to Mr. Ashbel Brice, Director of the Duke University
Press, for valuable counsel; and to the competent staff of the Duke
University Press for their painstaking co-operation in preparing the
manuscript for publication. Finally, I wish to acknowledge my
debt to my wife, Dorothy Wiley Allen, for her untiring assistance,
patience, and perseverance at all stages of this project, from be-
ginning to end.
Philip
J.
Allen
Mary Washington College
of
the University
of
Virginia
Contents
Biographic Sl<etches of Contributors v
General Foreword xi
Editor's Introduction xiii
Part One
SOCIOLOGY OF MY MENTAL LIFE
Pitirim A. Sorokin
I. Preliminary Remarks 3
II. Early Years 4
III. External Course of My Life 7
IV. Visible Factors of My Early Menial Life 1 1
V. Invisible and Dark Factors of My Early Mental Life 1 8
VI. First Crisis and Its Visible Factors 20
VII. Post-Crisis Integration of My Mental Life 25
Vlli. New Crisis and New Reintegration 28
IX. Conclusions 31
Part Two
SOROKIN IN REVIEW
Joseph B. Ford
SOROKIN AS PHILOSOPHER 39
I. Is Sorokin a Philosopher? 39
II. Sorokin's Integralism 41
III. The Theory of Integralism 49
IV. Evaluation of Sorokin's Integralism 53
Arnold J. Toynbee
SOROKIN'S PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY 67
Oihmar F. Anderle
SOROKIN AND CULTURAL MORPHOLOGY 95
XX
Contents
Gosta Carlsson
SOROKIN'S THEORY OF SOCIAL MOBILITY 1 22
I. Some General Remarks 1 22
II. The Argumenf From Hisfory 124
III. The Argument From Function 1 28
IV. The Quantitafive Study of Mobility 131
V. The Limits of Mobility 1 35
David R. Mace
SOROKIN'S THEORIES ON SEX AND SOCIETY 140
Alexandre Vexliard
SOROKIN'S PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES 160
I. A Bird's-Eye View of Sorokin's Psychological Theories 161
II. The Structure of Personality 1 63
III. Society and Personality 1 68
IV. Techniques of Transformation of Personality 1 73
V. Criticisms of Contemporary Psychology 1 79
VI. Answers to Certain Criticisms Made by Sorokin 183
T. Lynn Smith
SOROKIN'S RURAL-URBAN PRINCIPLES 188
I. The Setting: The University of Minnesota 189
II. Ob/ecf/ves 190
III. Sorokin's Share in the Work 1 92
IV. Significance for the Development of Rural Sociology 1 94
V. The Durability of Sorokin's Principles 1 98
VI. Teacher and Teacher of Teachers 203
Matilda White Riley and Mary E. Moore
SOROKIN'S USE OF SOCIOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT 206
I. /emenf$ of Measurement 207
II. C/oss/ficaf/on of Coses on Multiple Dimensions 209
III. The Combining of Dimensions 210
IV. Concepfs vs. Indicants 213
V. Groups vs. Action 2 1
4
VI. ^(easuremenf of the Component of Meaning 215
VII. Combining Indicants of Action and Actor 217
Vlll, Socio/ System Tests 220
IX. Limitations and Difficulties 221
X. From the Observer's Viewpoint 222
A/ex Inkeles
RUSSIA AND THE UNITED STATES: A PROBLEM IN COMPARATIVE
SOCIOLOGY 225
I. Some Features of Socio/ Structure in the U.S. and U.S.S.R. 226
II. Problems in Comparative Structural Analysis 242
Contents XXI
N. S. TimasbefF
SOROKIN ON LAW, REVOLUTION, WAR, AND SOCIAL CALAMITIES 247
I. Law 247
II. Revolufion 256
III. War 265
IV. Socio/ Calamifies in General 273
F. R. Cowell
HOW COWELL OF ENGLAND ASSESSES SOROKIN 276
K. M. Munshi
HOW MUNSHI OF INDIA ASSESSES SOROKIN 300
Corrac/o Gini
HOW GIN! OF ITALY ASSESSES SOROKIN 306
luc/o Mendieta
y
Nunez
A LATIN-AMERICAN ASSESSMENT 3 18
Robert K. Merton and Bernard Barber
SOROKIN'S FORMULATIONS IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF SCIENCE 332
I. Sorokin's Sociology of Science: The Central Position 334
II. Macro- and Microsociological Perspectives of Knowledge 338
III. Cultural Determinism and the Relative Autonomy of Subsystems 343
iV. Empirical Research: Quantitative Indicators in the Sociology of Science 349
V. Relativism and the Criteria of Scientific Truth 357
VI. The Cumulation of Scientific Knowledge 361
VII, Themes of the Dialogue 366
Part Three
REPLY TO MY CRITICS
Pitirim A. Sorokin
I. Introductory Remarks 371
II. An Ouffine of My Integral Philosophy 372
III. Integral Cognition and System of Truth 380
IV. An Integral Theory of Man and of the Sociocultural World 382
V. Reply to Criticisms of My Integral System of Knowledge by Joseph B. Ford and Daya
Krishna 383
VI. Summary Answers to Other Philosophical Issues 400
VII. Civilizations and Cultural and Social Systems 409
VIII. Arnold J. Toynbee s Critical Inquiries 426
IX. Sociology in General and Homosociology in Particular 436
X. Problems of Sociological Measurement 440
XI. Problems of Social Mobility and Stratification 449
XII. Problems of Law, Revolution, War, and Calamities 454
XXII Contents
XIII. Problems of American-Russian Relationships 461
XIV. Sex Problems and Theories 469
XV. Problems of the Wissen-und-Kulfursoziologie 474
XVI. Acknowledgment of Profound Gratitude to T. Lynn Smith, F. R. Cowell, Alexandre
Vexliard, Lucio Mendieta
y
Nunez, and K. M. Munshi for Their Magnanimous Evalua-
tion^ of My Contributions 495
Publications of Pitirim A. Sorokin 497
Name Index 507
Subject Index 512
Part One
SOCIOLOGY OF MY MENTAL LIFE
Pitirlm A. Sorokin
\
I. Preliminary Remarlcs
One of the main tasks of so-called sociology of knowledge
(Wissensoziologie) is a study of the factors which condition the
essential contents, configurations, and transformations of the mental
life of an individual or of a group: their language, scientific ideas,
rehgious and other beliefs, philosophical views, moral and legal
convictions, aesthetic tastes, pohtical and economic ideologies,
social aspirations, and their set of values in general. The sociology
of knowledge or, more exactly, the sociology of mental life tries to
answer the basic questions of how and why the mental life of any
given individual or of a group happens to be such as it is and how
and why it often changes in the course of the individual's or group's
life, and why the mental life of various persons or collectivities is
often quite different.
The sociology of mental life endeavors to elucidate these prob-
lems through a study of the mentahties of vast cultures and societies
( macrosociology of mental life) and through that of the mental
life of a given individual ( microsociology of mental life). My
Social and Cultural Dynamics investigates these problems on a
macrosociological scale. This present essay deals with them on a
microsociological scale in an attempted exploration of my own
mental hfe.
There are several reasons for use of autobiographical, instead of
biographical, material for such a study. First, one knows his mental
life, its contents, motivations, continuity, and change more fully
and directly than that of any other individual. Second, through
one's direct, unmediated experience one knows many motivations
aud changes in his mental Hfe which remain hidden from all out-
PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
side biographers and investigators; as a rule they have at their
disposal only a few fragmentary records about the behavior and
inner experience of the individual studied, and even these dead
fragments are often interpreted by them in quite dijEerent ways.
Like Leibnitz's monad, the mind or the soul of every person still
remains either closed or only partially open for the inspection of
outsiders (except, perhaps, the most intimate friends and the
closest relatives). Third, in the late afternoon of my life I am
simply curious to find out why my mental Hfe has run its actual
(and not a different) course and, especially, why my sociological
theories and other "mental productions" have assumed the character
they actually have. I have a personal interest in understanding the
reasons and factors that determined the course of my mental life
and, especially, the character of my sociological theories and other
"mental productions."
Side by side with these advantages, the autobiographical ma-
terial has, of course, its serious drawbacks. But if and when a
scholar tries to be honest with himself and with others, when he
does not have any special reason to falsify his life records, and when
he is on guard against ever-present dangers of "justification," "ra-
tionalization," and "beautification" of himself and of his mental
life, the advantages of using the autobiographical material appear
to be greater than the disadvantages.
After these remarks, I can pass on to a sociological account of
my mental lifeif not my whole mental life (which is impossible
in a short essay), at least some hmited areas of it. I shall attempt
an analysis of the discernible factors responsible for the topics of my
main studies, for the character of my theories and "philosophies,"
and for the main changes these "mental productions" have under-
gone in the course of my life.
II. Early Years
I was bom January 21, 1889, and lived up to the age of eleven
among the Komi people, one of the Ugro-Finnish ethnic groups,
in the North of Russia. My Russian father was^ an itinerant "master
of gilding, silvering, and ikon-making~XSs~~t[if^uild certificate
testified). How and for what reasons he moved from the Russian
SOROKIN: Sociology of My Mental Life 5
city Velikiy Ustiug to the Komi region (a distance of more tlian
three hundred miles ) and remained there up to his death, I do not
know. One of the possible reasons was that among the Komi people
he probably found more work than among the Russian population.
My mother was a Komi peasant daughter. The only thing I re-
member about her is the scene of her deathwhich occurred when
I was about three years old. This scene is my earliest memory
and it marks my birth into a conscious, remembered hfe. Of my
life before this event I remember nothing. (This personal ex-
perience is one of the reasons why I regard various "dianetic" and
psychoanalytical theories of an alleged remembrance by the human
organism of everything, especially of the birth trauma and various
sex experiences, as a mere fancy not supported by any real evi-
dence. ) From my father, relatives, and neighbors I heard that
my mother was, though illiterate, a beautiful, inteUigent, and very
fine person.
Of my father I had and still have two different images. In his
sober stretch (lasting for weeks and even months) he was a
wonderful man, loving and helping his sons in any way he could,
friendly to all neighbors, industrious and honest in his work, and
to the end of his life faithful to our dead mother. "Christ has risen!"
was his habitual way of saying "How do you do?" or "Goodbye."
Unfortunately the stretches of soberness alternated with those of
jirunkenness, sometimes up to the state of delirium tremens. In his
drunken state he was a pitiful figure; he could not care for us nor
help us; he was depressed, irritable, and, once in a while, somewhat
violent in his treatment of us. In one moment of such violence he
beat my older brother and, with a hammer blow, he cut my upper
lip, which remained slightly misshapen for many years.
Immediately after this event my older brother and I decided to
separate from our father, and we started our own independent way
of earning a living. One year later father died in a distant village.
Because of the undeveloped means of communication it was weeks
before we learned about his death. Despite father's alcoholism, the
image of a sober, tender, and wonderful father overwhelmingly
prevailed while we were living together and it still prevails in my
memory up to the present time. Even in his drunken state he had
nothing in common with the Freudian image of a tyrant-father,
insensitive and cruel to his children. With the exception of the
PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
alcoholic periods which were considerably shorter and less frequent
than his sober periods, our familyfather, older brother, and myself
(my younger brother was taken by our aunt and did not live with
us)was a good and harmonious team bound together by warm,
mutual love, community of joy and suffering, and by a modestly
creative work.
This deep mutual attachment continued in my relationship
with my older brother and, later on, with my younger one. Each
of us was intensely concerned with what was happening to the
others; and this devotion and love continued to the end of my
brothers' hves (both perished in the struggle with the Communist
regime )
.
After our separation from our father, my brother and I moved,
earning our living, from village to village for about one year, until
we came to a small Russian town, Yarensk (about a thousand
population). There we found plenty of work: painting the spire,
the domes, and the outside and inside walls of the main cathedral,
and silvering and gilding the cathedral's ikons and other cult
objects. There, when we were painting the spire of the cathedral
we were almost blown down ( from the great height of the building
)
by a sudden storm and were saved from a fatal fall by a strong
rope that withstood the assaults of the ferocious squalls. This
town, Yarensk, introduced me to the urban world. I was then
about eleven and my brother about fifteen years old.
After a few months of successful work in this town, we moved
back into the Komi region and for several months continued our
work there until, surprisingly for both of us, I found myself enrolled
in an advanced grade school, described later on. This enrolment
separated me from my brother for the nine months of the school
year and, after two years, divided the course of our lives along
quite different paths. During these two or three years of our living
together my brother's leadership and care were truly vital for my
survival and growth. Otherwise we were a real brotherly team,
each being "the keeper and guardian of the other." Later on,
during the Communist revolution, when the Communists hunted
me and put a price on my head, to be captured dead or ahve, my
younger brother helped me many times at the risk of his own free-
dom and his very life. My illiterate aunt and her husband likewise
most kindly treated me as their own son during my early years
SOROK/N: Sociology of My Mental Life 7
when frequently I lived with them in a hamlet, Rymia. Their
place was my real "home" when there was no other home.
These lines sketch my family background. Among other things
they show that I had in my early (and also later) life abundance
of a true, pure, and warm love granted to me by my family,
relatives, and many others.
III. External Course of My Life
Before proceeding with this analysis of my mental development
it is necessary to outline the external history of my life. Without
such a background it is hardly possible to deal intelligently with
the problems of my autobiographical microsociology. The subse-
quent lines give the main landmarks of my life-course.
Eventfulness has possibly been the most significant feature of
my hfe-adventure. -In a span of seventy-three years I have passed
through several cultural atmospheres: pastoral-hunter's culture of
the Komi; first the agricultural, then the urban culture of Russia
and Europe; and, finally, the megalopolitan, technological culture
of the United States. Starting my life as a son of a poor itinerant
artisan and peasant mother, I have subsequently been a farmhand,
itinerant artisan, factory worker, clerk, teacher, conductor of a
choir, revolutionary, political prisoner, journalist, student, editor of
a metropolitan paper, member of Kerensky's cabinet, an exile, pro-
fessor at Russian, Czech, and American universities, and a scholar
of an international reputation.
No less eventful has been the range of my life-experience. Be-
sides joys and sorrows, successes and failures of normal human life,
I have lived through six imprisonments; and I have had the un-
forgettable experience of being condemned to death and, daily
during six weeks, expecting execution by a Communist firing squad.
I know what it means to be damned; to be banished, and to lose
one's brothers and friends in a political struggle; but also, in a
modest degree, I have experienced the blissful grace of a creative
work.
These life-experiences have taught me more than the innumer-
able books I have read and the lectures to which I have listened.
PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
As I stated earlier, my brother and I separated from my father,
following one of his violent eruptions while he was under the in-
fluence of alcohol; and, not long thereafter, I became "independent"
and penniless, but free to chart my own hfe-course, earning my
living as best I could. Subsequently, I was a student at a teachers
college; I was arrested and imprisoned four months before gradua-
tion because of my political activities in 1906; and then, I became a
starving and hunted revolutionary, and a student of a night school,
of the Psycho-Neurological Institute, and of the University of St.
Petersburg. Two more imprisonments gave me a first-hand ex-
perience in criminology and penologythe field of my graduate
study and then of my first professorship. Besides several papers,
in my junior year I pubhshed my first volume on crime.
With the explosion of the Russian Revolution I became one of
the fqimders^ of thej[lussian Peasant Soviet (dispersed by the
Communists), editor of a metropolitan paper. The Will
of
the
People, member of the Council of the Russian Repubhc, a secretary
to Prime Minister Kerensky, and a leading member of the Russian
Constituent Assembly (dispersed by the Communist Government).
From the beginning of the Revolution I vigorously fought Lenin,
Trotsky, Kamenev, and other Communist leaders. For this reason
I was arrested on January 3, 1918, and imprisoned for four months
in the Russian Bastille, the Fortress of Peter and Paul.
Released, I resumed my struggle against the Communists, and
I was one of the group which engineered the overthrow of the
Communist Government
Jn
Archangel in 1918. In October, 1918,
I was again arrested and condemned to death by the Communist
Government of Vologda Province. After six weeks of waiting to
be shot, by Lenin's order I was freed and returned to my academic
activity at the University of St. Petersburg. There I became the
founder^, first .prGfes-^.aiid_^aiiTOan^ of the^ of soci-
ology. During the years 1920-22 I published five volumes in
law and sociology. In
1922JL
was-arresfeed-aiid^nally, banished
by the Soviet Government.^ A few days after my arrival in BerliHr-
^
These personal experiences are responsible for drawing my attention to the fact
that an overwhelming majority (roughly about 80 per cent) of the great and
distinguished social thinkers, beginning with Confucius, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
and ending with Marx, and Leninnot to mention several eminent social
scientists who were imprisoned, banished, and executed at the hands of the Com-
mvinist or Nazi governmentshad similar experiences as "subversives." If I
SOROKIN: Sociology of My Mental Life V
my good friend, President Masaryk, invited me to be a guest of
Czechoslovakia. I stayed there for some nine months. Having
received invitations from the universities of Ilhnois and Wisconsin
to lecture there on the Russian Revolution, in November, 1923, I
came to the United States and in 1924 was oflFered a professorship
by the University of Minnesota. Aftersix years of happy work
there I was invited to be the first professor and chairman of the
sociology department at Harvard University. After 1930 (in
which year I became a naturalized American citizen ) I lived and
worked in this great university until my retirement in 1959.
In 1948 Mr. Eli Lilly and the Lilly Endowment kindly offered
$120,000 for my studies on how to make human beings less selfish
and more creative. This generous offer led to the establishment
of the Harvard Research Center in Creative Altruism in 1949, whicE
I directed until my retirement, after which it became affihated with
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
During my lifetime in America, I have published, besides many
scientific papers, some thirty substantial volumes. Most of these
volumes have been translated into many languages: Contemporary
Sociological Theories into eleven major languages of mankind;
The Crisis
of
Our Age into eight; other volumes into a lesser number
of languages. All in aU, so far, there have been about forty-two
translations of my published volumes.
This voluminous output of books and articles is due mainly to
my deep enjoyment of research and writing. They have served me
as the best way of self-reahzation and of release of my creative
propensities, as the most fruitful form of mental and moral growth,
and as the purest mode of joyful recreation. Through frustrations
and failures inherent, to some extent, in this sort of activity, they
have enriched my sense of reality and deepened my perception of
the tragic aspects of life. For all these reasons I preferred this
sort of creative work to other forms of recreation and spontaneously
indulged in it at almost any opportunity I had.
The orderly way of my Iffe in the United States, undisturbed
by political and other troubles, and the exceptionally favorable
conditions for scientific work offered by the American universities
also notably helped in such "paper-wasting" activity. Though my
cannot be similar to these thinkers in their great achievements I am satisfied with
being similar to them in the small matters.
10 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
load of teaching and administrative work (at Harvard) was fairly
heavy, it still left a great deal of free time for study and writing.
I usually did and still do this sort of work in the early morning
hours before going to the oflBce and then in the evening hours when
free from other engagements. Practically all my writing and study
I have done at home and not in my office.
These lines do not mean that I have neglected the dolce
far
niente of loafing, or the pleasures of various forms of recreation.
Following the old precept of Lao-Tse that "doing nothing is better
than being busy doing nothing" I have idled away plenty of time
and rested from my mental work by attending symphony concerts
and art expositions; by reading hterary masterpieces; by camping,
fishing, and mountain chmbing; and, for the last twenty-five years,
by laboring over my azalea-rhododendron-hlac-rose garden, which
is visited by many thousands each season, which has earned me a
gold medal from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and which
was starred by full-page color photographs in several national
magazines. I have also frequently enjoyed convivial meetings with
a limited circle of close friends among whom it has been my good
fortune to have several distinguished thinkers, artists, and other
leaders of our time.
All this shows that I have fully enjoyed loafing, rest, and the
finest forms of recreation that renew, enrich, and ennoble human
fife and turn it into a grand, meaningful, creative, and effervescent
adventure.
To finish this brief sketch of my life I must mention that in 1917,
during the Revolution, Ijwas^iiappily married to Dr. Helen Baratyn-
skaya, cytologist-researcher in her own right. She has published a
number of her studies in botanical and other biological journals and
is still continuing her research. For the forty-five years of our
married life we seem to have had, as yet, neither time nor sufficient
reason for divorce or separation. We have two sons: Dr. Peter P.
Sorokin, research physicist with IBM, and Dr. Sergei P. Sorokin,
instructor and research associate at Harvard Medical School. Both
have aheady published a number of papers in their fields and
both are vigorously continuing their scientific work. Some of our
friends nicknamed the Sorokin family "a little Sorokin university"
with its own mathematician-physicist, two biologists, and one inter-
loper-philosopher, sociologist, psychologist, and jack-of-all-trades.
SOROKIN: Sociology of My Mental Life 1 1
Finally, at the age of seventy-three, I am not quite senile, as
yet: my health is rather good for my age, I am still "wasting plenty
of paper," and I find myself about as busy with my scientific and
other activities as I was during my earlier years. Whether the
factor of heredity is responsible (though my mother and father
died in their thirties and forties ) or, as I am inchned to believe, the
factor of not having too many vices and not pretending to have
many virtues, and especially the factor of pursuing in my life the
real and great values, rather than short-lived psewc?o-valueswhat-
ever is responsible for the delay of my senility, I do not know exact-
ly. Possibly all of these factors have played their role in this
matter, particularly the last two.
IV. Visible Factors of My Early Mental Life
As a general rule, the contents of the unintegrated and yet-
unfilled mind of a child are largely determined by the contents of
the mental life of persons and groups among whom the child is
bom and reared, and with whom he interacts. To a large extent
this rule happens to be correct in my case. The character of the
mental
life of my early sociocultural milieu shaped most of the con-
tents of my early mentality.
A. My native and learned languages. Since I was bom and
reared amidst the Komi people, speaking the Komi and the Russian
languages, these languages have spontaneously, without any pur-
posive intention on my part, become my native languages. At a
later period of my fife, again spontaneously, even contrary to my
wishes, and exclusively because of lack of practice (caused indi-
rectly by social and cultural factors
)
, I largely forgot the Komi, and
my Russian language was somewhat impaired. (These facts, by
the way, show the fallacy of the prevalent contentions that all our
mental and overt actions are purposive and have invariably some
goal. ) At a later stage of my life I learned the Latin, the French,
the English, and, to a lesser extent, the German and Slavic languages.
In these cases, however, I learned them intentionally. They did not
enter my mental equipment spontaneously as in the case of "the
1 2 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
native" languages, but were learned purposefully through rational
determination and a great deal of labor. Knowledge of these
languages was the necessary condition for enrolment as a student
in a Russian university, for doing scientific work, for obtaining an
academic position, and for earning my living as a university pro-
fessor and scholar in Russia as well as, after my banishment, in the
United States.
B. Early religious and other beliefs. Since the rehgion of the
Komi people was the Russian Orthodox religion, supplemented by
the survivals of pagan beliefs, these beliefs and their rituals spon-
taneously became my religious beliefs and ritual practices. Their
imprint upon my mind was greatly reinforced through the occupa-
tional work of my father in which, together with my elder brother,
I participated during my boyhood. This work of painting, silvering,
gilding, and ikon-making was done mainly for churches of various
villages. A large portion of our time we spent in, around, or on
church buildings, painting them, and making, silvering, and gilding
their cult objects. In this work we naturally met, talked, and in-
teracted with the village clergy. In brief, in my boyhood years this
rehgious climate was one of the main atmospheres in which I lived,
worked, and formed my early behefs, rituals, moral standards, and
other values. Its influence was so strong that, after reading several
old volumes on the Lives
of
the Saints, I tried to become an
ascetic-hermit and many times retired for fasting and praying into
the solitude of the nearby forest. This religious and moral climate
served also as a stimulus and outlet for the development of my
creative propensities.
Participation in church singing made me a popular singer at the
church services and, later on, a conductor of church choirs; partici-
pation in the occupational work of our family made me the best
craftsman-designer, painter, and ikon-maker in our family team;
learning by heart all the prayers and psalms of religious services
and the main religious beliefs, I became a good preacher-teacher at
the neighborly gatherings of peasants during the long winter eve-
nings. The splendor of religious ritual, the beautiful landscape of
the countryside viewed from the top of church buildings, especially
on clear, sunny days, these and hundreds of other situations en-
SOROKIN: Sociology of My Mental Life 1 3
riched my mental lifeemotionally, intellectually, aesthetically, and
morally. Despite a low material standard of living, my early life
was rich in joy and sorrow, in adventure and experience.
C. Early schooling. I do not remember exactly how, when, and
where I learned the three R's of elementary school education. The
nomadic sort of life of moving from village to village, with a
temporary stay in the villages where we found some work, pre-
vented me from regular attendance of, and graduation from, an
elementary school. In these nomadic conditions I could only
sporadically attend, for a few days or weeks, the schools of the
villages where we were staying. The earliest of my teachers was
merely a hterate peasant woman who taught in her house the be-
ginnings of the three R's to a few boys of the hamlet where my
illiterate peasant aunt lived. In that "school" I received my first
and the greatest of aUprizes for my excellence in learning. The
prize was the paper-wrapping of a single piece of hard candy. I
still vividly remember the yellow-green picture of a pear depicted
on the wrapping and all the joyful pride with which I accepted it,
showed it to my aunt, and then carefully fixed it on the wall of my
aunt's log house, near the ikons. None of the diplomas, prizes, and
honors granted to me at a later period of my life by various great
institutions of learning has elated me as much as this simple prize.
Somehow or other in this erratic way I acquired elementary
school knowledge, and I greatly increased it by voracious reading
of all sorts of books which I could get in the villages of the Komi,
by the instruction of my father and elder brother, by talks with
the village intelligentsia-teachers, clergy, clerks, and medical prac-
titionersand by conversations with wise, though often illiterate,
peasants. Our nomadic life (our "social mobility") also contributed
a great deal to my life-experience and knowledge in the way of
meeting ever-new people, situations, and challenges in different
villages in which we stayed and worked.
As a result of this sort of education I did not have any diflBculty
in being admitted to a higher kind of school (corresponding to
American grades eight, nine, and ten) opening in the village of
Gam when my brother and I happened to be working in that village.
The day of the entrance examination in the new school was an
14 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
important event in the life of the village. A large part of the
villagers, including the boys aspiring to become the school's pupils,
attended the public "show^" of the entrance examinations. As one
of the curious onlookers I attended also, with no intention of taking
part in the tests. After listening to the test questions and finding
them easy, I spontaneously volunteered to be examined also. I
passed the tests w^ith flying colors, was enrolled in the school and
given a scholarship of five rubles
($2.50),
which paid for board
and meals in the school's dormitory for the whole academic year.
(How fantastic this sounds in the range of present prices and
scholarships!) In this entirely incidental way my regular school
education began in this advanced grade school.
This was the first step of a number along an educational path
that led me to the imiversity and professorship as my main life work.
Five teachers of the school, headed by the local priest, were very
good men and excellent educators. Its library and other modest
facilities were notably better than those of the elementary schools.
Most of its students were capable boys, sound in body, mind, and
moral conduct. The total atmosphere of the school was mentally
stimulating, emotionally happy, and philosophically idealistic. As
I happened to be the brightest student I was given the scholarship
of five rubles for each of three years of the school curriculum.
These five rubles paid for my room and board during nine months
of each year. During the remaining three months I earned my
living by carrying on my previous occupational work in company
with my brother, and by helping my peasant uncle and aunt in
their farm work.
These three years notably increased my knowledge, enriched my
cultural equipment, awakened my creative propensities, and tan-
gibly integrated my Weltanschauung. It was an ideahstic world
view in which God and nature, truth, goodness and beauty, religion,
science, art and ethics were all somehow united in harmonious
relationship with each other. No sharp conflict and no inner con-
tradiction between these values marred, as yet, my peace of mind.
Despite several sorrows and painful experiences inevitable in hu-
man life (the deatli of my father and peasant uncle, the growing
alcoholic proclivity of my brother, my pneumonia, and other un-
welcome events), the world appeared as a marvelous place in
which to five and strive for its great values.
SOROKIN: Sociology of My Mental Life 15
I did not foresee then that in tlie near future this harmonious
and secure world view would be severely shattered by revolt and
reassessment of its values. Obviously impressed by my mental
brightness, teachers of the school and the higher educational au-
thorities of the county and province strongly advised me to
continue my education in a denominational teachers college in
Kostroma province of Russia. In addition, they helped me to
procure a scholarship there to take care of my very modest needs
for subsistence. It was, then, my coincidental attendance of an ex-
citing community event and my fortuitous participation in the ex-
amination at the school that tangibly conditioned my subsequent
educational course that led to a university studentship, a professor-
ship, and a fairly distinguished scholarship as my main life work.
D. Early morale aesthetic^ political^ and economic mentality. My
ideas, tastes, and convictions in these fields were also determined
mainly by those of the Komi people and those wliich I learned
from my father, teachers, clergy, and playmates, from doing my
occupational work, and from the books I read. The morality and
mores of the Komi peasant communities were well integrated
around the precepts similar to those of the Ten Commandments and
of mutual help. The houses of the peasants did not have any locks
because there were no thieves. Serious crimes occurred very
rarely, if at all; even misdemeanors were negligible. People largely
practiced the moral precepts they preached. Mutual aid likewise
was a sort of daily routine permeating the whole life of the com-
munity. Moral norms themselves were regarded as God-given,
imconditionally binding, and obligatory for all. The same was true
for the common law of the peasants. Living in this sort of a moral
community I naturally absorbed its moral norms as well as its mores.
The same can be said of my aesthetic tastes and preferences. My
world of beauty was made up, first, of the beautiful world of nature:
pure big rivers and lakes, not yet contaminated by industrial and
urban pollutions; endless forests extending for hundreds of miles;
flowery meadows and fields surrounding each village; vast expanses
of pure snow in the winters; mainly blue and sunny sky with
brilhant stars at night; and other scenes of an unspoiled nature in
which the villages and hamlets were mere specks lost in an ocean
1 6 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
of such geographic grandeur. It indelibly impressed me for the
rest of my life and conditioned my mild dislike of big cities and
industrialized surroundings. The life of wild animals of this en-
vironment was another realm of my aesthetic experience. Swim-
ming in pure rivers, fishing in silvery streams and lakes, observing
the animal life and ever-changing natural scenery, walking, and
working amidst this kind of nature well satisfied a large portion of
my aesthetic cravings.
Another part of my aesthetic world was a man-made world of
fine arts of the Komi and Russian agricultural and hunter communi-
ties. My musical tastes were formed by the beautiful folk music
of the region which was not, as yet, invaded by the vulgarurban
and commercialcrooning, jazz, and noise-making (Russian chas-
tushki). In this region were still preserved the old folk songs of
the Russian and the Ugro-Finnish peoples. From this and other
adjacent regions they were collected by the eminent Russian scholars
and composers: Rimsky-KorsakoflF, Musorgski, Tchaikovsky, Kastal-
sky, and others. This explains why at a later age when, for the
first time, I heard the music of these composers and also of Bach,
Handel, Haydn, Mozart, or Beethoven, many of their tunes and
melodies appeared to me quite familiar: I had heard them in child-
hood from the Komi and Russian peasant women and men who
ordinarily sang collectively during their community work, at fishing
or harvesting, or at their communal festivities and important events
in their lives, like weddings and funerals. Religious music of the
churches was another type of music which strongly conditioned
my musical tastes. It was the "traditional" music of the Russian
churches, including the early Russian plain chant (Kievsky and
Znamensky chants
)
, and once in a while the simple religious compo-
sitions of eminent Russian composers like Bortniansky, Lvov, Arch-
angelsky, Kastalsky, Tchaikovsky, and others. Though the Komi
and Russian churches did not have great choirs or soloists, never-
theless, the above-mentioned forms of Russian religious music,
being beautiful and great in their own way and performed in a
church with my active participation as a soloist, or one of the
singers, or a conductor of a little choir, indelibly impressed me and
tangibly conditioned my musical tastes for the rest of my life. I still
enjoy such music and often play many records of it on my hi-fi
phonograph.
SOROKIN: Sociology of My Mental Life 17
My literary education began with the folk tales, folk poems,
fairy tales, and heroic poems of the Komi and of the adjacent
Russian folk. This rich and imaginative folk literature was sup-
plemented by the literature of the great Russian writers: Pushkin,
Gogol, Tolstoi, and others of whom I learned in school and from
books I read. Even in the most elementary schools of the region
pupils were taught a great deal of this literature and learned by
heart a large number of poems of the great poets. The folk litera-
ture and the classics both represented genuinely fine literature, free
from the vulgarity and ugliness of comic and "yellow" commercial
publications of the urban-industrial centers. This accounts for my
subsequent life-long aversion to all varieties of "pulp hterature,"
commercial "best-sellers," and "yellow journalism."
My occupational work of painting ikons and other designs, of
making "sculptured"copper and silvercovers for ikons, and my
living in the atmosphere of churches, with their frescoes, ikons, and
many otheroften beautifulritual objects, developed my sense of
hne, color, and form, and conditioned my subsequent interest in
painting, sculpture, and architecture, and my aesthetic preference
in these fine arts.
Peasant folk dances, festivals, pageants, and ceremonial rituals
replete with color, simple elegance, and quiet drama were another
formative source of my aesthetic tastes.
As to the formation of my political and economic views, "poli-
tics" and "economics," in their narrow sense, did not preoccupy
my mind in my early life. The Komi and the Russian population
of this region had never known slavery nor serfdom and demo-
cratically managed their localpolitical and economicaffairs by
way of direct self-government of the village community similar to
the German Gemeinschaft or to the Russian "mir" ohschina. Village
communities had their land in common possession, equitably dis-
tributed and redistributed among the individual peasant families
(according to their size and increase or decrease in the course of
time ) . A Gemeinschaft-s^irit of mutual aid was still vigorous and
manifested itself in many forms, including many activities collec-
tively entered into by the whole village community. These condi-
tions prevented development of notable inequalities and sharp-
economic, political, and socialstratification within the village popu-
lations. There were neither notably rich, privileged, and "superior,"
18 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
nor particularly poor, disenfranchised, and "inferior" strata. Even
the sexes were essentially equal in status. As a result, there was no
real "class struggle," and there were no crystalHzed political parties
with vested class interests. The power of the county elective au-
thorities (zemstvo) consisted mainly in building schools, medical
centers, and other educational and cultural institutions. Very
limited also was the control of the central, Tsarist government.
Among the many ethnic groups of Russia, the Komi group was one
of the most hterate and most democratic nationahties.
Growing in these political and economic conditions I naturally
absorbed the spirit of equahtarian independence, self-reliance, and
mutual aid. Though my economic conditions were nearer to those
of the poor than of the rich peasants and though now and then I
did not have enough food, warm shelter, clothing, and other neces-
sities of life, nevertheless, I did not have strong resentment against
these conditions nor, except in a few short-lived instances, did I
feel lonely, unhappy, and depressed. The life I enjoyed seemed to
be wonderful, meaningful, and full of exciting adventures and
boundless hope. I was a member of a peasant community at peace
with the world, fellow men, and myself.
Such, in black and white, were the visible factors of my early
mental life. All in all the outhned social and cultural conditions
(often viewed by urbanized and "civilized" scholars as "primitive"
and "backward") were essentially sound and rich in variety and
fulness of life experience. Taken as a whole, they were less monot-
onous than social and cultmral conditions of big cities, especially of
city slums, and more favorable for vital mental and moral develop-
ment than the environment of megalopohtan and industrial centers.
V. Invisible and Dark Factors of My Early Mental Life
The preceding pages outline the visible factors that shaped my
early mental life (up to about the age of fourteen years). These
factors consist mainly in the character of the mental
life of the
peopleindividuals and groupsamong whom I hved and with
whom I interacted face to face. An additional factor was the
character of the mental currents ( beliefs, knowledge, standards, and
values) with which I came in contact indirectlythrough books
SOROKIN: Sociology of My Mental Life 19
read, pictures seen, music heard, and through other means of com-
munication. These two factors, plus the geographic conditions of
my early years, seem to account for a large portion of my early
mental equipment but hardly for the whole of it.
They hardly account, for instance, for my becoming a voracious
reader and developing an insatiable curiosity to know many things,
while 99 per cent of the boys of this region (especially my elder
brother) who lived under similar conditions and breathed the same
atmosphere of the mental hfe of the people, did not develop these
tendencies. And why did these boys and both of my brothers ab-
sorb from the total mental culture of these communities ideas,
values, and forms of conduct essentially different from those ab-
sorbed by me? What were the reasons for these differences? And
why was I the brightest pupil in all the schools attended at that
period of my life? And why, at the age of fourteen, was my mental
equipment probably richer and my mental perspective wider than
those of boys of the region? And why, in the advanced grade
school, did I become a leader a few times in "overthrowing the
tyranny" of the profoundly disliked school's housekeeper and cook
(by emptying a pail of water on her) and by this "revolutionary"
action bring into the open her misdeeds and take upon myself the
punishment for this "outrageous" conduct (unanimously approved
by the pupils and tacitly approved by the teachers), and in several
other non-scholastic actions? And why, when my views were
different from those of nearly all the pupils, did I not hesitate to
oppose them, despite my loss of popularity with them? (This sort
of "bullheadedness" on my part I began to show fairly early.)
These and other questions occur to me now.
These differences from the boys of the same communities and
from my brothers can hardly be explained by the mental environ-
ment because it was about the same for me, for my brothers, and
for the other boys. If anything, the rank and file of the other boys
had a better family, and better economic and other social conditions
than my own. (My mother died when I was about three years
old; my fathera very good man when soberbecame a chronic
alcohohc as I earlier indicated and, in his search for a job, was often
away from "home," though frequently there was no "home" in a
good sense of the word.
)
20 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
Most of the scholars would probably try to explain these dif-
ferences by the factor of heredity. But such an explanation would
only replace the unknown X by the no-better-known Y. First, so
far as I know my genealogy (which does not go, however, beyond
a knowledge of my father, mother, brothers, aunts, uncles, and
grandmother), my relatives, parents, and grandparents did not dis-
tinguish themselves by any particular achievement, except, perhaps,
my illiterate uncle. Knowing nothing about human anatomy, he
nevertheless successfully treated dislocated joints. By a simple
manipulation of such dislocated joints he performed this operation
in a shorter, simpler, and better way than the local medical person-
nel. He never charged any of his patients for this service and he
never boasted of his "God-given" ability. However, being an uncle
through his marriage to a sister of my mother, he was not one of my
ancestors. Second, today's biology has not learned, as yet, what
kind of germ cells nor which of their chromosomes are bearers of
a "fortunate" or "unfortunate" heredity, nor with what kind of
heredity this or that individual is endowed. For this reason in most
of the "hereditary" interpretations of personality characteristics the
"hereditarians" do not deduce or predict these characteristics from
their knowledge of the specific traits of the paternal germ cell of
the individual, but postulate the quaHty of his unknown hereditary
endowment from the known characteristics of the individual. If
the individual has distinguished himself by a notable creative
achievement, they conclude that he had a fortunate heredity; if he
has not distinguished himself in any way, his heredity is assumed to
have been average or poor. Obviously, such a conjecture is purely
speculative and unproven. It is in no way better than a hypothesis
of a "creative grace" or "uncreative curse" visited upon the person,
or his "good or bad luck," or "favorable or unfavorable chance." It
is possible that each of these factors plays some role in determining
the life course or mental equipment of the individual; but at our
present poor knowledge of their role, they remain a purely residual
guess. They can be left at this point of this essay.
VI. First Crisis and Its Visible Factors
After my graduation from the advanced grade school in 1904
at the age of fourteen, I enrolled in the Khrenovo Teachers School.
SOROKIN: Sociology of My Mental Life 21
It was a denominational establisliment controlled by the Holy Synod
of the Russian Orthodox Church. It trained teachers for denomina-
tional elementary schools. Situated near the parish church in the
village, its campus was near several textile factories not far from
the city of Kineshma and other sizable industrial centers. I found
myself in a new, more "civilized" environment and among people
notably different from those I had known before. The three-year
curriculum of the school was much more advanced, the students and
teachers were better qualified, and the library and other facilities of
the school were better than those of the elementary and grade
schools I had attended. The outsiders whom I met there repre-
sented a wide diversity of ideas, standards, and values: peasants,
factory hands, clerks and administrators, government oflBcials, the
intelhgentsia of the regionteachers, priests, doctors, writers, news-
papermen, leaders of co-operative organizations, representatives of
various political parties, the "Social-Revolutionaries," "Social-Demo-
crats" (Mensheviks and Bolsheviks), the "Anarchists," the "Mon-
archists," the local leaders of various liberal and conservative politi-
cal organizationsthese outsiders acquainted me with a multitude of
new ideas, standards, and values. This new milieu, new people,
and especially my intensive reading of hitherto unknown books,
journals, and newspapers rapidly broadened my mental horizon and
enriched my mental equipment. Their concerted impact was great-
ly reinforced by the Russian-Japanese War of 1904 and especially
by the brewing revolutionary storm that was rapidly spreading over
the whole of Russia and that resulted in the revolution of 1905 and
subsequent years.
The total impact of all these factors was so powerful that within
about two years after my enrolment at this school, most of my
previous religious, philosophical, political, economic and social ide-
ologies collapsed and were replaced by new views and values. My
previous religiosity gave way to a semi-atheistic rejection of the
theologies and rituals of the Russian Orthodox religion. Com-
pulsory attendance of church services and the obligatory courses
in dogmatic theology, imposed by the school, notably stimulated
this revolt. Its place was largely taken by "scientific theories of
evolution" and a "natural science philosophy." My preceding ac-
ceptance of the Tsarist monarchial regime and "the capitalist"
economy was replaced by the republican, democratic, and sociaHst
22 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
standpoint. Previous political indiflFerence gave way to a revolu-
tionary zeal. I became an enthusiastic missionary of the anti-
Tsarist revolution and the leader of the Social-Revolutionary party
in the school and adjacent region. In contrast to the Social Demo-
crats, the Social-Revolutionary party claimed to be the party of
allpeasant, industrial, and intellectuallabor classes. In contrast
with the Marxian social-democratic materialism and economic in-
terpretation of man and history, the philosophy and sociology of
the Social-Revolutionary party was much more idealistic or in-
tegrahstic. It emphasized strongly the role of creative ideas,
voluntary eForts, the "struggle for individuality" vs. "struggle
for existence," and the importance of non-economic factors in de-
termining social processes and human conduct. My previous
Weltanschauung was much more congenial to this kind of ideology
than to the "proletarian," "materialistic," "economic" ideology of
Marxian social-democracy. This congeniality explains why I chose
the Social-Revolutionary but not the Social-Democratic party and
why throughout my subsequent life I have never been "infected"
by most of the Marxian ideologies.
Having been transformed into an ardent Social-Revolutionary,
I began to spread the gospel of the revolution among the students,
the factory workers, and the peasants of nearby villages.
On the eve of Christmas, 1906, at one of my regular meetings
with a group of peasants, I was arrested, together with my fellow-
revolutionist, and jailed in the prison of the city of Kineshma,
There I met other political prisoners among whom there were
several notable Social-Revolutionaries and Social-Democrats. To-
gether we soon turned the prison into the safest place for keeping
the revolutionary literature. The prison guards volunteered to
serve as our messengers, and the warden offered his office, with
its telephone and other facilities, for our use. During some five
months of my imprisonment, the political prisoners had daily dis-
cussions of philosophical, social, and politico-economic problems.
These discussions, plus my reading of the works of Marx, Mikliailov-
sky, Lavrov, Plekhanov, Lenin, Kropotkin, and Tolstoi, as well as
those of Darwin, Hegel, and other evolutionists and philosophers,
acquainted me fairly well with some of the basic works of the
revolutionary thinkers, and of a few philosophers and scientists.
SOROK/N: Sociology of My Mental Life 23
In these five months I probably learned a great deal more than
I could learn in a semester in the Teachers School. In the prison
I also met daily and conversed with many of the criminals : murder-
ers, thieves, burglars, rapists, and other unfortunate "deviants."
These meetings and conversations introduced me to the world of
crime and criminals. They were largely responsible for the topic
of my first book. Crime and Punishment, Service and Reward (pub-
hshed in 1913) and for my choice of criminology and penologyor
more exactly of criminal, penal, and constitutional lawas the field
of my first speciahzation at the University of St. Petersburg. ( Here
again "the existential," personal experiences seem to account for
this rivulet in my mental life.
)
After five months of imprisonment I was released, subject to
"open surveillance of police," to whom I had to report regularly
about my domicile, any change of my address, and about my activi-
ties. Since I was discharged from the school, I decided to become
a sort of an underground "professional revolutionary," going from
factory to factory and from village to village to spread the gospel of
the revolution and organize revolutionary "cells" and groups. Often
hungry, cold, shelterless, and dirty (because nobody paid for this
"professional work"), constantly hunted by the law and occasional-
ly at mass meetings becoming the target for barking guns of attack-
ing Cossacks and police, I carried on this "missionary activity" in
contact with a few other revolutionaries for about three months.
Towards the end of this period, my health and nervous system be-
came impaired, my energy was greatly depleted, and my arrest
appeared to be imminent.
These circumstances forced me to flee from this region to tlie
region of the Komi, where my revolutionary activities were, as yet,
unknown. I returned to the little farm of my peasant aunt in the
smaU hamlet of Rymia, where I had stayed before many times.
There for two months I helped my aunt with harvesting and farm
work and regained my vitafity and peace of mind. Having no
prospects for either interesting employment or for continuation of
my education in the Komi region, in the fall of 1907 I moved to
St. Petersburg. Thus one big chapter of my fife ended and a new
chapter began.
Some of the factors of this crisis in my mental life are fairly
obvious. They are the new mental currents and values, the new
24 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
people, and the new environment I met and largely absorbed in the
Teachers School and its region. Especially important was "the
spirit of revolution" that was sweeping over the whole of Russia,
with its ideologies, values, and aspirations. My previous idealistic
Weltanschauung accounts somewhat for my choice of the Social-
Revolutionary and not Social-Democratic party and ideology. My
contacts and talks with the ordinary criminals as I earlier indicated
largely account for my first book and specialization in the field of
criminology and penology. These tangible factors consisted, how-
ever, not so much in a change of my social position, group-structure,
and class-affiliation ( as many sociologists of knowledge claim ) as in
different mental currents and cultural values I encountered and
learned from books and people, in this new environment and in the
all-pervading storm of the Revolution of 1905-6. Nor was my
"mental revolution" a consequence of some grudge against, and
frustration by, the Teachers School. Until my arrest I was treated
very well by the teachers, administration, and students, and I had
no grudge against the school or local authorities. For these reasons
the visible factors of the sharp mutation of my mentality had to be
the new ideas, values, and aspirations I had learned and my own
selection and development of these in the inner workings of my
mind. This hypothesis accounts for a large part of the discussed
crisis of my mentafity. It partly explains also why in my later
works, particularly in my Social and Cultural Dynamics, I took for
the basic factor of social, cultural, and personality change the
cultural-mental factor, and not the social factor of structural com-
position of groups and social classes. As we shall see further on,
the configurations of cultural-mental systems and social structural
systems neither coincide with each other nor change simultaneously
in time and space.
Although they may account a great deal for the crises, the indi-
cated visible factors leave, however, a number of dark points un-
explained. Why, for instance, did not many of my fellow-students
in the school experience a similar "mutation" of their mentality,
though their background and social affiliations were similar to my
own? Why, among those who underwent a change in their mental
life, did not an overwhelming majority become the active mis-
sionaries of the revolutionary gospel rather than continue the pre-
scribed routine life of the school? Why did I involve myself in the
SOROK/N: Sociology of My Mental Life 25
dangerous and most exacting activities of an itinerant missionary of
the revolution and continue these activities until my health and
peace of mind were seriously impaired? There were neither eco-
nomic incentives, nor other sensate advantages such as power, popu-
larity, respect, security, and sensate comfort, to be gained from such
involvement. And yet, like many other apostles of the revolution,
I was "driven" by some powerful force ( often termed "call of duty"
or "moral imperative") into this sort of activity; and this kind of
"foolish," "unprofitable," and highly risky involvement has been re-
peated several times in later periods of my life.
These and similar "whys" give an idea of the dark points in the
explanation of the dynamics of my own, as well as of many others'
mental life. These points suggest that human beings and their
mental hfe are something much more complex and intangible than
most of the "economic," or "instinctive," or Freudian, or other popu-
lar theories indicate. This sort of experience and behavior, re-
peated later on several times in my life, may be partly responsible
for my "integral theory" of human personality, cognition, creativity,
and of social and cultural processes, developed in my later works.
This integral theory shows the one-sidedness of all "simphstic"
theories of man and of the sociocultural world and the extreme
complexity of their "superorganic" nature and of the man-made
sociocultural world. According to this theory, man and his man-
made sociocultural world are "the fields" of manifestation and opera-
tion, not only of physical and vital energies, but also of the higher
energies of the rational, conscious thought, and especially of the
highest "super-rational" energy of creative genius different from
the rational and vital energies.
VII. Post-Crisis Integration of My Mental Life
I arrived in St. Petersburg practically penniless. To keep my
body and soul together, I had to obtain some job at once. A helping-
hand to the janitor of an apartment house, a factory worker, a clerk,
a tutor to the boys of mainly middle-class families, an occasional
writer of articles in provincial papersthese were my jobs during
my first two years in St. Petersburg. The earnings hardly met my
elementary needs but somehow they kept me ahve. In subsequent
26 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
years I earned my living by more remunerative tutoring and writing
for various periodicals, by a secretarial and research assistantship to
such an eminent scholar and statesman as Professor M. M. Kovalev-
sky, by the scholarship granted to me by the University of
St. Petersburg, and after 1914-15, as a lecturer of the Psycho-
Neurological Institute and Privatdocent of the University of St.
Petersburg.
Anxious to continue my education, very soon after my arrival
in the capital of Russia in 1907 I was permitted to attend one of
the good night schools ( Tcherniaevskie kursy
)
, which I did for two
years. During these two years I prepared myself and successfully
passed, in the spring of 1909, a rather stiff "examination of ma-
turity"the equivalent of the examination for the whole eight years
of the Russian high school
(
gymnasium ) . Passing this examination
entitled me to enrol at the newly opened Psycho-Neurological
Institute in 1909, and at the University of St. Petersburg in 1910.
Graduated with the highest honors from the university, I was
"retained by the university for preparation to professorship" in
criminal and administrative law. (At that time there were no
sociology courses in the university's curriculum.) In 1916 I suc-
cessfully met aU the requirements for and had conferred upon me,
by the university, the degree of "the magister of criminal and ad-
ministrative law"; and in 1920 I received my degree of Doctor of
Sociology from the same university. Sociology was introduced into
the curriculum of the university in 1918.
Such, in brief, was the course of my group and social class
affihations during this period of 1907-16
(up to the eve of the
Revolution of 1917 and subsequent years).
As to the course of my mental and cultural life during these
years, its main trends consisted in an intensive absorption of the
immortal cultural values in music and literature, in painting and
sculpture, in architecture and drama, and in enricliment, develop-
ment, and integration of the Weltanschauung ushered in by the
crisis. Fairly soon after my arrival in St. Petersburg, I became ac-
quainted with several Russian leaders in literature, music, painting,
and the theater. Through attendance of, and participation in,
various literary and artistic groups, and philosophical, ethical and
cultural societies; through visiting various museums, concerts, and
plays; and through personal study, I became fairly well oriented in
SOROK/N: Sociology of My Mental Life 27
these cultural fields. Continuation of my revolutionary activities
had led me to two new imprisonments in 1911 and 1913 and well
acquainted me with political leaders of the Social-Revolutionary,
the Social-Democratic, the Constitutional-Democratic, tlie Anarch-
ist, the Monarchist, and other parties. My co-operation in revolu-
tionary and in scientific work in the seminars of the university with
several Social-Revolutionary and Social-Democratic students who
eventually became leaders in the Kerensky and the Communist gov-
ernments resulted in our mutual close friendship. When in 1918 I
was condemned to death, this friendship with the Bolshevik students
saved me from execution by the Communist firing squad. (When
Karakhan, Piatakov, and others learned about the sentence of death
passed upon me by Vehky Oustiyg Communist Cheka, they went to
Lenin and demanded from him an immediate cancellation of the
sentence and my release from prison. Lenin did precisely that and
simultaneously published his first complimentary article about me
in Pravda. Later on he published three uncomplimentary articles
about me, calling me "the foremost ideologist of reaction," "the
defender of slavery and serfdom," "our implacable enemy," and so
on.)
This active pofitical work firmly grounded me in the field of
political science and practical politics. Finally through meeting
the stiff requirements of the curriculums of the night school, of the
Psycho-Neurological Institute, and of the university, I acquired a
substantial knowledge of philosophy, and of mathematical, physi-
cal, biological, and psycho-social sciences. This knowledge was
notably increased by my intensive study of the basic problems in
these discipliues and in sociology, social philosophy, and philosophy
of history, the disciplines in which I had become deeply interested
already in the Teachers School.
Thus, during these years of 1907-16 I succeeded in enriching
notably my cultural and scientific equipment andwhat is more
importantin integrating its parts into one fairly consistent sys-
tem. Philosophically, this system was a variation of an empirical
neo-positivism or critical realism, based on logical and empirical
scientific methods. Politically, it was a variety of socialistic ideolo-
gy,
founded upon the ethics of co-operation, mutual aid, and free-
dom. My sociological views represented a sort of synthesis of
Comtean-Spencerian sociology of evolution-progress, corrected and
28 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
supplemented by the theories of Russian scholars such as Mik-
hailovsky, Lavrov, De Roberty, Petrajitsky, Kovalevsky, Rostovtzeff,
Pavlov, Tolstoi, Dostoievsky, and Jakov, and by the theories of
Durkheim, Simmel, Weber, Stammler, Pareto, Marx, and other
Western scholars, to mention but a few names. All in all, it was an
optimistic Weltanschauung, fairly similar to the prevalent "World
View" of the Russian and Western thinkers of the pre-castastrophic
decade of the twentieth century.
My scientific and semi-popular papers and my volume on Crime
and Punishment, published in the years of 1911-16, reflect various
aspects of this Weltanschauung. These publications and then my
active participation in various seminars, scientific, philosophical,
and pohtical conferences and, finally, my course of lectures on soci-
ology given in the Psycho-Neurological Institute earned me the
reputation of a talented scholar, notable political figure, and elo-
quent speaker and writer. My name became fairly well known in
Russian intellectual circles, among various peasant-labor groups,
and among Tsarist ofiicials and police. Such, in brief, were the main
changes in my mental life of this period.
VIII. New Crisis and New Reintegration
Already, World War I had started to make some fissures in my
optimistic Weltanschauung and in my conception of the historical
process as progress. The revolution of 1917 enormously enlarged
these fissures and eventually broke this world outlook, with its sys-
tem of values and its "progressive," rational-positivistic sociology.
Instead of the increasingly enlightened and morally ennobled hu-
manity, these historical events unchained in man "the worst of the
beasts" and displayed on the historical stage, side by side with
the noble and wise minority, the gigantic masses of irrational human
animals blindly murdering each other, indiscriminately destroying
all cherished values and, led by shortsighted and cynical "leaders,"
"overthrowing" creative achievements of human genius. This un-
expected world-wide explosion of the forces of ignorance, inhumani-
ty, and death in the supposedly civilized and enlightened humanity
of the twentieth century, forced me, as it did many others, to re-
examine sternly my "sweet and cheerful" views of man, society,
SOROK/N: Sociology of My Mental Life 29
culture, and values, all moving, according to these views, harmoni-
ously from ignorance to wisdom and science, from barbarism to
magnificent civihzation, from the "theological" to the "positive"
stage, from tyranny to freedom, from poverty to unlimited pros-
perity, from ugliness to ever-finer beauty, from animality to noblest
humanity and morality.
This re-examination was fostered also by my personal experi-
ences during the years of 1917-22. My book Leaves
from a
Russian Diary gives a detailed account of these experiences. Since
the beginning of the Revolution, I wholeheartedly dedicated myself
to the revolutionary reconstruction as one of the leaders of the
Social-Revolutionary party, as an editor of the party's papers, Delo
naroda and Volia naroda, as a member of the Council of the Russian
Republic, as one of the organizers of the all-Russian Peasant Soviet,
as a member of Kerensky's cabinet, and as a notable professor of
the University of St. Petersburg. For many years, fighting for the
basic reconstruction of Russia (and other countries), I never be-
heved that this reconstruction could be successfully made by the
blind and destructive violence of masses led by unscrupulous leaders
using all meansgood and evilfor reahzation of their purposes.
Guidance by available scientific knowledge and by the binding
power of universal and perennial moral norms appeared to me as
the necessary conditions for a fruitful and painless reconstruction.
These convictions were responsible for my revolt against the early-
cynical, ignorant, and inhumanpohcies of the Communist party
and government (now largely replaced by constructive ones),
against the beastly and destructive violence of its followers, as well
as of its opponents, and against the "abomination of desolation"
wrought by these forces during the first five years of the Com-
munist revolution. There was too much hate, hypocrisy, blindness,
sadistic destruction, and mass-murder to leave my "cheerfully pro-
gressive" views intact. These "existential conditions" and the
trying, personal experiences of these years started a re-examination
of my Weltanschauung and a reappraisal of my values. This re-
construction of my views, values, and my very "self" proceeded
slowly during the five years I lived in Communist Russia and then,
after my banishment, in Europe and the United States.
To the end of the 1920's this painful and, at the same time,
bhssful process of reintegration continued and gradually matured
30 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
into its essential features. It resulted in what I now call the Integral
system of philosophy, sociology, psychology, ethics, and values.
My volumes: Sociology
of
Revolution, Contemporary Sociological
Theories, Social Mobility, and Principles
of
Rural-Urban Sociology,
published in the years 1925-29, already are marked by the features
of this reintegration, sufficiently advanced but not quite completed
as yet. My Social and Cultural Dynamics
(
1937-41
)
, The Crisis
of
Our Age
(1941),
Man and Society in Calamity
(1942),
Society,
Culture, and Personality
(1947),
Reconstruction
of
Humanity
(
1948
)
, The Ways and Power
of
Love
( 1954
)
, and Fads and Foibles
of
Modern Sociology
( 1956
)
, not to mention other books published
in the period of 1930-61, are the fruits of a more or less matured re-
integration. Writing these volumes, I have been quite aware that
in many essential traits my reintegration theories have sharply
deviated from the prevalent theories of American and European
sociologists, historians, and psychologists.
For this reason, I expected a strong opposition to my "integralist"
views on the part of the psychosocial scholars who, before World
War II, did not pass through the crucial experiences of the great
revolution and World War I. However, the expectation of a severe
opposition and other unpleasant consequences of my "deviant"in-
tegraliststandpoint did not, for a moment, make me hesitate to
pubhsh these volumes. My usual "buUheadedness" (mentioned be-
fore), and my deepest conviction that a supreme duty of a scholar
is "to tell the truth" as he sees it, regardless of any and all conse-
quences, are probably responsible for a lack of hesitation, on my
part, in challenging the prevalent theories in my later volumes.
The expected opposition and some of the adverse "existential" con-
sequences have come, indeed.
But with these negative results have also come many positive
reactions. Somewhat surprisingly for me, my "integrahst" views
and theories have found an enthusiastic response on the part of
sociologists, psychologists, philosophers, religious leaders, and emi-
nent thinkers throughout the world. My volumes have been trans-
lated into all major languages of humanity; and my "deviant"
theories have been widely discussed and have already a considerable
literature in the form of books about my books, Ph.D. theses, hun-
dreds of scientffic articles, and special chapters in the textbooks of
sociology and in the history of social thought, not to mention
SOROKIN: Sociology of My Mental Life 31
thousands of popular write-ups about them. And as time goes on,
my "yarns" seem to be paid increasing rather than decreasing at-
tention throughout the world. Personally I am gratified by both-
positive and negativereactions to my "mental productions."
Other "existential" conditions of my life, at this age of seventy-
three years, are also satisfactory: my health is rather good for my
age; I am still fairly vigorously continuing my studies, writing,
lecturing, and enjoying recreational activities; there is no scarcity
of invitations for lecturing and counseling on the part of American
and foreign universities and learned institutions, and even on the
part of several governments.
So, in spite of routine tribulations of human life, these existential
conditions permit me to be at peace with the world, with my fellow-
men, and with myself, notwithstanding the most turbulent state in
which mankind finds itself at the present time. However, this peace
does not hinder me from taking a humble, but active, part in the
paramount tasks of our age: the prevention of a new threatening
world catastrophe and the building of a new, nobler, and more crea-
tive order in the human universe.
IX. Conclusions
The preceding brief sketch of the existential and mental factors
underlying the main topics of my studies and the character of my
"yams" can be summed up as follows:
a. The existential fact of being born and reared among peasants
and remaining in deep sympathy with rural peoplewith their way
of life, culture, and valueslargely accounts for my studying these
problems and, in co-operation with C. C. Zimmerman and C.
J.
Galpin, publishing The Principles
of
Rural-Urban Sociology and
three-volumes of the Systematic Source Book in Rural Sociology.
The same existential factors, processed, tested, and enriched by
the existing scientific knowledge in this field, explain most of my
theories and conclusions embodied in these volumes.
b. Since my life has been a sort of continuous "wayfaring"
through most different occupational, social, economic, cultural, po-
litical, and ethnic positions and group-affiliations, thisvertical and
horizontalmobihty possibly accounts for the concentration of my
32 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
studies upon the dynamic aspects of personal, social, and cultural
phenomena and for the comparatively less attention given to their
static and structural aspects. My Social Mobility, Social and Cul-
tural Dynamics, Sociology
of
Revolution, Man and Society in Ca-
lamity, American Sex Revolution, and Reconstruction
of
Humanity
deal mainly with the how and why of the change and with the
uniformities in the change of these phenomena. Their structural
analysis is not neglected, but it is reduced to the minimum neces-
sary for a detailed analysis of their dynamics.
c. Since I actively participated in and directly observed two
world wars and two revolutions, with their disastrous results-
great famines, devastating epidemics, and other calamitiesit is
comprehensible why these phenomena attracted my attention and
became the topics of my investigations pubhshed in my Sociology
of
Revolution, Man and Society in Calamity, in the third volume of
my Dynamics, in a number of chapters of my Society, Culture and
Personality, and in a substantial volume. Influence
of
Hunger upon
Human Behavior and Sociocultural Processes (destroyed by the
Soviet government in the process of printing).
d. Having been imprisoned three times by the Tsarist govern-
ment and three times by the Communist government, and having
come in contact inside prisons, not only with political prisoners but
also with non-political criminals, I naturally became interested in
the phenomena of crime, criminals, and punishment. This exis-
tential condition explains the topic of my first substantial volume.
Crime and Punishment, Heroic Service and Reward. The same
condition accounts also for my first professorial specialization in
criminology and penology. I would have preferred to specialize in
sociology, but before the revolution, sociology was not taught in
Russian universities and could not, therefore, be chosen as a field
of professorial specialization.
e. Since my early boyhood, being incessantly confronted with a
multitude of human problems, beginning with the problem of pro-
curing means of subsistence and ending with those of "peaceful
co-existence" with the ever-changing persons and groups whom I
met in my wayfaring lifeand experiencing and observing in this
mobile fife most different situations, persons, groups, values, and
eventsI could not help becoming interested in human beings and
in social and cultural problems, as well as in the how and why
SOROKIN: Sociology of My Mental Life 33
of their emergence. My "wayfaring" life itself incessantly chal-
lenged and demanded from me some intelligent answers to ques-
tions concerning these problems. This sort of continuous "challenge
and response" ( in the terms of A.
J.
Toynbee ) stimulated my interest
in the social, psychological, and humanistic disciplines and was
tangibly responsible for my choice of sociology as the main field of
my
study and professorship.
f. During the two world wars and two revolutions, I lived amidst
and observed a gigantic explosion of human bestiality and hateful
destructiveness of demoralized individuals and groups. Exploding
in their raw, unembellished form or being masked by highfalutin
"Patriotic," "Socialist," "Communist," "Conservative," "Liberal,"
"Democratic," "Religious," and otherbeautifying ideologies, these
forces uprooted anything and destroyed anybody that stood in
their way. Their catastrophic effects induced me to undertake a
systematic study, on the one hand, of the role of a selfish, individual
and collective "struggle for existence," violence, hatred, and cruelty
and, on the other hand, of the role of the opposite forces of un-
selfish love, sympathy, mutual aid, and heroic sacrifice in human
behavior and in sociocultural processes. As a result of my personal
encounters with these "hate-powered" forces and of my study of
their nature, sources, and effects, I became a convinced opponent of
these forces in all their destructive manifestations in the forms of
wars, bloody revolutions, and violent strife, and a firm proponent of
the opposite forces of sympathy, mutual aid, and unselfish love.
These circumstances prepared a general ground for the subsequent
establishment of the Harvard Research Center in Creative Altruism
and for continuation of my studies published in the volumes: The
Reconstruction
of
Humanitij, The Ways and Power
of
Love, Forms
and Techniques
of
Altruistic and Spiritual Growth, Altruistic Love,
and Explorations in Altruistic Love and Behavior.
However, this general ground alone might not have been suf-
ficient for realization of these tasks. A decisive role in these matters
was played by another unexpected factor
by
the generous offer of
some $120,000 by Eli Lilly and the Lilly Endowment for financial
assistance in my studies in this field. This offer was made entirely
on their own initiative, without any request or even any previous
meeting with Eli Lilly and the members of the Lilly Endowment on
my part. This totally unexpected grant, initiated by an eminent in-
34 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
dustrialist, civic, and cultural leader, and scholar-archeologist, has
played the role of the Aristotelian "effective" cause in the establish-
ment of the Center and pubhcation of some twelve volumes of its
research.
g.
Since I came out of the lowest peasant-labor stratum and had
a full share of hardships and disenfranchisement common to such
strata, I naturally identified myself with these classes and eventual-
ly became disrespectful toward the incapable privileged, rich, and
ruling groups. This attitude engendered my opposition to their
arrogant domination and to many injustices perpetrated by such
persons and groups. This opposition, in its turn, led me to several
collisions with the Tsarist government, and to ensuing imprison-
ments and other penalties imposed upon me. These circumstances
are tangibly responsible for my "revolutionism" and eventually for
my pohtical position of a "conservative. Christian anarchist" (in
Henry Adams' term). This critical attitude toward all uncreative
and irresponsible ruling groups has been reinforced by my subse-
quent studies of these groups. It has remained such, up to the
present time, toward all pseudo-aristocracies and all incapable and
demoralized governmentsautocratic and democratic, monarchic
and repubhcan, communistic and capitalistic. Besides many pages
devoted to this topic in my volumes, these attitudes and views
find their clear expression in my and W. Lunden's recent volume.
Power and Morality.
Summary Remarks. The preceding existential and intellectual
factors account, to a tangible extent, for the main topics of my
studies and publications. These factors make somewhat compre-
hensible why these and not different problems attracted my curiosi-
ly and led me to a substantial investigation of these phenomena.
In this "conditioning" of my theories, the role of the existential
factors consisted in arousing my curiosity and interest in their
what, how, and why, and possibly in suggesting rather rough, un-
verified, and untested answers to these questions. The role of
"intellectual" factors has consisted in taking over the aroused
curiosity, or the specific what, how, and why, engendered by the
existential factors, and in trying to investigate these problems as
systematically and thoroughly as I could, until my curiosity was
SOROKIN: Sociology of My Mental Life 35
quenched and these questions were more or less satisfactorily
answered. So much for the factors underlying the main topics
of
my studies.
As to the factors underlying the character
of
my theorieswhy
I accepted or constructed the theories presented in my volumes and
rejected many others different from thesean adequate answer to
this question is very diflBcult and hardly possible within the limits of
this essay. The general reason for acceptance or rejection, or
construction of my own theories, has been that, on the basis of my
study of the investigated problem, the theories sponsored or con-
structed by me appeared to me more adequate and true than all
the other competing theories. In all my studies, this criterion has
been the only reason and motive for acceptance or construction of
my theories, and no other motives or reasons have ever played any
part in this matter. Unswervingly following the categorical im-
perative, to "find and to tell the truth" regardless of any conse-
quences, I did not hesitate to repudiate even some of my own
theories when subsequently I found out, or was apprised by critics,
of their inadequacy or errors. For the same reason I have not
hesitated to attack many a prevalent and "generally accepted"
theory, if and when it appeared to me fallacious or inadequate.
The old adage Amico Plato sed Veritas amicissima, is another
formula faithfully followed by me in all my studies.
The existential factors of my faithfulness to this categorical im-
perative or, in my critics' terms, of "Sorokin's idiosyncrasies," and
"Sorokin's bullheadedness and deviationism," lie probably in several
important and persistent facts of my life course. Forced to be
"independent" and "free" to survive as well as I could at the age
of ten, since this early age I have had to cope with the hard
realities of life, beginning with the procuring of my means of sub-
sistence and continuing with the never-ending task of a satisfactory
co-adjustment to the ever-changing persons and groups, mores and
morals, beliefs and values, through which I passed in my wayfaring
life. Such a stern school of life either breaks its pupils or makes
them self-reliant and independent. Sternly disciplined for many
years in this sort of school, I became, to a notable degree, a self-
reliant, independent, now and then nonconformist individual who
in his search for truth does not accept any authority, any theory,
36 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
any belief, or any value until it is tested and verified by all the
relevant evidence available.
An unusually wide range of my life experiences and dealings
with most different persons and groups, and of my exposure to most
different cultural climates probably has been instrumental in di-
recting my attention not only to their difi^erences but especially to
their similarities and uniformities. Such sorts of existential condi-
tions, reinforced by a substantial study of the respective phenomena,
explain, to a tangible degree, the somewhat broad and encyclopedic
character of some of my theories and concentration in my research
upon a discovery and formulation of the structural and dynamic
uniformities in the phenomena studied.
The same stem school of life with its severe discipline favored
also a development of logical consistency and scientific discipline of
my analytical thought manifest in many of my volumes and culmi-
nating in my efforts at a construction of consistent systems of in-
tegral philosophy, sociology, and psychology; of an integral system
of reality, cognition, creativity, and of valuesall based upon the
same basic axioms and all mutually consistent with each other.
At the present time this Integral Weltanschauung has just about
matured.^ It serves meand I hope it may serve others of my
fellow-menas a firm, ideological, axiological, and existential foun-
dation for my peace-of-mind and integrity of self and for my guid-
ance through the devastating-regenerating, epochal hurricane
sweeping over the human universe today.
^
For a brief exposition of this Weltanschauung, see my articles, "This Is My
Faith," in S. C. Cole, ed., This Is My Faith (New York: Harper, 1956); "In-
tegralism Is My Philosophy," in Whit Burnett, ed.. This Is My Philosophy (New
York: Harper, 1957); "Quest for Integral System of Sociology," in Memoire du
XIXe Congres International de Sociologie, Vol. I ( Mexico, D.F.
)
, 1960; "Three Basic
Trends of Our Time," in Akten des XVIII Kongress des Institut International
Sociologie (Meisenheim/Glan), 1960.
Part Two
SOROKIN IN REVIEW
Joseph B. Ford
Arnold J. Toyr)bee
Othmar F. Anderle
Gosfa Carlsson
David R. Mace
Alexandre Vexliard
T. Lynn Smith
Matilda White Riley and Mary E. Moore
Alex Inkeles
Nicholas S. Timasheff
F. Richard Cowell
Kanailal M. Munshi
Corrado Gini
Lucio Mendieta
y
Nunez
Robert K. Merton and Bernard Barber
Sorokin as Philosopher
Joseph B. Ford
I. Is Sorokin a Philosopher?
Sociologists have condemned him for being "philosophic." Yet
philosophers have taken little note of his work. Sorokin himself
has what he calls a "philosophy." "Integralism," he says, "is my
philosophy."^
What is a philosophy? And what is a philosopher? It may be
easier to establish what Sorokin is, and what integralism is, than
to answer these two questions to the satisfaction of everyone.
Social scientists, in our day, have tended to use the term "philo-
sophic" or terms linked to it in a deprecatory sense, especially when
apphed to members of their own fraternity. Vivid illustrations of
this negative use of terms linked to philosophy can be found in
discussions of Sorokin in major sociological journals. His Social
and Cultural Dynamics was characterized by reviewers as a "meta-
physical quest" {American Journal
of
Sociology) or placed in the
realm of "mists of intuition" {Social Forces). Sorokin's works are
fuU of the very empirical data highly valued by anti-philosophic
critics. However, critics buttress their case with references to
Sorokin's critique of "extreme sensate empiricism," and slight the
masses of facts collected by him and his assistants in their roles as
empirical sociologists.
The characterization of "philosophical," "metaphysical," or the
like seems to have had for these critics little specific content save as
something outside the pale of science. The limited attention his
writings have attracted among philosophers has been largely criti-
cal. His writings are, as he himself clearly recognizes, out of sym-
^
P. A. Sorokin, "Integralism is My Philosophy," in Whit Burnett, ed.. This is My
Philosophtj (New York: Harper & Bros., 1957), pp.
180-89.
40 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
pathy with most of the prevaihng trends in philosophy. One of the
few philosophers to deal at length witli Sorokin attacks him for his
"neglect of modem philosophy."^ Thus, from both sides comes
condemnation of Sorokin's eflForts to link the problems of sociology
with broader ones in the area of traditional philosophy. Yet it is
clear that labehng Sorokin a philosopher and his work philosophic
is not wholly in error. To make sense of the statement, however, it
is necessary to clarify the use of the term "philosophic" and to dis-
pense with the contemptuous connotations of his sociological critics
and the more restricted sense of the term preferred by many philos-
ophers today.
Here, we propose to discuss briefly the relevance of Sorokin's
works in such traditional branches of philosophy as logic, ethics,
epistemology, aesthetics, and the philosophy of history and of
science. We shall then turn to a fuller presentation of Sorokin's
"integralism." Finally, we shall analyze some basic philosophic
issues raised in his work.
Sorokin's knowledge of the history of philosophic thought is
especially evident in his work on Contemporary Sociological
Theories. Paradoxically, this work devotes far more attention to the
history of thought than many works on social theory not using the
rubric "contemporary." In addition, Sorokin includes logical anal-
ysis of the relationship of premises and evidence to conclusion
throughout, citing instances of the traditional fallacies, violations
of "laws of thought," etc. He treats metaphysical and epistemologi-
cal issues, where relevant, to an extent seldom found in the writings
of social scientists. Among his other writings, Social Philosophies
of
an Age
of
Crisis deals most directly with issues of traditional
philosophic concern.
Ethical problems, of course, are the main focus of his later
writings. These deal with the "reconstruction of humanity" and
the vast range of issues linked to the general topic of "altruism."
In his Sociocultural Causality, Space, Time, Sorokin comes
more closely to grips with fundamental problems of the philosophy
^
John A. Irving, Science and Values (Toronto: Ryerson, 1952), p.
123. Chap,
xi is devoted to an attack on Sorokin's work, particularly his Reconstruction
of
Humanity. Irving confuses some of Sorokin's basic terminology, such as in his
reversal of the meaning of "ideational" and "idealistic." Other philosophers
demonstrate a more careful reading in their critiques (e.g., Daya Krishna in his
"Sorokin and the Problem of Knowledge," Indian Journal
of
Philosophy, I, No. 3
[April 1960] 175-83).
FORD: Sorokin as Philosopher 4
1
of science, already analyzed in his Dynamics. A full coverage of
the philosophic implications of his work would require a consider-
able discussion of this work and its major topics. The same would
hold true of his detailed discussion of the problems of the sociology
of knowledge and of the philosophy of history, which are the topics
for other chapters in this volume. We shall therefore limit our
detailed treatment here to the "integralist philosophy" which is, in
one sense, the basis for Sorokin's views on all these other topics, and
in another the outcome of them. In any event, it is so intertwined
with the other aspects that we shall necessarily assume some ac-
quaintance with them while holding to the central topic of in-
tegralism. Sorokin is, indeed, one of the few who fulfil the in-
junction by his critic Irving that the issues of philosophy and social
science should be treated in conjuncture.^
\
II. Sorokin's Integralism
Sorokin's "integralist philosophy" bears an intimate relationship
with his analysis of the why of super-rhythms in historic social
change. In this analysis the principles of immanent change and of
limited possibilities play crucial roles. His earliest full-scale presen-
tation of his "integralist philosophy" emerges in the latter chapters
of his Dynamics from his treatment of these two principles in their
empirical setting. While they are covered more fully in other chap-
ters of this volume, it is necessary to review them briefly here be-
cause of their relevance to Sorokin's philosophy. For it is in the
insufficiency of the philosophic premises of each of the major super-
systems of culture that Sorokin finds the fundamental explanation
of the limits and the eventual decline of each major supersystem.
It may serve us well to note, first, how the concept of integration
itself plays a key role in Sorokin's empirical studies of social sys-
tems. While constantly aware of the presence of cultural congeries
and imperfectly integrated systems, he focuses on the role of a
system of meanings" as it is "objectified" and "socialized" or
grounded" in empirical sociocultural reality. This is for him a key
to the unity and hence the intelligibility of sociocultural phenomena.
Irving, op. cit.,
p.
124.
42 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
After presenting a wide variety of evidence, Sorokin states this
proposition in clear and categorical form:
Among cultural phenomena there hardly exists any pure causal
relationship or any pure causal system "unmarried" to the meaningful
relationships and systems and based entirely upon inherentphysical,
chemical, and biologicalproperties
of
the vehicles. Any sociocultural
system is at the same time meaningful, and its "causativeness" is based
upon the system
of
meanings it incorporates^
"Again, while congeries of meanings and empirically integrated
meanings are always present in every empirically grounded system,
nonetheless, the most general criterion of a system of meaning is
"a logical compatibility and specific dependence or interdependence
of
each meaning-element upon the other m,eanings-elements,
of
the
meanings-elements upon the whole system and
of
the system upon
the elements."
This specific dependence, he asserts, is either "logical de-
pendence or interdependence for all the propositions and systems
of propositions that have a form of judgment," or else "aesthetic
dependence or interdependence for all the art meanings or values-
expressive of consistency and consensus or harmonywhich repre-
sents a kind of aesthetic logic different from the logic of verbal
propositions."^
The analysis of empirical sociocultural systems is enormously
complicated by the different forms in which logical and aesthetic
dependence and interdependence manifest themselves in theories
of science, articulated norms of law, creeds of rehgion, principles
of political and economic organization, theories and judgments of
art, etc. Yet all of these are only part of the picture. Sorokin
continually stresses the "infinitely manifold and inexhaustible"
nature of "true reafity." He states that logically consistent mean-
ings give only "one-rational-aspect of this reafity," and that the task
of
the social scientist is enormously more complex than that
of
the
"natural scientist, who has to deal with and study only one {the
causal) aspect
of
his phenomena" as well as that of the "pure
philosopher, who deals only with the realm
of
the pure meanings."^
*
Dynamics, IV, 39.
^
Ibid., IV, 21. The matter of the role of aesthetic interdependence, and its
relationship to logical consistency, is one of many questions we cannot treat fully
here.
"
Ibid., IV, 67-68.
FORD: Sorokin as Philosopher 43
While Sorokin proceeds then to discuss how empirical socio-
cultural systems function and change in important parts as a whole
and in "togetherness," he analyzes in considerable detail and depth
the "conditions o the optimum integration of empirical socio-
cultural systems."^ Through all this analysis he notes the elements
of congeries again and again. Here, however, it is necessary only
to indicate his constant use of the concept of integration in one
form or another as a criterion and also as an index of what is
"optimal" and in some cases even "ideal." Many critics have missed
this reiterated stress on the chaos and congeries alongside the
unified elements in concrete social reality. Hence, they have rushed
forth to battle Sorokin on a point where he made his position quite
clear. He certainly has immunized himself against the charge that
he has neglected the discordant and unintegrated elements in
culture; yet he has made integration the keystone of his system.
In his careful analysis of the principle of immanent change he
makes this even clearer. For example, he states the proposition
that:
Other conditions being equal (including the milieu), in the social
and cultural systems
of
the same kind, the greater and better is their
integration, the greater is their self-determination {and autonomy from
the environment) in molding their own destiny. . . . Such is probably
the most important condition of the amount of self-determination of the
system, in unfolding its potentiality during its life career.^
Thus, integration becomes the clue to the autonomy of a system,
which makes possible its margin of self-determination.
Among corollaries of his major propositions, Sorokin states that
other conditions being equal, the highest amount
of
self-determina-
tion belongs to those social and cultural systems which are most per-
fectly integrated, causally and meaningfully."^ This greater amount
of integration has, of course, its corollaries in the greater "causal
interdependence" of the components of the system and the most
'sohdary" and "consistent" relations of the human agents. These,
clearly, are variations on the theme of integration, and the terms
are near synonyms for it in their own contexts.
Sorokin acknowledges that between perfectly integrated and un-
integrated systems there are many "intermediate systems." None-
theless, the crux of his analysis is the degree
of
integration.
'
Ibid., IV, 68 ff.
Ibid.
Ibid.,
p. 409.
1 26 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
assume them to be only a crude generalization or "extrapolation"
from history. At the same time, there is no doubt that the element
of historical generalization plays an important role, and this brings
us to the second question, namely: How far can valid inferences be
drawn from past to present or future social conditions?^ It is
beyond the scope of this essay, and the competence of its author,
to determine how true the pictures are that Sorokin draws of the
social, pohtical, and economic conditions in various Western and
Oriental societies. Even if the historical facts were well established,
the question remains: How confident can we be in generalizing from
them to the future, or in using them for the diagnosis of our own
society? And the answer seems to be that we cannot feel any
confidence at all in such inferences. For if anything is true of
modem Western society, it is that it is radically different from its
forerunners in almost every important respect. Its machinery of
production and degree of economic development is unequaled. It
is a society where everyone can buy and read newspapers, or listen
to the radio, and thus become aware of social and political goals.
It is also a society where government is by consent, at least in the
nominal sense that there are general elections in which everyone
has the right to vote.^
The failure, as it seems, to t^ke fully into the account the in-
dustrialization of Western society and all its consequences is one
of the chief defects of Sorokin's analyses. It may still be true that
social inequality is necessary, and that the difference between the
poor and the rich, or the humble and the exalted, will continue to
fluctuate and grow large at times. Should history repeat itself, it
will be for reasons that are different in many ways, and in the dif-
ference lies much of the interest. If this line of thinking is correct,
we learn from history that we cannot learn from history. At any
rate, it does not seem possible to use pre-industrial and industrial
societies, side by side, as so many equally relevant negative or
positive instances to some law or principle.
Sorokin's treatment of economic inequality may serve as an
example. He finds evidence of both increasing differences during
certain periods and a leveling of such differences at other times,
''
For an example of the prominent role of the argument from history, see Social
and Cultural Mobility,
p.
153.
*
Cf. S. M. Lipset and R. Bendix, Social Mobility in Industrial Society (Berkeley
and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1959), p.
4.
CARLSSON: Sorokin's Theory of Social Mobility 1 27
though they never disappear completely. An important distinction
is drawn with respect to these opposing tendencies. The "natural
direction" of change is that of increasing differences, more in-
equahty. "In a similar way, within a social group numerous and
as yet unknown forces in a 'natural' way tend to increase economic
stratification, unless there is an intervention of opposite forces
acting as a check." Sorokin admits that these interventions are also
natural, but he holds that they work "convulsively and spasmodi-
cally, and manifest themselves clearly only from time to time.
Being always marked by a special effort to stop the natural process
of stratification, they remind us of the artificiality of the cutting of
permanently growing hair."^ A series of historical illustrations
further clarify this distinction.
Now, whatever may be the truth of this theory as apphed to
pre-industrial systems, it does not seem valid for industrial society.
In the latter we find a process of leveling of income differences at
work, and the most remarkable feature of this process is its con-
tinuous and automatic operation. Most classes profit from the de-
velopment of the economic machinery, but particularly those at the
bottom of the income scale, so that the gap between bottom and
top is lessened. And this effect does not seem to be something im-
posed from without, so .to speak, by means of legislation and welfare
measures. It appears in countries with different political systems
and with varying emphasis on social legislation. Even in Sweden,
with its "semi-socialistic" political and economic system, and rather
close approximation to the idea of the welfare state, it has been esti-
mated that only a minor part of the leveling is due to the taxation
and welfare measures and the major part to other forces.
^*^
Indeed,
the observation that countries that are well developed economically
have more economic equality than less developed countries has
recently been promoted to a kind of law.
The moral of all this is not so much that Sorokin was wrong
about economic stratification in modem society. It is rather that
the industrial system of production sets free forces which are quite
difFerent from those found in traditional society and which may tend
to bridge the gap between strata with respect to material standard
*
Social and Cultural Mobility,
pp.
46-47.
^
R. Bentzel, Inkomstfordelningen i Sverige ( Stockholm : Industrins utredning-
sinstitut,
1953) ("Income Distribution in Sweden"; in Swedish with summary in
English,
pp.
211-18).
128 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
and life-chances. Still, there might be a limit to this process; a mini-
mum of inequality may be a necessary trait of any organized group
or society. By this we are brought back to the second of Sorokin's
two main types of arguments.
III. The Argument from Function
(Whatever may be their general reaction to Sorokin's work, today
readers will at least feel at home with his discussion of the funda-
mental causes or reasons behind social stratification. This appears
to be an example of functional analysis which is so important in
present-day sociological theory. It is true that Sorokin has ex-
pressed serious doubts about the soundness of the functional school
of thought in one of his later books^ and, therefore, presumably
cares little to be referred to it himsejif) But the paradox may be
more apparent than real as the label in question can be and actually
is applied to sociologists of rather varied theoretical orientations.
In fact, functionalists are often quite dissatisfied with the methods
and results of other functionalists. It is therefore important to note
both where he agrees and where he disagrees with current interpre-
tations of social class and mobility.
First, about the agreement, which is, indeed, striking. If we
take the well-known article on social stratification and its functions
by Davis and Moore^^ as a representative specimen of more recent
thinking on the subject, we find much of their argument offered by
Sorokin some twenty years earlier. Inequality is a universal at-
tribute of societies because it is a necessary attribute. Every organ-
ized group is stratified; otherwise it cannot survive. The permanent
and invariable bases of occupational stratification are, first, the im-
portance of an occupation for the survival of the group as a whole,
and second, the degree of intelligence required in it.^^ And what he
has to say about economic inequality can be interpreted in a similar
way: Either we have a "flat" distribution of income and wealth
^^
Sorokin, Society, Culture and Personality (New York: Harper,
1947),
pp.
338-39.
^^
K. Davis and W. E. Moore, "Some Principles of Stratification," American
Sociological Review, X (1945),
242-49. There are hardly any references to other
works in this article, and none to Sorokin's mobihty theory.
^^
Social and Cultural Mobility,
pp.
100-101.
CARLSSON: Sorokin's Theory of Social Mobility 1 29
and a poor society, or greater inequality and a more prosperous
society.^V
WitE social mobility, as contrasted to stratification, the case is
not so simple. Under favorable circumstances individuals move up,
remain on the same level, or move down on the social hierarchy,
according to their talent, so that each one is able to do his work
properly. If the "testing mechanism" fails, society as a whole suf-
fers and may perish.
^^
But a high rate of vertical mobility is fol-
lowed by symptoms of anomie, and also by the "burning out" of the
supply of intelligence and of leadership qualities by reason of the
low fertility of the strata into which the talented are promoted.^
So far Sorokin may be open to the criticism he himself has
directed against functional analysis, namely, that it is teleological
rather than causal. But there are other elements in his theory, and
in particular the idea of an equilibrium governed by laws, which
are more tangibly causal. From time to time the distance between
bottom and top becomes too great, he says, or too small, and the
situation, therefore, is highly unstable. Eventually there is a read-
justment; the degree and forms of social inequality are shifted back
to the vaguely defined middle range of what is tolerable and more
stable. The story about class relations, as told by Sorokin, is not
always an edifying one, but there is a moral in it. The powerful-
and dominating groups will try to cheat and oppress the underdog;
insincerity and cynicism are necessary qualities for many types of
social climbing,^^ and compulsion or lies may be needed to keep
power. One consolation is that a bit of brain is needed for all this,
and even the underprivileged groups may therefore reap the fruits of
able leadership. But more important, in this connection, is the idea
of redress through reform or revolution. When the disproportion of
privileges exceeds a certain limit, those who have been cheated and
oppressed will revolt.^
Put another way, there is a minimum a social order must do for
each one within it. There are basic human needs which those in
control neglect at their peril. And men have to learn by painful
experience that too much equality will also leave those needs un-
satisfied. Human nature may be plastic, and many desires are the
^*
Ibid.,
p. 59.
"
Ibid.,
p.
182.
"
Ibid.,
p.
496.
^'
Ibid.,
p.
309.
^I&fd.,
pp.
92-93, 113-14.
1 30 PITIRIM A, SOROKIN IN REVIEW
product of a social environment, but at the very least the require-
ments for physical survival put a limit to such variations, and quite
possibly some psychological needs can be added to those for food,
drink, and shelter as universal. If this is so, "constraining factors"
will act on institutions. A certain piece of the social structure
cannot be changed without the change affecting other parts, or
perhaps even the whole structure.
All this is a part of Sorokin's explanation of social class and
mobility. It is a kind of functionalism, no doubt, which might be
called the "individual variant" for simplicity's sake. It is all a little
speculative, and not a method that is likely to lead to clear and
indisputable results when applied to concrete situations. But
there appears to be little in it which is completely mystical or un-
intelligible, and the teleological element can be removed.
Unfortunately, this is not the whole story. There is also the
"social variant" of functionalism to which some passages in Sorokin's
work point, and which is very much at the forefront in contempo-
rary theory. And with this variant, we are in far deeper trouble.
Here, a social institution, or some similar phenomenon, is explained
or understood by pointing to its contribution to the survival of the
group or society. The elimination of teleology is, here, a much
harder task, if possible at all. Not the least difficult is to say what
exactly is meant by the survival of a society, beyond the physical
survival of its members. If Aristotle is to be believed, as long as
there are human beings they will form some sort of society. And
society ( or culture ) is always dying and at the same time renewing
itself. This point has been forcibly put by Myrdal, who holds that
the concepts of function and equilibrium more often than not serve
as instruments of conservative teleology.^^ Regarding the concept
of mores, which he puts in the same category, he observes: "It
conceals what is most important in our society: the changes, the
conflicts, the absence of static equilibrium, the lability of all re-
lations even when they are temporarily, though perhaps for decades,
held at standstill."
Now, functional analysis probably belongs to those topics which
should be discussed either at great length or not at all, and it might
therefore be just as well to leave it here. What has been said above
^^
G. Myrdal, Value in Social Theory, ed. P. Streeton (London: Routledge &
Kegan, Paul,
1958),
pp.
79, 151.
CARLSSON: Sorokin's Theory of Social Mobility 131
is not likely to convert anyone from belief to disbelief in the method.
There are, however, one or two allied questions that deserve a few
remarks. One concerns the relation between the two variants of
functional analysis here distinguished. They are, of course, often
used side by side; it is not easy to say where one type ends and the
other begins. But in Sorokin's case it may be asked how far the
social variant can be harmonized with other elements in his theory.
The more one stresses the sudden and violent death of a social
order as a recurring event, caused by the inability of this order to
satisfy human needs, the more doubt is cast upon social stratifica-
tion as an integrating force.
Be this as it may, later sociologists are hardly in a position to
attack Sorokin's approach as fundamentally unsound, since so much
of their own speculation on stratification and mobility follows the
same track. And the part of the theory which has been criticized
here as particularly questionable, the so-called social variant of
functionalism, is the part which seems to have the strongest appeal
in current thinking.
While functional analysis, in a restricted sense of the term, may
not impress everyone as a promising venture, there is also a wider
sense in which we are all functionalists. It is our business as soci-
ologists to study the interdependence between different parts of the
social structure. It would be rash to assume that everything is
related to everything else; but at least some important institutions
or conditions of group life do not occur independently of each other.
This is not necessarily the same thing as determining part-whole
relations, and cannot be covered by the formula "contributions to
the stability and survival of society." But it is an important task in
itself and particularly so in the field of social stratification. For
instance, what is the relation between the forms of social inequality
and social mobility?
IV. The Quantitative Study of Mobility
It is the purely technical side of stratification and mobility re-
search that has developed most rapidly since the publication of
Social Mobility, and it is accordingly here that one would expect
Sorokin to be least up to date. With vertical social mobility, the
132 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
question is clearly not whether there is any, but how much there is;
and whether it is higher in some countries than in others. Before
sociologists can answer such questions they cannot test more am-
bitious theories.
More precisely, there are two problems involved in the measure-
ment of social mobihty. One is how to get reliable information
about social status and changes of status for the right segments of
tlie population, so that the results are accurate and can be general-
ized within known and not too narrow limits. The other problem is
the selection of the appropriate formulas for the computation of an
index of mobility, and the interpretation of such indices.
On the whole, more progress has been made with regard to
the first problem than the second. Hence, the mobility data re-
ported by Sorokin do not meet modern standards; they are often
based on samples which are not representative of the general popu-
lation or any major part of it. Criticisms on these points should,
however, be tempered by two considerations. For one thing,
Sorokin is perfectly aware that his results should be regarded as
preliminary and are not to be trusted too much. He had to use
what was available in the 1920's; a firmer basis could not be laid
before the methods of statistical sampling and field work had been
improved. And we still lack much of the information needed for
a comparative and analytic study of mobility. Not until the
1950's did more reliable national mobihty estimates appear. Even
now we are far from sure of how to handle the errors caused by
faulty data and how to get comparabihty between different studies.
As to the second problem, the choice of a statistical index of
mobility, or several indices, the situation is a little more confused.
Sorokin's procedure is a straightforward one; he uses simple per-
centage figures to determine mobility or recruitment of classes.
That this index is not always suitable is quite clear; the values will
depend on the numerical size of the different strata or classes.
Unfortunately, it is not easy to find a remedy which meets with
general approval by specialists in the field. In later years, another
index of mobihty (or immobility) has been widely used, namely,
the departure of observed recruitment figures from those expected
on the hypothesis of "perfect mobility," that is, statistical inde-
pendence between the two attributes studied: for instance, the
status of the father and that of the son. But this index has dis-
CARLSSON: Sorokin's Theory of Social Mobility 1 33
advantages, too, and some sociologists prefer to do much the same
type of computations as Sorokin, and try to keep the status or oc-
cupational distributions as nearly identical as possible when they
are studying mobility in different countries.
^
This may seem like a purely statistical point, and not very im-
portant as such. But it illustrates a diflBculty which is met quite
frequently. Sociologists run into trouble with their mobility meas-
ures because too many such measures can be invented, and dif-
ferent indices may not support the same conclusion.
Judged
by
the percentage of sons of laborers who become white-collar em-
ployees, the rate of mobility is perhaps increasing, but when a
perfect-mobility index is computed, the rate may appear stationary,
or even decreasing. There is httle to be gained by appeal to the
intuitive or common-sense notion of mobility, for this is too vague
and fluctuating. It is rather the function of theory to guide empiri-
cal research in this matter by indicating what indices are relevant
for what purposes. So far, sociologists have not solved this prob-
lem; even with the identical data, they may therefore arrive at
different conclusions.
One aspect of this question should be particularly observed in
connection with Sorokin's theory of mobility. There are principally
two components of vertical social mobility. One is the "reshuffling"
of people; there is a stream going up the ladder, and perhaps an
equally big stream going down. This will be called the "distribu-
tive" component of mobility. But there is also a "demand and
supply" component; it can happen that a great number of men
coming from lower strata will find a place somewhere in the middle
range because more jobs and positions in this middle range are
created and have to be filled. In many societies, and certainly in
ours, both components are needed to explain social mobility. A
complete theory must therefore do justice to both, but mobility
indices may be designed to isolate either component and assess its
strength.
With Sorokin it is definitely the distributive component that
is the center of attention. For this reason competition and con-
flict are favored themes in his analysis, and little use is made
'
This is the case in S. M. Lipset and R. Bendix, op cit.,
pp.
17-38. For an ex-
tensive discussion of this problem, see K. Svalastoga, Prestige, Class and Mobility
(Copenhagen: Gyldendal,
1959),
pp.
285-99.
L
1 34 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
of the idea of society moving as a w^hole along the income, power,
or prestige dimensions. Sorokin's discussion of the influence of
social change on mobility is characteristic; vv^hat he notices is, in
main, the effects on the chances of a given group relative to other
groups.
^-^
By this we come back to an objection raised earlier, that he
neglects the consequences of an expanding economy for the chances
and aspirations of different social strata. Now, it may still be true
that social status should be treated strictly as something relative,
or at least that it can be so treated for some purposes. According
to this view, if some middle-class occupations become much more
frequent, then their value is also diminishing at the same rate.
The sum of all mobihty in society is zero, whether it is group or
individual mobility; by definition, there is no such thing as society
as a whole moving up or down. This view is not hkely to contain
the whole truth, but it may, nevertheless, be worth the effort to
construct an index of mobility that corresponds to it. The subject
is too technical to go into here, but it seems clear that this measure
will have to be something more complex than the simple per-
centages describing the flow between classes or occupational
categories.
As it is, little is to be gained by detailed comparisons between
Sorokin's estimates of vertical mobility and more recent figures.
But it may still be relevant to ask if modern sociologists agree with
Sorokin in their general diagnosis and in the broad trends they
find. To this question, it is hard to give a definite answer, for on
the most important point, the ^hange of mobility rates, no clear
picture emerges in either case.v We have seen that Sorokin's long-
term perspective is one of fluctuations without a steady trend up-
wards or dov^mwards. Within a limited period the rate may be
rising or declining, and he thinks that mobility has been increasing
in Western society in the period after the Industrial Revolution,
though he professes no certainty on the point.^^ )
After Sorokin sociologists have by no means been of one mind
as to the changes in the rate of mobility. Not a few have held that
mobility is diminishing and that class barriers, to that extent, are
becoming more effective; but this, as well as the opposite belief,
^^
Social and Cultural Mobility,
pp.
366-68.
"
Ibid.,
p.
424.
CARLSSON: Sorokin's Theory of Social Mobility 1 35
was long supported by inferences rather than by direct quantitative
evidence.
^^
It would be too much to say that the mobility studies carried out
in several countries in the 1950's have settled the issue once and
for all. Modern sampling and interviewing methods may give a
faithful picture of the present state of things, but how far they can
be trusted to reveal past conditions is another matter. When the
inquiry is to be extended beyond the nearest decades, the diffi-
culties mount. What data there are tend to show that the mobility
rate has been rather stable, neither generally increasing nor de-
creasing during this century.^^
The situation is much the same when we come to the other main
type of comparative mobihty analysis, that between countries. In
the hght of modem studies such differences, if they exist at all, are
much less impressive than might have been expected.^^ Here
again, no high degree of precision can be claimed for the results;
errors are hard to avoid and can both conceal real and create
spurious differences. Most probably, the order of magnitude of the
real variation between industrialized countries is no greater than
that of the errors caused by insufficient information or faulty
classffication.^ As the social and economic differences between
countries increase, promising better contrasts, so mostly do errors
of measurement.
The tentative conclusion reached above on the basis of later
studies does not appear to be different from Sorokin's views. In
his presentation of mobility data from various countries, the im-
pression of similarity dominates, and he remarks specfficaUy on the
exaggerated behef in American mobility and European immo-
bility.^^ On the point last mentioned, he was able to explode a
common misconception almost amounting to a myth.
V. The Limits of Mobility
Though his main interest is social mobility, Sorokin uses a con-
siderable part of his book to discuss stratification and its changes.
*^
G. Carlsson, Social Mobility and Class Structure,
pp.
105-13.
"^
Cf. S. M. Lipset and R. Bendix, op. cit.,
pp.
33-38.
"^
Ibid.,
pp.
17-38.
''
Carlsson, op. cit.,
pp.
114-20.
^^
Social and Cultural Mobility,
pp.
414-57, 461 n.
1 36 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
This, of course, is almost inevitable; the two topics cannot be
separated. Mobility and stratification are related by definition; in
the extreme and perhaps never realized case of complete equahty,
there is no problem of mobility, and we would tend to regard a
society with no mobility at allan equally rare caseas highly
stratified because of that fact. But between these improbable
extremes there is the great middle range with some degree of
inequality, and some, but no perfect, mobility. Here, the relation
between the two things becomes an empirical and, therefore, more
interesting question. How are changes in the degree of stratifica-
tion related to changes in the rate of mobihty?
Though Sorokin's work contains references to this question,
and much that has a bearing on it, there is no detailed discussion
of it. In both popular thinking and sociological analysis, it is
usually taken for granted that there is a direct relation between the
extent and frequency of mobility, on the one hand, and the degree
of stratification, on the other. A high rate of mobility is accepted
as a sign that class barriers generally are low, and that no great
social distance separates different strata.
Sorokin repeatedly warns his readers not to equate mobility
and equahty; the high and possibly increasing rate of mobility in
Western society should not lead us to the illusion that stratification
is disappearing. Theoretically at least, a society can have a very
intensive and general mobility, although it is highly stratified.^^
At other times, however, he is more apt to stress the connection
between the two. He points to the important effects of mobility
on the psychological atmosphere of a society. For instance, mobility
will weaken the bases for class sohdarity and class antagonism. Be-
cause men frequently move from one stratum or class to another,
there will be more communication between classes, more of com-
mon feelings, and less hostihty.^^ It is, therefore, among those who
have been stationary, neither climbed nor descended the ladder,
that we shall expect a "class psychology," and even in Western
society this is no small proportion.^*^ Sorokin may be right in saying
that modern Western society is, essentiallythat is, when we look
at the distribution of income, power, and prestigeno less stratified
than many earlier societies. However, modern man certainly ap-
"
Ibid.,
pp.
137-38, 381.
'"
Ibid.,
pp.
438-39.
'"'
Ibid.
CARLSSON: Sorokin's Theory of Social Mobility 1 37
pears much less willing to emphasize social inequality in daily life.
There is no generally accepted "social order" in the old sense.
Class and status distinctions are covered by a kind of protective
layer of hazy distinctions; there is also some reluctance to accept the
idea of stratification and social inequality at all.^^ Perhaps this
should be passed as mere "speech reactions" in Sorokin's termi-
nology, or a product of wishful thinking. Yet a widely accepted
mode of thinking, or shall we say a shared lack of perception, is a
social reahty in its own right, and it is not without its further
consequences. Besides, both political democracy and the leveling
of income differences show victories for the idea of equality that
are more than symbolic.
The phrase, "protective layer," used above for the uncertainty
about class and status relations, may need some clarification. What
is being protected? In the first place, the feelings of those who are
placed on the lower rungs of the status ladder, but thereby also the
system of stratification itself. Because they no longer have un-
pleasant social facts rubbed into their faces, the underprivileged
are less apt to question the existing order, or revolt against it. Ours
is a system of social inequality which may be more durable because
^
i>^
it is less harsh and more blurred in outline than previous systems.
Here vertical mobility comes into the picture again. Though a
high rate of mobility may have the effect previously discussed of
diminishing some of the gaps between classes, it may also tend to
conserve the system and ultimately even create inequality. The
myths and rationalizations defending a caste-like societythat it is
ordained by God, or part of a natural and eternal order of things-
have probably never entirely convinced those who lacked oppor-
tunity in this society, and their dissatisfaction was a constant threat
against the system. As a contrast, take, instead, a society with a
high rate of vertical mobility, where young people will rise ac-
cording to their ability, unhampered by legal or financial barriers
and helped by a school system which selects the gifted, irrespective
of social origin, for an advanced education, and holds down the less
gifted regardless of the status of their parents. Such a state of
things has not been realized anywhere; but in many places it serves
I
^
Cf. T. H. Marshall, "General Survey of Changes in Social Stratification in the
Twentieth Century," Transactions
of
the Third World Congress
of
Sociology (Lon-
don: International Sociological Association, 1956), III, 1-17.
138 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
as an ideal to be approached as nearly as possible. What would be
the social and psychological consequences of its full attainment?
A number of interesting, if sometimes depressing, hypotheses
or conjectures come to one's mind. Vertical mobiUty, although
high according to the assumptions, would not necessarily be un-
limited or "perfect" in the statistical sense, for intelligence pre-
sumably would be quite important in the selection for higher edu-
cation, and intelligence is inherited to some extent. One would
expect most of the mobility to be between generations rather than
within one. That is to say, the fate of a young man or woman
would be decided relatively early, with his or her entry into a
certain educational program, and the subsequent career would
only shghtly modify the class-position reached. Relatively few
would be able to by-pass the school system as an instrument of
selection and promotion by moving from a low- to a high-status job
as adults.
This society, Utopian or nightmarish according to one's taste,
would be highly stratified in several important respects. There
would be marked differences in intelligence and some in cultural
background between the classes; selective education would see to
that. The groups at the bottom of the scale would no longer have
the consolation that society distributes its rewards unfairly, for
what can be fairer than giving everyone a chance to prove his
native ability and go ahead as far as it permits him?
There is no need to pursue this line of thinking any further;
other and more able writers have done so. It may well be that
the assumptions have been unrealistic and the conclusions wrongly
drawn. There are certainly counteracting forces at work, some of
which have just been mentioned. It could be argued that the
"function" of schools and education has been misunderstood; that
it is (or should be) to provide future citizens with a cultural basis
common to all segments of society, not to create differences or even
serve as an instrument of social selection. But there is no doubt
that a place must be found somewhere in the educational system
for the selective function, and that schools, as Sorokin puts it, con-
tribute to the "aristocratization of society."^^
The only certain conclusion is the usual one, that these ques-
tions have to be gone into more carefully. What seems to be
*^
Social and Cultural Mobility,
p.
190.
CARLSSON: Sorokin's Theory of Social Mobility 139
needed to guide our thinking and research is a kind of disciplined
speculation where the most reasonable assumptions and the best
data available are put in, and the consequences examined. The
nature and working of the school system will require a much more
detailed and technical examination than it received in Sorokin's
hands; with more young people getting a higher education, it be-
comes more important to study this aspect of the mobility problem.
It will also be necessary to take up such a difficult question as the
relative importance of nature and nurture for variations in intelli-
gence or other abilities, a question Sorokin did not neglect but one
with which most of his successors are reluctant to grapple.
With these and many other tasks before us, the study of social
mobility is likely to be broken up into a number of specialties, and
it is much to be feared that the writings of the various experts will
seem obscure and dull to a wider circle of readers. Worse still,
the essential unity of subject may get lost in the process, so that no
one is any longer able to see how the various pieces can be fitted
together to form a meaningful picture. If the prospects are such,
there is a constant need for thinkers as bold and independent as
Sorokin, and with his abihty to grasp an immense number of facts
and get sense and order out of them.
Sorokin's Theories on Sex and Society
David R. Mace
I gladly respond to the invitation to discuss Professor Sorokin's
sexual philosophy, because I have long admired him as a pioneer
and a prophet. I propose in this discussion to confine myself ex-
clusively to the thesis he has developed in The American Sex Revo-
lution. I shall use the first person singular in making my comments;
and, for convenience and I trust without appearing to be disrespect-
ful, I shall refer to him simply as Sorokin, without title or other
prefix.
Let me begin with a little of my own background. For some
twenty-five years I have taken a keen interest in questions of sexual,
marital, and family behavior, approaching the subject from the
standpoints of sociology, of psychology, and of religion. One of my
early discoveries in this field was the challenging hypothesis of
J.
D. Unwin's Sex and Culture, which deeply influenced my think-
ing. Some years after I had read this book I was working at
Cambridge on a doctoral thesis on the origins of the Christian sex
ethic, and I discovered to my surprise and delight that my super-
visor. Professor Stanley Cook, had also guided Unwin in his re-
searches. Thus I learned much of the man to whose earlier work
Sorokin has paid so high a tribute. Unwin's untimely death had
by that time terminated a career of great promise; but I was so
eager to follow his thought as far as it had progressed that I ob-
tained permission from his family to go through some of his un-
published writings. In 1942, in England, I wrote a small and un-
pretentious book entitled Does Sex Morality Matter? which was
largely the result of Unwin's influence.
The appearance of The American Sex Revolution was therefore,
for me, a most welcome event. I was delighted that a social phi-
MACE: Sorokin's Theories on Sex and Society 141
losopher of such outstanding distinction as Sorokin had alhed him-
self, unequivocally and emphatically, with the general view that the
pattern of sexual behavior which a culture adopts has a deep and
decisive effect upon its upward or downward movement; and that
he had further accepted the specific assertion of Unwin that the
standard of "absolute monogamy" appeared, in the light of the
testimony of human history, to create the best conditions for cultural
expansion.
This thesis had previously been stated as a general conclusion
worthy of attention. What Sorokin did was, first, to endorse it,
and then to apply it fearlessly to the culture of the country of his
adoption. This was a courageous step to take; for in the light of
the data which he adduced, it compelled him to accept the role of
a harbinger of doom. The book does, indeed, convey the atmos-
phere of grave concern and urgent warning that we find in the
writings of some of the Old Testament prophets.
It will be clear, from these personal observations, that I am in
very substantial agreement with the fundamental position which
Sorokin adopted in this book. If my comments were merely lauda-
tory, however, the purpose of this exchange, as I understand it,
would be defeated. I therefore propose to address myself to some
criticisms, comments, and questions that emerge from a careful
rereading of the book.
I begin with criticisms, and I have three to make: the volume
lacks documentation, it tends to weaken some of its arguments by
overstating them, and it sometimes adopts a denunciatory attitude
which fails to make reasonable allowance for the other side of the
argument.
The first criticism can be quickly stated. The book is without
references, bibliography, or index. The preface explains that this
pohcy was adopted because the volume grew out of an article in the
popular press, and was intended as non-technical for "the intelligent
lay-reader." I consider that this was an unfortunate decision. The
book contains many challenging and controversial statements. I
beheve the intelligent lay reader likes to know that facts presented
to him can be verified if he wishes to investigate them further.
Readers of this volume are expected to be able to understand
quotations in Latin and German. Readers of that caliber expect,
and deserve, references to the sources of statements used as the
i
142 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
basis of arguments which they may naturally be inclined to
challenge.
Secondly, I feel that from time to time Sorokin presses a con-
vincing case too far. Let me offer some illustrations.
Sorokin frequently seeks to show how sexual anarchy and fa-
milial degeneration cause all manner of social ills. He blames them
for "the endless conflicts of our time," which though strong lan-
guage I am ready to accept. But in the next sentence he elaborates
this in terms of "the present wars of everyone against everyone
else."^ This is going too far. We are not all at war with one
another, and never have been. Even in this era of violence, most of
us, for most of the time, have nurtured only peaceable sentiments
toward the rest of mankind.
Elsewhere^ Sorokin seeks to establish that mental disorders arise
in periods of sexual anarchy. Quoting figures that indicate rising
incidences of the former in the United States since 1880, he ac-
knowledges that these increases "can in part be accounted for by the
more adequate and accurate diagnosis of mental illness." However,
on the succeeding page^ he tries to establish a connection between
"the spread of licentiousness and the multiplication of mental dis-
orders" in Ancient Greece and Rome, in Ancient Egypt, and in the
cultures of Babylonia and Assyria. If data on mental illness in the
United States of America in the past eighty years must be treated
with reserve (and I agree that they must) how could any corre-
sponding information from these ancient civilizations be relied
upon? Evidence of this kind seems to me to be so flimsy that it
renders a disservice to the argument it is intended to support.
Again, in establishing a relationship between an "exceptionally
high rate of mental disorders" and "promiscuity and excess in sexual
behavior," Sorokin quotes as illustrations "Bohemian artists, mu-
sicians, and writers."^ What he is attempting to do is to establish
a causal relationship between persons of Bohemian propensities and
licentious behavior, which is not easy to do. However, whether he
achieves this or not, he does imply quite emphatically that the
Bohemians are sexually loose in their behavior. Yet later, in sup-
port of a different thesis, namely that creative potential is not de-
pendent on "sex diversions,"^ he declares that "the sex adventures
^
Pitirim A. Sorokin, The American Sex Revolution,
p.
12.
="
Ihid.,
p.
66.
'
Ihid.,
p.
67.
*
Ihid.,
p.
68.
^
Ihid.,
p.
69.
MACE: Sorokin's Theories on Sex and Society 143
of the Bohemians have been exaggerated. . . . Actually, there re-
mains little more than myth concerning the excessive sexuality of
the Bohemians."^
Now^ it is reasonable to suggest that there may be legitimate dif-
ferences of opinion as to whether the Bohemians are or are not
given to sexual excesses. What is not reasonable, however, is for
the same writer to paint tliem black in support of one argument,
and then later present them, duly whitewashed, in support of
another!
These are illustrations of a tendency I detect in Sorokin to allow
himself, under the influence of the enthusiasm generated in him
by the cause he is espousing, to carry his argument further than
prudence would dictate. It is, I believe, a very common human
failing, from which we all suffer to some degree. Nevertheless,
I beheve we have the obligation, as scholars and scientific investiga-
tors, to correct each other, in all charity, when we find such tenden-
cies manifesting themselves. A sound argument does not need such
tenuous support.
Thirdly, I find myself disturbed by Sorokin's tendency to de-
nounce. Up to a point, this is legitimate. It is a proper con-
comitant of crusading zeal, and I would not wish to see the arrows
of good rhetoric blunted to the extent that they could not strike
their target. Therefore I accept Sorokin's use, in describing sexual
misdemeanors and their consequences, of such colorful words as
sham, muck, trash, cancer, sewers, and the like. I can
chuckle over his description of the Freudian man as "a sort of
libido-bag filled with all kinds of sex perversions and incestuous and
deadly conflicts."^
However, while barbs are permissible, stings are not. In the
passage just quoted, an earlier part of the same sentence refers to
the Freudian ideologies as being "responsible for an utterly debased
concept of the human being."^
This either means that the view of man which Freud held
was itself utterly debased, or that others used his writings to elab-
orate such a view, and that Freud must be blamed for this. I
believe that neither position is tenable. Sigmund Freud may have
been mistaken in his conclusions; but he surely was not malicious
"
Ibid.,
p.
70.
'
Ibid.,
p.
163.
'
Ibid.
144 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
in his intentions. He may have been a fool; but he w^as not a knave.
Freud vv^as exploring dark and mysterious territory, w^hich any
explorer in quest of the truth may do. The ultimate verdict of
history may be that his findings w^ere falseas New^ton's particle
theory of light proved to be false. But if so, this w^ould not indict
him, nor bring him personally under judgment, even if his hy-
pothesis had regrettably been employed for evil purposes or w^ith
evil consequences.
I am not defending Freud's doctrines, which Sorokin is entitled
to attack w^ith the utmost vigor. I am, how^ever, defending Freud
himself, because I feel that the attack on his doctrines becomes an
attack on himself. For example, in one passage Sorokin says: "In
these fantastic yams Freud utterly distorted the meaning of the
Greek myths and the essence of human culture."^ This conveys an
impression of Freud deliberately doing something dishonest. The
passage may be ambiguous, and could mean that Freud's theories
led, w^ithout intention on his part, to misrepresentation. But a
passage which could indict the integrity of another scholar should
not be allowed to contain ambiguity. Disagreementeven strong
disagreementwith each other is valid. Denunciation of each other
is not.
A similar attack is launched on Kinsey and his associates.
Sorokin says: "In recent works like Dr. Kinsey's volumes, no proof
of the validity of his statistics is given. The authors did not subject
their interviewees to thorough examination of any kind. . .
."^
These are sweeping statementsparticularly when they are ad-
dressed to lay readers, who lack the resources to investigate their
truth. What is meant by the validity of a statistic? The phrase
is not easy to define precisely. Kinsey's figures were certainly not
fictitious. They were what they purported to bedata descriptive
of the sexual behavior of the persons interviewed. It is difficult to
determine what kind of "proof" could have been supplied that was
in fact withheld. Clearly, the names and addresses of the persons
concerned could not have been given. The nature of the investiga-
tions was such that this would have constituted a breach of confi-
dence. Beyond this information, I can think of nothing else of
material significance that was in fact withheld.
Again, what kind of "thorough examination" should have been
Ibid.,
p.
162.
"
Ibid.,
p.
57.
MACE: Sorokin's Theories on Sex and Society 1 45
added to the investigation procedure? I myself happen to be one
of those who submitted themselves for interview by Kinsey. For
an hour I was asked questions about my sex life that went far
beyond anything I have ever been asked before or since. The
questions were asked in a detached, scientific manner that was en-
tirely inoflFensive. Afterwards, in a discussion lasting two hours,
Kinsey convinced me that it would have been very difficult for me
to misrepresent the facts and that if he had suspected me of doing so
he would have rejected my return. I tried, unsuccessfully, to think
of any data, essential to Kinsey's study, that he had not secured
from me.
As I reread Sorokin's statement in the hght of these facts, I feel
again the sting of personal denunciation. In the same passage
Sorokin declares of the Kinsey group:
".
. . nor did they sample a
sufficiently wide range of people to validate their conclusions."^^
This is a statement he is entirely justified in making. It is a legiti-
mate criticism of the study. But I feel that the earlier statements
constitute not criticism of the study, so much as denunciation of
those who undertook it. They leave an impression that Kinsey was
irresponsible, as the attack on Freud leaves the impression that he
was malicious.
The same denunciatory note is encountered in Sorokin's analysis
of the family disintegration of our era. He speaks of "the growing
inability of married couples to adjust to one another"^^ as the cause
of "an ever greater difficulty in mutual adaptation of the members
of all other social groups." With this reasoning I have no quarrel.
I am sure he is right. But in his analysis of the causes of their
troubles in marital adjustment, Sorokin seems to censure the couples
themselves. He speaks of "the higher standard of living demanded
by today's Americans, especially the women," the "inflated egoism
that is incapable of bearing the shortcomings of the other partner,"
the "lack of genuine all-giving and all-forgiving love."^^
What this conveys to my mind is that the married couples of
today are responsible for creating their own troubles because they
demand luxuries, lack forbearance, and are not loving enough.
Since the emphasis here is on "today's Americans," the implica-
tion seems to be that yesterday's Americans, had they lived today,
"
Ibid.
"
Ibid.,
p.
10.
"
Ibid.
146
PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
would have done better. In short, today's Americans are being com-
pared unfavorably with yesterday's, and denounced because they are
found wanting. This is how I interpret references to "a progressive
decline of 'parental instinct,' or more exactly, of parental attach-
ment, love, and care for ojffspring";^^ "this withering of the strongest
form of inter-human sympathy and care";^^ and Sorokin's con-
clusion that, of the causes for marital maladjustment he himself
cites, "inflated egoism" is the one most likely to explain the facts.^^
I doubt whether Sorokin, if pressed on the point, would contend
that the Americans of yesterday, if they had happened to live today,
would have acted very difFerently from the members of the present
generation. As I see it, the family disturbances of our time are not
due to excessive egoism or unwilHngness to be loving, but to the
fact that under the stresses and strains of a vast cultural transition
men and women find the management of family relationships far
more difiBcult than was the case in the recent past. The traditional
family institution has taken a heavy beating as a result of such
influences as greatly increased social mobility, the social and eco-
nomic emancipation of women, the chaos created by two world
wars, the prevailing sense of insecurity, and many other factors
which are hsted in every volume on family sociology. In my
clinical experience in dealing with marital problems, I have not
found much reason to judge the men and women concerned, but
rather to pity them. Frequently I am amazed at the tenacity with
which, amid constant discouragement, they continue to be un-
selfish and loving and forgiving.
Who, then, is to blame? I would find it hard to answer that
question. But whether it can be accurately answered or not, I do
not believe that any useful purpose is served by pointing an ac-
cusing finger at the married couples who are failing in their relation-
ship to each other or in their relationship to their children.
In short, our scholarly analyses of social and cultural pathology
should be as scrupulously careful in passing judgment as is any
court of law. In politics and elsewhere, personal invective is ac-
cepted as part of the stock in trade of all interchange which ex-
presses disagreement. Many distinguished scholars have not hesi-
tated to use denunciation to make their points. I am nevertheless
"
Ibid.,
p.
11.
^'
Ibid.
"
Ibid.,
p.
10.
MACE: Sorokin's Theories on Sex and Society 1 47
contending that this weapon does not belong in the armory of true
scholarship; and insofar as I seem to detect a denunciatory note in
some of Sorokin's passages, my admiration for him is somewhat
diminished in consequence.
I now pass from criticism to comment. I wish to discuss, some-
what further than he does, some of the issues he has raised.
Sorokin's thesis is that irregularities of sexual behavior are
personally and socially deleterious. In general, I am in agree-
ment with him. The hbertine, the profligate, the fornicator, the
adulterer, the seducer: these are, in consequence of their sexual
acts, disturbers and destroyers of the health and security of the
body social. The interests of family and community alike are best
served by adherence to the traditional standards of chastity and
fidehty which have, in their highest periods of achievement, char-
acterized the great human cultures.
What exactly is it, however, that happens when these standards
of behavior are departed from? It is clear to me that there is a
degradation of character and integrity, a lowering of the respect
and sense of worth accorded to other persons as these become
objects of personal gratification, rather than partners in the altruis-
tic enterprise of building a family. It is equally clear that the at-
tainment of such gratification involves, again and again, recourse
to dishonesty and subterfuge, and the engendering of cupidity and
jealousy and deadly rivahy; and that such sentiments and practices,
once accepted as part of the commerce of human relations, become
poisonous sources of infection in the hfe of any human community.
Where I encounter some difficulty, however, is in trying to de-
termine how this is related to the physical consequences of sexual
acts. Most custodians of the traditional pattern of sexual behavior
place considerable emphasis upon the concept of "excess"; and
Sorokin follows the usual pattern in this respect. Referring to the
Ejnsey team he says: "In the light of today's medical knowledge,
their claims, especially in regard to the supposed harmlessness of
over-indulgence, are fallacious. The existing body of evidence
points clearly to the fact that excessive sexual activity, particularly
when it is illicit, has markedly deleterious effects."^^
This is one of the points at which I find the lack of documenta-
tion particularly exasperating. Where is this body of medical evi-
"
Ibid.,
p.
57.
1 48 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
dence? I can only say that I have been unable to find it. I have
discussed this matter with a number of medical sexologists, and
ranged widely, though not very systematically, through the litera-
ture on the subject. The conclusion at which I have arrived is the
opposite of that to which Sorokin's studies have led him.
Let me make myself quite clear. Sorokin talks of sexual over-
indulgence, but does not define what he means. What I have been
given to understand by medical authorities is that the sexual ap-
paratus, hke most other bodily organs or groups of organs, has its
ovim built-in safeguards against overuse that might result in damage.
Repeated use of the sexual function, both in men and in women,
simply leads to fatigue and a consequent cessation of operating
faculty. This creates the necessity for rest, which soon leads to the
complete recovery of functional capacity. As Dr. Clifford Allen, a
distinguished British sexologist, once expressed it to me in a con-
versation: "Sexual capacity cannot be damaged through use."
Nor have I encountered reliable evidence that any other area of
physical or emotional health suffers damage as a result of sexual
functioning, as such, to the limit of capacity. Temporary fatigue,
from which rest brings complete recovery, appears to be the only
consequence. Of course, concomitant factors, such as the use of
physical violence to excite sensation, or accompanying emotional
conflict because what is done is erroneously believed to be harmful,
may alter the reckoning. But that is not the question under dis-
cussion. What I am considering is whether or not physical damage
can result from the exercise of the sexual function to the limit of
capacity. I believe the answer to be that it cannot.
The way in which Sorokin phrases his statement leads me to
suspect that he is himself confusing the issue at this point. The
clause "particularly when it is illicit" is, I think, significant. What
difference can there be, physically, between licit and illicit sexual
functioning? The body knows nothing of what is moral or immoral.
It may of course be influenced, and quite profoundly, by the mind.
But to the body as such, all that matters is stimulus and response.
It continues to respond to any stimulus that excites it sexually until
its capacity to respond is exhausted, when it ceases to recognize
further stimulus until it has recovered from its fatigue.
Whence, then, has the widespread belief come that "excessive"
sexual activity is physically harmful? I think I can furnish the
MACE: Sorokin's Theories on Sex and Society 149
answer. Sorokin, in his continued discussion of this subject, goes on
to say: "Each sexual act involves an expenditure of vital physiologi-
cal forces. When this becomes too frequent, the organism as a
whole begins to wither, and the profligate goes into physical de-
cline."^^ This idea is very widely held. Yet I have never found
rehable scientific evidence to support it.
I should like to press the matter further, and ask just what are
these "vital physiological forces" that are expended in the sexual
act? Answers I have received to this question always refer to the
seminal fluid in the male. Indeed, I have never encountered the
use of this kind of statement in reference to female sexual activity.
Yet all libertines are not of the masculine sex.
The male seminal fluid features frequently in folklore, and has
been the subject of many scientifically unexamined beliefs and
attitudes. The view of most of the ancient cultures was that a
seminal emission was in itself, or after admixture with the menstrual
blood of the female, a potential child. Nothing was, of course,
known of sperm and ovum, which belong to the era of the micro-
scope.
It was quite natural that this mysterious fluid, the seed of new
Me, should become the object of awe and reverence. And it is
logical enough that it should, in view of that association, have been
endued with magical powers. Thought along these lines did not
have to travel far to reach the point at which loss of this fluid,
through irregular or excessive sexual activity, was regarded as
weakening or dangerous to the man concerned. I have found such
ideas widely current in Oriental culture,^^ where loss of seminal
fluid is identified with loss of a man's strength and vitality. Gandhi
accepted this view without question. Even in marriage, he declared
that sexual intercourse for any purpose other than procreation was
"criminal waste of precious energy." Speaking of the "vital fluid,"
he says: "A substance that is capable of producing such a wonder-
ful being as man cannot but, when properly conserved, be trans-
mitted into matchless energy and strength."^*^
There is both poetic beauty and religious reverence expressed
"
Ibid.,
p.
58.
^
See David and Vera Mace, Marriage: East and West (Garden City, N. Y.:
Doubleday,
1960), pp.
92-94.
'"' M. K. Gandhi, Self-Restraint versus Self-indulgence (Ahmedabad: Navajivan
Publishing House, 1947), p.
111.
1 50 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
in this idea. But I have been unable to find scientific evidence to
support it. There are married couples who, year in and year out,
enjoy sexual activity with a high degree of frequencyprobably
greater frequency than many a libertine finds possiblewithout ap-
parent detriment to their health or their happiness. I would con-
sider it both unjust and inaccurate to describe these married
couples as "sex gluttons"the phrase Sorokin uses to describe his
libertines. They simply have hearty sexual appetites, and find both
pleasure and enrichment in satisfying them. Perhaps they would
be equally happy, or even more happy, if they practiced modera-
tion. That, however, is not the point. The point is that, if Sorokin
is right, they are damaging their physical health and shortening
their lives. This I doubt. And because I doubt it, I believe that
in defending sex morality we must be prepared to give up the
argument that physical excess can, of itself, lead to bodily harm or
deterioration.
This is not intended as a challenge to Sorokin's argument, well
supported by incontrovertible data, that saints and ascetics are
healthier and live longer than those who enjoy the fleshpots. It is
an assertion that what determines the difference between the two
groups is not their relatively low and high participation in sexual
activity, but other concomitant factors that go with the ascetic and
the libertine patterns of living. If Sorokin wishes to contest this
assertion, he must adduce objective, scientific proof from medical
authorities to support his position.
Now let me take up another question that disturbs me. While
there is no doubt in my mind that transgressions against our tradi-
tional sex morality cause great harm to human society, I believe
that harm also results from going to the other extreme. Sorokin
makes only the most cursory references to this, and I think this can
lead to a one-sided picture.
In his book Sorokin makes it quite clear that he is not arguing
for complete sexual continence on a widespread scale. This, he
says, would obviously lead to the extinction of the human race.
Besides, he points out, the majority of men and women could not
practice such restraint without "a rising tide of psychoneuroses and
other mental diseases, severe physical illness, and depressive moods,
tensions, and conflicts.
"^^
He therefore concludes that "universal
^^
The American Sex Revolution,
p.
121.
MACE: Sorokin's Theories on Sex and Society
151
continence cannot and should not be suggested for most people,
but should be the rule only for the giants of spirituality and moral
genius."^^
This is eminently sound. But unfortunately it is not the whole
picture. Sorokin is rightly concerned about current American so-
ciety because, among its values, it gives a prominent place to what
he calls "the glorification of Marilyn Monroe."^^ A swing toward
asceticism would, for such a society, be a welcome move in the
right direction. But we need to remember that a society can swing
so far in the right direction that it begins to move in another wrong
direction. It is not edifying for us to see many of our fellows
glorifying Marilyn Monroe. But neither would we wish to see
them glorifying Simon Stylites. Either pattern is unhealthy. And
either pattern is possible.
In short, our difficult task is to steer a course between Scylla
and Charybdis. To this fact, as far as I am aware, Sorokin makes
no reference at all in the volume under discussion.
Human societies that practice strict chastity and fidelity do
undoubtedly produce creative energy. But they often produce also
some undesirable side effects. The austerities of the giants of
spirituality and the "athletes of God" may do them personally
nothing but good. But when these austerities become the models
for men of lower spiritual stature or of less single-minded motiva-
tion, the results may be far from edifying. The behavior of many
of the early Christian ascetics, the hermits and the spiritual exhibi-
tionists and the desert fathers, furnishes choice material for acid
comment in Gibbon's Decline and Fall
of
the Roman Empire. The
fanatical zeal behind many religious persecutions can be traced
to a vicious and punitive obsession resulting from world-denying
austerity run riot. The cold and indifferent aloofness of the "unco
guid," as Robert Bums knew in Scotland, the sadistic brutality of
New England as portrayed in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet
Letter, the Puritan's pathological destruction of everything that
symbolized beauty: these are but a few illustrations of the other
side of the coin. A few days of living in such an atmosphere might
soon make the benevolent indulgences of our easy-going amorality
seem a much more comfortable climate.
"
Ibid.
"
Ibid.,
p.
139.
1 52 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
There is more to be said on this topic. Unwin estabhshed the
fact that sexually restrained cultures built up vast reserves of crea-
tive energy. But what did they do with this surging power? With-
out doubt, much that they did helped to further human progress.
But one of the ways in which this happened was through mounting
aggressiveness which impelled the societies concerned into con-
quest and colonization. "There occurred," Sorokin comments naive-
ly, "a vigorous expansion of these societies, accompanied by an
astounding ability to defend themselves against their enemies."^*
If these dynamic cultures had been content to defend themselves
against their enemies, we might have little cause for complaint.
But surely it is true that, throughout most of human history, these
expansionist societies have been predatory societies, constantly har-
assing the weak and the peace-loving. The cultures that have
practiced "absolute monogamy" have been mainly the patriarchal
cultures; and it is they that have possessed the earth, often by
ruthless conquest, driving the more easy-going, and morally looser,
peoples to take refuge in relatively inaccessible mountains and
islands. I have often wondered whether it was more than coinci-
dence that the most rigidly patriarchal societies in Europe and Asia
respectivelyGermany and Japanhappened to be the aggressors
who plunged mankind into World War II. I should be disposed
to question whether Sorokin's contention that the morally decadent
countries started our major wars can be substantiated. Would it
not be more true to say that it was the morally strict expansionist
societies that developed predatory impulses and fell upon the weak
and decadent to despoil them?
What I am trying to say is that, sound as Sorokin's argument is,
it presents only one side of a complex question. How are we to
maintain a balance between the two extremes? Human history,
so far, presents us with a melancholy record of constant oscillation
from excessive ethical rigidity to excessive ethical laxity and back
againa constantly swinging pendulum that seemingly has been
unable to settle at the dead center. Must our human cultures
continue to pursue this erratic course, like a man riding a bicycle
along the top of a narrow wall, and alternately falling off to one
side and to the other? Is the whole structure of human society too
'*
Ibid.,
p.
112.
i
MACE: Sorokin's Theories on Sex and Society 1 53
unstable to attain, and then to maintain, any kind of healthy
equilibrium?
These are questions which go far beyond the scope of this one
book of Sorokin's. Yet they are questions which logically arise out
of reflection upon the book's message.
I turn, finally, to two questions I wish to ask Sorokin. One is
about the future of the Soviet Union; the other about the future of
the United States.
Sorokin makes a number of references to Russian societyboth
pre- and post-Revolutionaryin his book. He says,
".
. . an increase
of sexual licentiousness occurred in the upper and to some extent
the middle strata of Russian society before the Revolution of
1917,"^^
and suggests that this aided the final collapse of the aris-
tocracy. He also refers to the "period of Sex anarchy" that followed
the Revolution, adding that "roughly from 1918 to 1926, the institu-
tions of marriage and the family were virtually destroyed within a
large portion of the urban population, and greatly weakened
throughout the whole Russian nation."^^ Later he refers again to
this, saying that "during the first stage of the Revolution, its leaders
dehberately attempted to destroy marriage and the family."^^
However, what is not in doubt is that, during the forty-three
years that have now elapsed, the Soviets have moved fairly steadily
toward the establishment of a relatively strict standard of sexual
behavior. Having recently spent a period of time in the Soviet
Union with the express purpose of examining this situation, I would
entirely concur in Sorokin's view that "Soviet Russia today has a
more monogamic, stable, and Victorian family and marriage life
than most of the Western countries.
"^^
Indeed, my recent experiences in Russia were, again and again,
reactivated in my mind as I read Sorokin's book. This was par-
ticularly true of the final chapter in which he outlines the cultural
environment in which he considers young people should ideally
five.
The control of sex impulses can be notably assisted by a continuous
exposure of the youths to the noble patterns of total love among their
parents and friends, and to the moving ethos of such creativity and love
in the literature they read, in the grand music they hear, in the pictures.
Ibid.,
pp.
101-2.
^
Ibid.,
p.
102.
Ibid.,
p.
113. '''Ibid.,
p.
115.
1 54 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
plays, movies, television they see, and in the total environment in which
they live and act. Control of sex drive is also tangibly helped by the
non-exposure of growing youths to all the conditioned and unconditioned
sex stimuli of sex impulses in sham literature, in newspapers which
colorfully describe sex scandals and crimes, in the "music" of crooners,
jazzers, and rock 'n rollers, in sexy dancing and radio-movies-television
plays, in sham-scientific books, lectures and discussions, in the debauched
sex behavior of all sorts of people.^^
If this be the setting likely to foster the goal of high cultural
creativity, it appears to be more nearly achieved under the current
Soviet neo-Puritanism than in most other Western countries I have
visited. Throughout extensive travels in the Soviet Union, I found
a complete absence of sexually stimulating material in newspapers,
magazines, and books; on stage and screen; on radio and T.V. I
found a strong and widespread insistence upon premarital chastity
and marital fidelity, with many indications that these restraints are,
in fact, generally accepted by the great majority of the people. I
found an almost total absence of prostitution and evidence of a
steadily faUing divorce rate; a high regard for the seriousness of
marriage and for the nobility of parenthood. In sum, I found in the
Soviet Union something very like a practical demonstration of the
precise principles and practices which Sorokin advocates as the
necessary conditions of progress "from sex anarchy to the sane sex
order."^ Moreover, there were convincing indications that in the
Soviet Union these principles and practices are steadily gaining
ground; while in the Western lands generally the trends seem to be
decisively in the opposite direction.
If Sorokin's thesis is correct, therefore, it would appear that the
Soviet Union is, at present, in a phase of vigorous cultural ex-
pansion comparable to that which occurred in the powerful and
influential societies which assumed a dominant influence during
earlier eras of history. I should like to ask Sorokin, as a historian
and social philosopher, to comment on this possibility and on its
implications for the second half of the present century.
Finally, I should like to ask a somewhat similar question about
the future of the United States.
One of the reviews of Sorokin's book, written in 1957, makes
this comment: "The detailed discussion of what to do is perhaps
inevitably inadequate, after the brilliant and overwhelming descrip-
^
Ibid.,
p.
160.
^
Ibid.,
p.
153, chapter tide.
MACE: Sorokin's Theories on Sex and Society 1 55
tion of the present situation."^^ In short, in his apphcation of
Unwin's thesis to the United States of America, Sorokin has proved
to be a superb diagnostician but a disappointing prognostician.
I agree. The prescription given for the patient's recovery is
three-fold:
".
. . first, the changes in the mind, heart and behavior
of our men and women; second, the changes in various compart-
ments of our culture; third, the modification of our basic institu-
tions. All three types are equally necessary for a successful re-
construction of our sexual life and of the larger sociocultural order
conditioned by it."^^ When we examine what these proposals
imply, it is as though the consulting physician instructed the anxious
relatives to arrange for a completely new mental attitude in the
patient, for the rehabilitation of several of his organs, and for some
reconstruction of his anatomy. Having given these directions, the
speciahst bows and, with a sweep of his coat-tails, is gone.
What the relatives want to know is, "Doctor, will he recover?"
To this unspoken question Sorokin gives no answer. It is this
question, however, to which I should like to beg the favor of a reply.
If, as I suspect, the verdict is going to be discouraging, I neverthe-
less want to know the truth.
Why do I suspect a discouraging verdict? Because I see httle
sign that what Sorokin considers to be necessary will be carried out.
"The transformation discussed can be achieved . . . for an ever-in-
creasing number of our fellow men and women, if they earnestly
undertake tlieir own transfiguration."^^ This is evident. But do
Americans today, in the area of their sexual behavior, show any
sign of earnest zeal to undertake their own transfiguration?
What appears all too evident is that the present trends are being
pursued with a reckless disregard for consequences. In recent years
strong presumptive evidence has come to hght, and has been widely
publicized, linking cigarette smoking with lung cancer. Has this
led to a reduction in cigarette smoking? Not at all. Indeed, I be-
heve the consumption of cigarettes is now higher than ever.
Similarly, warnings go unheeded in the sexual sphere. The
first two volumes of the Kinsey reports created a sensation, and be-
came best-sellers. Why? Because they announced, with scientific
"
Family Living, XVII, No. 4, 2.
^^
The American Sex Revolution,
p.
153.
''Ubid.,
p.
176.
1 56 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
objectivity that was taken for permissiveness and even encourage-
ment, that sexual Hcentiousness was more widespread than had been
commonly supposed. This intelligence was eagerly devoured, wide-
ly publicized, and avidly discussed. When the third volume of the
Kinsey studies appeared, however, it was almost completely ig-
nored. Indeed, many people are not yet aware that a third volume
has appeared. Why? Because this volume contained disturbing
evidence of the appalling slaughter of unborn children that has
resulted from the increase in sexual freedom which the earlier
volumes had announced. That, at least, is my interpretation of the
otherwise inexplicable failure of the third report to arouse any
significant public interest. The fact that nearly everyone is break-
ing the moral code is welcome news. The reminder that breaking
the moral code leads to tragic consequences is news that no one
wishes to hear.
What have been the trends in sexual behavior in the United
States since Sorokin's volume first appeared in 1957? Illegitimacy
has increased. Venereal disease has shown a disconcerting upturn,
especially among early teen-agers. Pornographic literature has
poured from the presses in mounting volume. "Frank" novels,
"realistic" films, "daring" magazine articles, and provocative ad-
vertising have stepped up the barrage of sexual stimuh to which
the inhabitants of this country are now almost incessantly subjected.
It is only when one leaves the West for a time, to live on the other
side of the Iron Curtain, and then returns, that one becomes vividly
aware of the fetid atmosphere in which our citizens are continually
living. All that Sorokin has described, now intensified, and more
besidesthis is the state of the Union, sexually speaking, five years
after the grave warnings of "The American Sexual Revolution" were
sounded.
Sorokin did not predict otherwise. "For a long time, however,"
he concedes, "there will be a large portion of human beings who
cannot or will not abandon the region of the sexual sewers."^^ What
he did not venture to suggest was that the crowds around the sewers
would grow bigger than ever before, and that more and more sewers
would be opened up for their morbid entertainment.
One of the hopeful aspects of the situation to which Sorokin
*^
Ibid.
MACE: Sorokin's Theories on Se and Society 1 57
draws attention is the operation of what he calls "the law of polari-
zation"a principle which he expounds in these terms:
When a society experiences some frustration or calamity or emergency,
the bulk of its members, who in normal conditions are neither too saintly
nor too sinful, tend to split and polarize, some becoming more religious,
more moral and saintly, while the others become more irreligious, more
cynical, sensual, and criminal. In this way the ethically mediocre
majority of the normal times moves toward the opposite poles of religious
and moral ennoblement and degradation,^^
Sorokin claims that this process of polarization has taken place
in the United States in the field of sex, marriage, and the family.
He speaks of a section of the population which "has ennobled their
sex-marriage-and-family life and elevated it to the level of the total
love outlined above. The positively polarized men and women of
our own country are now greatly concerned with these matters;
and with a great responsibihty they control their thoughts, words
and deeds."^
I fail to recognize this picture in the United States at the present
time; and unfortunately, Sorokin gives no clues to the identity of
this group, except to concede that it is much smaller than the
negatively polarized majority. Indeed, while I recognize the opera-
tion of this law of polarization, and can think of several instances of
its operation, it does not seem appHcable to the American sexual
situation which Sorokin is discussing.
In the first place, I do not believe that the American people
in general have the shghtest idea that, touching its standards of
sexual behavior, this country is in a condition that remotely re-
sembles "frustration or calamity or emergency." It is hard to find
any individual, or group of individuals, who have communicated
the idea that they are "greatly concerned with these matters," and
who with any persistence have made such a concern widely felt.
Sorokin himself refers to the half-hearted or hypocritical way in
which sexual Hcentiousness is challenged. He speaks of "spasmodic
drives against Vice'"^^ which have no real sustaining zeal behind
them and come to naught; of pseudo-reformers whose public
righteousness is belied by their private acquiescence in the system.
In short, he laments the lack in our society of the kind of strong,
""
Ibid.,
p.
183.
""
Ibid.,
p.
184.
'"Ibid.,
p.
185.
1 58 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
courageous, ardent reformers who might be expected to arise in a
true process of positive polarization.
I contend, therefore, that the polarization process of which
Sorokin speaks has not, in fact, taken place. I suspect that it would
take a reformer combining the qualities and zeal of Francis of
Assisi and
John
Wesley to awaken the American people out of their
present moral torpor and to bring about a changed climate in which
"the ordinary citizen refuses to buy and read the contaminating
publications, to attend erotic shows, plays, and movies, to patronize
joints, to vote for libertine poHticians, to listen to sexy music."^^
Can Sorokin really see the ordinary American citizen behaving
like this in the foreseeable future?
It is on this improbable note that the book closes. "If a con-
siderable and ever-increasing part of our women and men foUow
this path in their thoughts, words, and deeds, the infection discussed
will rapidly diminish until its ugly scales, rashes, and sores disappear
from the cultural and social world in which we live."^^ In other
words, if the patient will proceed to do what he is manifestly
incapable of doing, his recovery is assured.
I think it is very understandable that Sorokin should end his
essay on a positive note. Every writer wishes to leave a good im-
pression on his readers, to leave some hope in their hearts as he bids
them farewell. The compassionate physician, having completed his
examination, does not meet the anxious eyes of the patient and de-
clare, "Your malady is mortal. The end is no more than a matter of
time." A little subterfuge, a softening of the blow, some note of
reassurance, however tentative, is in order, in addressing the patient.
But in the case conference, later, with the door closed and only
the consulting physicians present, more candor may, and must, be
employed. As men set apart to study human society, to read the
signs of the times in the light of the testimony of history, to face
the truth honestly and fearlessly, we are permitted no evasion. As
I try, in that spirit, to grasp the significance of what Sorokin has to
say in The American Sex Revolution, it is that American society,
as judged by the present condition of its sexual life and by the likely
future outcome of the trends now in evidence, has passed its zenith
and is in a state of cultural decline. When I apply the same tests
"
Ibid.
""
Ibid.,
p.
186.
MACE: Sorokin's Theories on Sex and Society 1 59
to the Soviet Union, it gives every manifestation of being a society
in the full tide of cultural growth and expansion.
The imphcations of this are as unpleasant to contemplate as they
are difficult to evade. I see three possible positions that could be
adopted. First, we might say that Sorokin's thesis is not true, or
only partially true; that there are other factors which must be
weighed on the other side, and which could tip the balance.
Second, we could recognize that, despite the logic of Sorokin's
argument, human culture is far too complex to be predictable, and
that some unexpected factor (such as the collapse of the Soviet
pohtical system) will probably change the world picture. Third,
we could acknowledge that it is probably true that a fundamental
shift in the cultural orientation will bring Western supremacy to an
end, and that we must face the inevitable like heroes.
It would interest me very much to have Sorokin's comments on
these reflections which are prompted by a careful attempt to grasp
the imphcations of his thesis on sex and society.
Sorokin's Psychological Theories^
Alexandre Vexliard
All the published works of Pitirim A. Sorokin are full of original
ideas and profound psychological analyses. It is not easy, there-
fore, to select a limited number of specific concepts and ideas of
his for assessment in this area. His psychological theories are ex-
pressed, not only in such specialized works as The Ways and Power
of
Love, but also in writings where the author shows himself to be
essentially a sociologist, a historian, or a philosopher of history.
In the present chapter, before proceeding to a choice, we will
limit ourselves to an analysis which is completely devoid of some
points which seem to us particularly representative of Sorokin's
psychological theories. This choice is rather arbitrary and we
regret the necessity of having to sacrifice certain important ideas
developed by Sorokin in this field. In addition to certain original
investigations by Sorokin, who has founded the Research Center
in Creative Altruism, we are grateful to him, also, for having eluci-
dated numerous points in the history of psychology, as well as in
various phases of its current development.
The present analysis will be divided into six parts: (I) A bird's-
eye view of Sorokin's psychological theories; (II) the structure of
personality, according to Sorokin;^ (HI) the influence of cultures
upon the structuring of personality, meiitaHty, and behavior; (IV)
methods of study and transformation of personality; (V) criticisms
of contemporary psychology; and ( VI ) responses to certain of these
criticisms.^
^
Translated from the French by Edwin H. Jones, Marion A. Greene, and
Philip
J.
Allen.
^
We will not repeat after the tide of each paragraph "in Sorokin's sociological
theory" or "according to Sorokin."
*
To hghten this text, I shall avoid most transitional phrases and paragraphs,
among the various sections and paragraphs. I beg the reader's indulgence for this.
VEXLIARD: Sorokin's Psychological Theories 161
I. A Bird's-Eye View of Sorokin's Psychological Theories
We will first present a fundamental difi^erence between Sorokin's
positive theories and his criticisms of psychology, as well as certain
reflections on his "normative" or "moralizing" attitude.
A. Positive theories and criticisms of psychology.
As a guide for
the reader, it should be said that Sorokin's main points in psycholo-
gy,
the positive and constructive ones, are found in The Ways and
Power
of
Love, while his criticisms of contemporary psychology are
systematically presented in his Fads and Foibles in Modern Soci-
ology, particularly in Chapters III, IV, and V. In my judgment,
this work concerns psychology as much as it does sociology.
One will also find Sorokin's psychological theories in publica-
tions the titles themselves of which are significant: Time Budgets
of
Human Behavior; Society, Culture and Personality; Altruistic
Love: A Study
of
American Good Neighbors and Christian Saints;
Exploration in Altruistic Love and Behavior: A Symposium; Forms
and Techniques
of
Altruistic and Spiritual Growth: A Symposium;
and The American Sex Revolution. As I have stated, however, one
finds important psychological ideas in all of Sorokin's works, even
those devoted, in principle, to other themes, particularly S.O.S.:
The Meaning
of
Our Crisis and, especially, in his major work.
Social and Cultural Dynamics.'^ Let us examine one aspect of
Sorokin's work in particular which merits close examination and
analysis: the relation between Sorokin's positive investigations and
his normative inclinations.
Sorokin's normative attitude is relatively absent from his major
works, which are largely sociological and historical in character.
On the other hand, it is very apparent in all his psychological works.
As a sociologist, Sorokin observes and describes facts and events,
demonstrating their relationships, their coherelice or incoherence,
and draws from them certain ideas and theories, sticking close to
his observations. As a psychologist, however, especially when he
handles techniques of transformation of the personality, for ex-
ample, his normative and morafizing tendencies are evident.
*
My quotations are taken from the revised and abridged one-volume edition,
1957.
162 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
Sorokin's research in this field clearly undertakes to discover
the various methods that promise to increase in man the potential
of altruism, creativity, and love. One may well object, here,
that such preoccupations are foreign to science and the scientific
spirit which, after all, is characterized by objectivity and im-
partiality, where observation and experimentation must remain
indifferent to distinctions between good and evil.
We now find ourselves in a classical field of discussion about
general ideas, which doesn't seem to have any place here. As in the
case of Sorokin's psychological theories, the normative point of view
appears here in an obvious fashion; and since the legitimacy of such
a point of view can be argued, we should briefly examine this
matter.
In reality, in spite of the unfavorable prejudice against norma-
tive tendencies that dominates the sciences in research, one will
always find a background of practical preoccupations in the social
sciences, as in the natural sciences. Without this motivation of
practical considerations, it is improbable that the positive researches
would have been undertaken. For example, is it purely fortuitous
that psychologists, sociologists, and psychiatrists are becoming in-
creasingly concerned with the problem of juvenile delinquency
today?
Let us take another example which is seemingly separated from
any normative preoccupation: Durkheim's ideas concerning the role
of collective consciousness in the formation of concepts, abstractions,
collective imperatives, and collective representations. Durkheim
stoutly supported the idea of neutrality of the sciences. Indeed
what could have been the normative substrata of these ideas? The
fact is that, while showing the collective origin of general ideas and
moral imperatives, which dominate the individual within the frame-
work of society, Durkheim wished to prove equally the collective
and therefore democratic character of the ideological forces which
dominate the individual in the framework of society. If these forces
do, in fact, proceed from the individual himself, it would then be just
and proper that political power be claimed by everyone and be
democratic, rather than aristocratic or monarchic. These ideas
would then be injected into political discussions, as into theoretical,
and would, in time, find their way into politics. Those who support
monarchy and aristocracy in politics maintain, in effect, that all
VEXLIARD: Sorokin's Psychological Theories 1 63
ideas that lead mankind forward have been produced exckisively by
a few eminent persons who owed nothing to the "masses."^
Indeed, without normative motivations, Sorokin himself would
not have sensed the need, nor even found the opportunity, to con-
tinue his research into the structure of personality, or into the tech-
niques of its transformation. These prefatory notes may better
prepare us to undertake to study Sorokin's psychological theories;
so let us proceed to examine those concerning the structure of
personality.
^
li. The Structure of Personality
As we have seen, Sorokin has undertaken research in psychology
whose practical aim "is to find out the efficient ways of making
persons more creative and altruistic." This is the reason why he has
built up a theory "of the mental structure of human personality and
of the energies generated in and operating through the human
organism."^ Without pretending to give an exhaustive definition of
personality, he understands by this term, from the perspective of
his investigations, "the total mentality plus conduct of the indi-
vidual."^
Sorokin's personahty theory is dominated by his historical and
sociological views. For him there exists a relationship between the
two variables: the character of the dominant culture and the char-
acteristic conduct of persons living in its milieu.^ This relationship,
however, far from showing a one-to-one correspondence is, instead,
quite variable. Some cultures show a closer relationship to men-
tahties of individuals than do others. Let us remember that Sorokin
conceives three major types of culture which he calls sensate,
ideational, and idealistic, as well as mixed cultures and non-inte-
^
One might also compare normative preoccupations in the natural sciences,
which are often overlooked. What is more "impartial" in appearance than astronomi-
cal research, concerning the origin of the position and movement of the stars?
The great discoveries, here, have come by way of the development of maritime
navigation. Hydrostatics began to develop at the moment when the great under-
takings of cities in Italy gave rise to the problem of transporting water. In the
nineteenth century the theoretical discoveries in thermodynamics were encomraged
by the development of the steam engine. Examples of this kind are legion.
"
The Ways and Power
of
Love,
p.
84.
''
Social and Cultural Dynamics,
p.
608.
Ibid.,
p.
607.
1 64 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
grated cultures (pseudo-ideational, etc.)^ corresponding to men-
talities and, to a lesser degree, to the behavior of the individual, of
a sensate type, ideational type, etc.
A. Sorokin's Typology. Sorokin criticizes contemporary theories
wliich make personality merely a result of conflict between the con-
scious and unconscious, placing greater emphasis upon the un-
conscious. Sorokin himself distinguishes four levels of total per-
sonality, of mental hfe, and of behavior: (i) the biological uncon-
scious; (ii) the biological conscious; (iii) the sociocultural con-
scious; and (iv) the supraconscious. In his theory of personality,
Sorokin places emphasis upon the higher levels of mental struc-
ture, the supraconscious levels, in contrast to contemporary theories
stressing the lower levels of unconscious energy. Let us examine
these points.
i.
The biological unconscious represents the inferior part, the
animal, the instinctive, reflexological part of man's mental apparatus.
It is this that contains within it the predisposition to different forms
of excitation and inhibition of the human organism, as well as
tendencies and activities having an automatic, instinctive character.
These forces, which are quahtatively and quantitatively distributed
unequally among individuals, determine basic differences, notably
those between the sexes, age groups, and races. It is these that
assure and protect animal life, without the participation of the ego
or the "me." This total unconsciousness may be defined as "the
undifferentiated total life energy of man's organism," or again, in
terms of "life or vital force without any further differentiation and
specification." The unconscious, thus defined, cannot be identified
with the id of Freud. The latter, according to Sorokin, gives the id
at least three definitions that are unilateral and, for the most part,
incomplete.^**
But above all, Sorokin does not admit, as do Freud and his
disciples, that the higher psychic phenomena, the creative, conscious
*
Ibid., chaps, ii and iii, especially charts on
pp.
37-39 and below
p.
13 where
the author distinguishes, besides the three chief types of culture, the mentalities
pecuUar to the following types of culture: Ascetic-Ideational; Active-Sensate; Active-
Ideational; Passive-Sensate; Cynical-Sensate; Pseudo-ideational.
^
The criticisms of Freud and his school are scattered in the numerous works of
Sorokin. On this particular point, see The Ways and Power
of
Love,
pp.
85 flF.
VEXUARD: Sorokin's Psychological Theories 1 65
and supraconscious, can be explained in terms of the sublimation
of the lower, obscure, unconscious, instinctive forces. The man of
genius is not necessarily a "neurotic"; the saint is not a "deviant";
sacrifice is not an expression of a masochistic tendency; and creative
inspiration does not manifest the displacement of a complex. The
enormous success of Freud's work cannot be explained, except
within the framework of a materialistic, sensate civilization on its
way to decay. Only in such a cHmate has this doctrine been able
to emerge and prosper.
ii. The biological conscious, or the bioconscious, represents the
second level of the human spirit, or of personality. At this level,
the biological energy becomes conscious and controls bioconscious
activities. Consciousness, here, concerns especially conflicts, ten-
sions, obstacles, and difficulties of a biological nature: such as
awareness of hunger or thirst, or concern with how "I must act
as a man or as a woman," or with my being "too old or too young,"
and so on. With the bioconsciousness appear a series of egos, or
biological roles: the sexual ego, nutritional ego, and others which,
in their turn, can monopohze, for a time, the field of consciousness.
Thus, in the course of a day and of a lifetime a succession of
different egos dominates the individual.
As in the case of unconscious impulses, bioconscious energies are
neither social nor antisocial by their very nature. But they can be
found either in mutual harmony or in conflict among themselves.
Moreover, these impulses can be satisfied in time through socially
approved means, or, in certain conflicting cases leading to paths of
antisocial actions, through socially disapproved means, or means dis-
approved by the sociocultural ego, the socioconscious.
iii.
The sociocultural conscious or socioconscious comprises the
third level above the bioconscious. The socioconscious is formed
by way of interaction with others, by personal experiences in con-
tact with others, by way of the collective life, its demands and re-
current testing. These collective and accumulated experiences are
transmitted from individual to individual, from group to group,
and from generation to generation. It is in this way that traditions,
norms, moral values, philosophical and religious values, knowledge,
artistic tastes, political attitudes, technological processes, institu-
1 66 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
tional forms and, in a general way, sociocultural novelties are
transmitted. As each individual belongs, simultaneously or suc-
cessively, to a variety of sociocultural groups, some voluntary and
others involuntary, he is assigned a variety of roles, activities, and
egos, corresponding perceptibly in number and character to these
various groups. Thus, in our societies, nearly all men possess one
or more family egos (son, husband, father, etc.), a national, re-
ligious, or professional ego, which correspond to the diversity of
roles in these different groups. Each of these egos is replete with
its own values, its ideas, its volitions, and its feehngs. Roles cor-
responding to these egos include, in their turn, definite forms con-
sisting, for example, of attitudes which, at times, imply a particular
language, a manner of being toward another person and, in certain
cases, even special clothing. The composite of egos and socio-
cultural roles of an individual comprises a microcosm which reflects
tlie social macrocosm in which the individual was bom, was reared,
lived, acted, and experienced the impact of his environment.
The harmony and integration of the different egos of an indi-
vidual are usually achieved when the different groups to which he
belongs are characterized by closely knit solidarity and co-operation.
This harmony presupposes that the different groups suggest to their
members similar goals to pursue, prescribe to them similar duties,
and, in general, motivate them to think, feel, and act in similar
ways. On the other hand, the different egos of the individual come
into conflict when the groups in whose life he participates are more
or less violently in conflict with each other. Such conflicts, for
example, may appear among family, poUtical, religious, and pro-
fessional groups. Of course, there is an interaction and interde-
pendence between the sociocultural macrocosm of society and the
sociocultural part of the mentality of the individual. Every marked
modification of the sociocultural universe is reflected in the structure
of individual egos and, conversely, notable changes in ego struc-
tures among members of a group will have their impact upon the
social groups of which they are a part.
One must emphasize, in short, that the unconscious and bio-
conscious structures of personality are influenced almost exclusively
by biophysical factors. On the sociocultural level, the personality
depends essentially upon the social and cultural universe in which
it evolves.
VEXUARD: Sorokin's Psychological Theories 1 67
iv.
The supraconscious level represents the fourth and highest
level of psychic activities, mental energies, and personality. It is
the level of inspiration for spontaneity, originality, and creativity
of genius. In the writings of aU civilizations it is designated by
numerous expressions, such as "the divine element in man," "the
manifestation of divinity," "the sublime energy of Truth, Beauty,
and Goodness," "creative genius."
Contemporary, positivistic psychology attempts to explain these
superior forms of creativity as elaborations of and emanations from
lower mental activity. In effect, it views these forms as "sublima-
tion" of impulses whose origin is essentially instinctive. It is against
such views that Sorokin battles vigorously. For him the supracon-
scious presents its own characteristic originality, irreducible to lower
psychic functions and uniquely differentiated from them. With
numerous examples to support him, he shows how the supracon-
scious manifests itself in most sublime creations and in most varied
realms: mathematics, natural sciences, poetry, art, literature, tech-
nology, ethics, religion, philosophy, law, pohtics, economics, and, in
general, in all realms of truth, beauty, and goodness, in which three
forms of its manifestation it may be found to appear interchange-
ably.
The realm of the supraconscious is the object of the most pro-
found and most original analyses of Sorokin.^^ It is on the level of
the supraconscious that the great discoveries, fruitful intuitions,
and the most important creations of the human spirit, which tran-
scend the realms of sense and reason, are found. Sorokin produces
a large number of witnesses, showing among other things: (i) the
precocity of geniuses in numerous realms of spiritual creation; and
(ii) the uncontrollable, spontaneous, instantaneous character of
these immediate intuitions, independent of will and reason. In all
these manifestations the subject feels himself led, inspired by a force
outside himself: "One does not work, one listens; it is as if a stranger
were speaking into one's ear," Alfred de Musset writes. Sorokin
presents numerous pieces of evidence, not only from artists and
poets, but also from mathematicians and scientists; not only from
those of the West, but also from Muslim thinkers, from India and
from China, aU of whom express, in more or less picturesque terms,
the same ideas concerning creative spontaneity. But even more,
^^
Ways and Power
of
Love, chap, vi, and Fads and Foibles.
1 68 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
the intuition of genius at the supraconscious level can manifest
itself in scientific activity of individual scientists who, in everyday
life, show themselves to be endowed with average or mediocre in-
telligence.
In the same way that the biological unconscious establishes a
bond between man and the biophysical universe, so does the supra-
conscious, according to Sorokin, bind man to a cosmic supracon-
scious. But the types of personality are formed, largely, by the
sociocultural environment in which the individuals evolve. Let us
examine, therefore, the manner in which sociocultural forces exert
their influence over the individual.
III. Society and Personality
In all his historico-sociological works, as well as in those devoted
to psychological analyses, Sorokin insists on the reciprocal and ever-
ongoing interaction between sociocultural systems, on the one
hand, and the individual's mentality, personality, and behavior, on
the other. For Sorokin, there is no existence of social phenomena,
"of and by themselves" ( as for the formal school of sociology
)
; nor
do social relations exist independently of mental phenomena. Like-
wise, human behavior cannot be separated from its social context.
The realm of social relations must be studied as a phenomenon of
fluctuations of mentality.^^
It should be remembered that when Sorokin studies these inter-
actions between mentalities of individuals and their sociocultural
environment, he does so within a framework of his historico-soci-
ological classification, which may be briefly recalled as: (A) Idea-
tional culture (i. Ascetic ideationalism, ii. Active ideationalism
)
;
(
B
) Sensate culture ( i. Active sensate, ii. Passive sensate, iii. Cynical
sensate); (C) Mixed types of mentality and culture (i. Idealistic
mixed type of integrated culture, ii. Pseudo-Ideational, mixed and
non-integrated )
}^
These different types of culture, which Sorokin defines in a
precise way, correspond perceptibly to different types of mentahty
in individuals. This does not mean, however, that the relation be-
^^
Social and Cultural Dynamics
(1957), pp.
436-37.
^^
Ibid.,
pp.
27-39 and, more generally, chaps, ii, iii, and xxxvi of this work.
VEXLIARD: Sorokin's Psychological Theories 1 69
tween the two variablesthe dominant characteristics of the cul-
ture and the behavior of individuals living within itis strictly uni-
linear and absolute. This relationship is more perceptible between
culture and mentality than between culture and behavior. Al-
though this relationship is not absolute, it exists, nevertheless. On
the whole, one can say that the behavior, mentality, and personality
of an individual living in an ideational society will be more ideational
than will the behavior, mentality and personality of one living in a
sensate society. In any case, the differences between these two
bearers of different cultures will not be so great, perhaps, in be-
havior and personality, as in mentality. The latter includes, for
Sorokin, ideas, opinions, convictions, beliefs, tastes, and scales of
moral and aesthetic values.
There exist, then, forms of behavior and types of personality
and mentality which correspond to the sociocultural idealistic, idea-
tional, sensate, and mixed types (integrated or non-integrated),
which are found with greater statistical frequency in their own
types of culture. To support this view, Sorokin presents and an-
alyzes a statistical table of historical characters who lived from the
years 900 b.c to a.d. 1908, drawn from the Encyclopaedia Britan-
nica, classifying them into three categories, ideational, sensate, and
mixed, according to their overt behavior. Likewise, he examined
and analyzed in the same statistical manner the characteristics of
popes and of European monarchs.^^ Let us see, at this point, how
Sorokin describes the types of mentality that correspond to his three
types of culture.
A. Ideational mentality. Sorokin shows that the ideational men-
tahty, which our materialistic, sensate civilization tends to consider
exceptional, even abnormal, is actually widely scattered throughout
history; it has dominated the lives of thousands of human beings.
Indeed, this was the dominant mentality of civilizations in which
such doctrines arose as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism,
Sufism, primitive Christianity, and even such sects, groups, or move-
ments as Orphism, Gnosticism, Cynicism, and Stoicism. Sorokin
distinguishes the ascetic-ideational mentality from the active-idea-
tional mentality, and these from the idealistic and mixed types.
^^
Social and Cultural Dynamics (abridged),
pp.
613, 616, 617, 619.
170 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
!.
Ascetic ideationalism. Within the framework of this cultural
form, ultimate reahty is conceived as a spiritual one; the philosophy
of being dominates that of becoming; needs are essentially spiritual;
it is these that must be satisfied before others; and the way to suc-
ceed in life consists in as complete a mastery of the self as possible,
especially mastery over material, sensate needs, and to be able to
go as far as the complete modification, and even dissolution, of one's
self, the social, psychological, and biological "me." The ideal goal
to attain is entirely an internal one; the individual becomes detached
as completely as possible from sensations and from contacts with
the outer world and, with a nearly superhuman attitude of indif-
ference, from all concerns with the outer world. Rejecting values
that perish, he concerns himself only with imperishable, eternal
values. The ideational mentality accepts only the truths of inner
experience, those of divine inspiration, of mystic union, of revela-
tion, of pure meditation, and of ecstacy. The supreme goal toward
which one strives in all his actions is "union with the absolute," or
some other expression indicating the same ideal. The periods of
history dominated by these forms of mentality have been character-
ized by flights of religious, ethical, and theological thinking, on the
one hand, and by a stagnation and even regression of the natural
sciences and the study of material phenomena, on the other.
ii.
Active ideationalism. On the cultural level, active ideation-
alism departs from the same premises as ascetic ideationalism, but it
constitutes a deviation in the sense that it is an organized and
institutionalized idealism, attracting to itself not merely select and
limited numbers, but the masses, and for this reason it has a large
number of followers. It tends not so much to master, nor to reduce,
the number of material needs of individuals, as it does to transform
the material world and, especially, the sociocultural world. It is
oriented, then, toward a collective, psychological action in which
the adept seek, not only to "save their own souls," but also to save
those of other human beings. An entire organization, a hierarchy,
an entire way of carrying on may arise today from the flight of a
contemporary, spontaneous ascetic, grafting himself upon the social
order. There develops, then, a whole system of rules, laws, rewards
and punishments, promotions and demotions, which tend to rein-
force the moral life of the community and those who seek to escape
VEXUARD: Sorokin's Psychological Theories 171
it. In such a conjuncture, "the salvation of one's own soul has at
stake the salvation of other souls." The ideal of the transcendental
life is filled more and more with temporal considerations of the
empirical world, and this ideal is progressively stifled by the latter.
B. Sensate mentality and culture. Sensate mentality is familiar
to us. The only reality for it is that presented by the senses. It
does not admit of any suprasensible reality. Its philosophy is not
that of being, but rather of becoming, of changing, of process, of
evolution, of progress, of transformation, of movement, and of flux.
Its goal is essentially physical and it seeks maximum satisfaction of
material desires. The way of satisfying these desires is no longer
that of inner transformation of human beings, but the transforma-
tion or exploitation of the external world. Sorokin distinguishes
three subgroups of this mentality:
i. Active sensate culture mentality. This is a matter of an active
"Epicureanism" which seeks to satisfy physical needs by the most
efiBcient modification of the external environment, which uses for
this purpose those physical, biological, and sociocultural techniques
immediately available to it. There is a search for the maximum
satisfaction of a great variety of material needs, for the control of
sense reality, and for the development of the natural sciences and
of techniques. Culture and individuals are dominated by relativism,
hedonism, eudaemonism, utilitarianism, and the search for pleasures;
while social prestige is based upon material wealth and the ethics
of "enlightened selfishness."
ii. Passive sensate culture mentality. Passive "Epicureanism" is
characterized by a parasitic exploitation of external reality. It is,
therefore, neither an inner transformation of the ego, nor an efficient,
constructive modification of the world external to the individual.
The object, here, is maximum enjoyment of sensual pleasures. The
frankest motto of this attitude, which knows numerous variations, is
Horace's "carpe diem"; no real control is exercised over the self, or
over the outer world. There is no integration at all, the attitude
being both extroverted and introverted. There is no seeking for
truth, except in that coming through the senses. As for moral
172 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
values, only those of the senses count; and aesthetic values, which
are merely sensual, veer toward the pathological.
iii.
Cynical sensate culture mentality. Cynical "Epicureanism"
is characterized by hypocrisy, of which Tartuffe is the prototype.
Generally speaking, it is professed by rather limited groups; but it
is very characteristic of certain cultures that encourage "courtesy,"
"flattery," and such other behavior as reflects "good breeding."
Their goals are sensual, although they may hide these behind an
idealistic mask. They are opportunistic and "follow the fashion."
They exercise control only under the mask. They utilize the en-
vironment by a simple and merely external modification of the
psychosocial traits of the individual who, in fact, does not change.
Actually, the picture, here, is comparable to the preceding type.
C. Mixed types of mentality and culture. These are made up of
various combinations of ideational and sensate cultures. Sorokin
gives us two examples: the ideahstic and the pseudo-ideational.
i.
Idealistic culture mentality. This is the only type of mixed
culture which is presented as logically and organically integrated.
It represents a balanced combination made up of ideational and
sensate elements, with a predominance of the former. Confucianism
and certain periods of ancient Egypt provide us with historical
examples. The culture-mentahty of fifth-century-B.c. Greece and
thirteenth-century-A.D. Europe are other examples of this type of
mentahty. Men with such a culture mentality endeavor to lead a
"reasonable" existence, while they "render to God what belongs to
God." They are good citizens of the "gentlemanly" type who are
preoccupied with the needs of their bodies, without forgetting, in
any case, the aspirations of the soul and its non-material values. In
all areas, the individual seeks to maintain equanimity and balance
between spiritual and material values. It should be understood
that the appearance of this type of culture has been rare, and its
duration short, but its influence has been relatively great.
ii.
Pseudo-ideational culture mentality. This is a form of culture
typically non-integrated, or a "subculture," to the extent that the
term culture designates an integrated system. Here, the nature of
VEXUARD: Sorokin's Psychological Theories
'73
reality is poorly defined, but it remains essentially sensate. Needs
and goals are essentially physical, and the means of gratification
imply no modification of oneself, neither by way of action upon the
environment, nor by searching for pleasure, nor by hypocrisy. The
individual resigns himself to undergo passively the privations im-
posed upon him from the outside, as much as he is physically able.
The attitude is characterized by reduction of physical needs, as well
as of spiritual needs, without involving the will, to the extent that
the privations are imposed by external agents. It is a vague atti-
tude, undiflFerentiated, passive, without controls and without choices
in matters of ethics, art, and knowledge. Such, for example, has
been the attitude of slaves living in particularly depressing con-
ditions, of prisoners, and even of people oppressed by a tyrant.
Under certain favorable conditions, men of this type easily glide
toward a form of passive, active, or cynical "Epicureanism."
IV. Techniques of Transformation of Personality
Probably the most important and most original part of Sorokin's
investigations in psychology comprise his studies of techniques that
tend to transform personality and behavior, as well as individuals,
groups, and societies. We have seen, above, that these studies were
clearly undertaken within a normative perspective and that, in spite
of certain traditions of the "scientific spirit," this point of view
seems justified to us. To choose to sketch this area, particularly
rich in the work of Sorokin, is uniquely diflBcult; for to summarize
here, one risks deforming the thoughts of the author. It is not
without apprehension, therefore, that I proceed to move into this
area.
Leaning on his theory of the structure of personality, which I
have briefly summarized above, Sorokin distinguishes: first, ways
of transforming personality; and second, the techniques of trans-
forming individuals and groups. Let us keep in mind, once again,
that Sorokin has undertaken all of these analyses with a view to
transforming personality in the direction of altruism and creativity.
To a certain extent we shall make an abstraction of this normative
point of view. However, to get a substantial view of this idea, we
shall have to come back to it.
174 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
According to Sorokin, the transformation of man, in the sense
of his becoming altruistic, can be achieved only through the maxi-
mum realization of his superior potentialities: supraconscious and
conscious. Through mobilization of these superior energies, the indi-
vidual succeeds in organizing, ordering, and controlling the inferior
and unconscious forces and in using them, at the same time, as a
means of vital and mental, as well as social, ennoblement. The
transformation of the individual imphes a triple action: (a) the re-
organization of the different egos by placing them under the au-
thority of a vigorous supraconscious and conscious, which are
developed to the maximum; (b) the revision of all values and their
subordination to the highest, creative values (love, truth, and
beauty
) ;
(
c
) an affiliation of the individual with those groups which
cultivate these positive values, and his break with those groups
which appear egoistic and negative. This triple action must permit
the elimination of the different egos and negative values in the indi-
vidual consciousness, in the groups, and in the institutions of a given
society.
What Sorokin means by the ways of transforming personality
is, above all, an analysis of detailed biographies of individuals ( such
as well-known altruists, great and small), with a view to showing
the correlation of their specific behavior with their standards of
integration and creativity. To the degree that this correlation
exists, one can deduce a method of individual and collective therapy
for the formation of a "desirable" personality. As a result of such
analyses, one will be able to study the psychological techniques,
properly speaking, particularly those used by moral "geniuses," in
their development of certain qualities.
A. The ways personality is formed
.^^
Studying biographies and
autobiographies of many altruists, Sorokin distinguishes five factors
favorable to the specific development of their personality:
(1)
a
biologically favorable heredity that is still designated by such terms
as "creative grace," "spiritual grace," "genius," etc.;
(2)
a pressing
need impelling one to a research, a new creation, or an invention or
discovery, this need being capable of seizing an individual or whole
^^
We summarize in a few paragraphs here what is developed in detail in
The Ways and Power
of
Love, a work of 552 pages, large format, of exceptional
wealth and originahty. Our exposition fails to give a skeleton of this work.
YEXUARD: Sorokin's Psychological Theories 175
group;
(3)
the individual or group finding themselves at the cross-
roads of different ideas, beliefs, and values, or in a stream tliat im-
pels them toward new creations;
(4)
a certain freedom at social
and cultural levels; and
(5)
a sort of "luck," for example, in the form
of an event able to serve as a springboard for the development of
the creative process.^^
The essential process for the formation of a superior personality
is that of self-identification with the supraconscious. The individual
becomes progressively aware that his real me is neither his body, nor
his unconscious, nor the bioconscious, nor the socioconscious, but
rather the supraconscious, to which various names have been
given: the Divine, the Absolute, the Soul of the World, the Spirit,
Heaven, the Logos, Wisdom, Atman, or in a more personal way,
God, Tao,
Jen,
Nirvana, Jehovah, Allah,
Jesus,
Osiris, etc., without
mentioning other terms that figure in metaphysical abstractions
... (Supreme Essence, Eternal Fire, Nature, The Inexpressible),
or psychological and ethical terms: genius, inspiration, voice of
conscience, inner light, moral duty, categorical imperative, etc.
Sorokin distinguishes three types of altruists, according to the
formation of their personality. But what is said, here, about
altruism and its formation, may be applied onto the majority of the
important psychological and moral characteristics of individuals.
i. "The early fortunate altruist," who shows himself to be such
from the earliest years of his life. He owes this "fortune" to various
factors, especially to his family environment. As examples of the
latter, Sorokin cites a great number of Christian saints, Francis of
Sales,
John
Woohnan, Albert Schweitzer, and others.
ii. The late-altruists, whose life started within a framework of
egos, values, and contradictory groups poorly integrated and domi-
nated by egotistical and materialistic values. They are led, in the
course of their lives, through some "precipitating" event, to modify
their attitudes completely, to reconsider their identifications, and
to reorganize their egos and their group affiliations. This comes
about, generally, by way of inner crises of disintegration and reinte-
gration, depressions, disillusionments, and hesitations, before they
achieve identification with the supraconscious. Among the altruists
^*
Society, Culture and Personality,
p.
540.
176 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
of this type Sorokin cites St. Paul, St. Augustine, St. Francis of
Assisi, Buddha, Ignatius Loyola, Simone Weil, and others.
iii. The "intermediate" type: Here are those whose primary iden-
tifications are located between the two extreme types above, with
variable influences, whether of a primitive environment, or of an
ultimate existence. In this category may be found Gandhi, St.
Theresa of Avila, St. Basile, and St. Theodosius.
While studying about thirty cases, Sorokin singles out, from the
psychological point of view, those favorable conditions conducive
to self-identification with the supraconscious in the cases of the
three types of altruists he describes. He avoids less well-known
factors, and doubtful or inadequate factors such as agape, divine
grace, spiritual inheritance, and even geographic, somatic, or bi-
ological determinism. Among the factors he examined profoundly
is the role of the family which, to him, seems to be the most efficient
agent capable of developing a love for one's neighbor.^^ Of course,
the family can act positively as well as negatively. In the latter case
it is also possible for opposition to the family to end in a positive,
altruistic identification. Other factors, such as the environment in
general and good deeds of the past, may reinforce the action of the
family.
Sorokin analyzes with great care the role of inner conflict within
those who have been converted late, by pointing out the importance
of the early stages that follow the "crisis," and that precipitate the
transformation. An important role is played by the "rearrange-
ment" of group affiliations. Among the processes of the transforma-
tion of the individual, the author describes: (a) the process of self-
seclusion, in particular, such as that of hermits;
(
h
)
the solution of
wandering pilgrims; (c) that of institutionahzed groups that tend to
educate individuals, such as convents and monasteries that observe,
more or less strictly, rules of "brotherhoods"; he thus studies the
psychological techniques of different religious orders, particularly
those of St. Basile, St. Benedict, St. Francis, and St. Ignatius of
Loyola; and {d) finally, he describes the possibiHty of leading a
good life in the normal "world."
We have here been able merely to list, and these incompletely,
the factors and process brought to light by Sorokin, which he
^^
The Ways and Power
of
Love,
p.
197.
VEXUARD: Sorokin's Psychological Theories 1 77
analyzes and illustrates with numerous facts while, at the same time,
he points out the techniques that tend to make for the formation of
the altruistic personality. The author then passes on to a study of
the three unified systems of these techniques: Yoga and its variants,
the monastic system, and the system
of
altruistic education in secu-
lar communities or brotherhoods.
B. The techniques for transformation of persons and groups.
In
order to create a method for effective transformation of individuals
or groups, the prescription would have to be universal; the method
must be adaptable to conditions under which human beings live;
and such conditions are always complex. However, an avenue re-
mains, namely, that of the three principles that may be adapted to
particular conditions:
(1)
the self-identification of the individual
with superior (altruistic) values;
(2)
a new hierarchization of egos
and of values; and
(3)
a modification by way of group aflBliations.
Sorokin lists twenty-six of these techniques, among which we
shall cite:
(1)
the techniques intimately tied with the organism,
whereby body movements and breathing regulation are utilized;
(2)
the use of conditioned reflexes;
(3)
the use of pressures of
public opinion;
(4)
heroic examples;
(5)
use of unconscious forces
by way of such techniques as socio-drama, psycho-drama and psy-
choanalysis;
(6)
the fine arts;
(7)
private and public prayer;
(8)
an examination of conscience;
(9)
private and public confession;
(10)
private and public vows;
(11)
meditation; and
(12)
the aux-
ihary techniques of silence, or repetition of short formulas, and of
ecstasy, etc. Some of the twenty-six techniques which have been
enumerated overlap in part, but each has its own unique importance.
After studying each of these techniques, and demonstrating their
concrete character in different religions, sects, groups, and among
individuals, Sorokin goes on to examine unified techniques, notably
the Pantajah Yoga and other Yogas, as well as those in monastic
systems and secular brotherhoods, particularly "the Society of
Brothers." While we cannot describe in detail any of these tech-
niques, which are altogether too often neglected by psychologists,
we should at least mention a few points concerning monastic tech-
niques, which may be closer to us.
178 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
In the first place, monastic life suggests a supreme goal: a union
with God, the kingdom of God, the love of God. Entrance
into such a society must evolve from a free decision which re-
jects certain values and leads the individual to dedicate himself
to a life in the chosen society. The candidates for this life pass
through a series of tests during a more or less lengthy novitiate.
The candidate or novice must give evidence of humility and
patience, he must endure insults without complaining, he must
submit to strict discipline and obedience, and he must give up all
wealth and personal possessions. He must give up all earthly ties
(sometimes even his family and friends). The vows most often
made are those of obedience (submitting to the will of a superior,
"in the manner of a corpse," as the Jesuits demand), of poverty, of
chastity and, finally, of humility. Around these virtues competition
is established, which often carries numerous degrees: for example,
twelve for humility, in the Order of St. Benedict. In all these areas
concrete action is required, with extreme severity specified in great
detail, particularly in the litanies, and in the "ladders" of the Order
of St. Bernard. To facilitate the difficult attainment of these ends,
one uses "supra-individual forces," those of the monastic com-
munity: individual and collective prayer, and work as a means of
moral and spiritual education.
On the other hand, monastic life impHes a continual "psycho-
analysis," as well as an organized system of counsel and therapy for
the soul. It is, primarily, a matter of the purification of souls by
both private and public confession. It is a question of driving away
the most intimate, evil desires, including those appearing in dreams
(e.g., St.
John
Cassian's recommendations on dealing with sex
dreams), by processes used to combat major vices and to avert
self-immolating tendencies issuing from guilt over monastic mis-
deeds. The purification must be immediately undertaken by good
deeds and prayers. The conscience is first examined and regulated
in detail and afterwards acts of repentance and more or less
solemn purification follow. Each monk chooses, or is given among
his older peers, a spiritual father, a veritable "psychoanalyst," who
is not only his confessor but also his spiritual guide. The rites of
absolution and of communion have a psychological value which has
not yet been sufficiently analyzed.
VEXUARD: Sorokin's Psychological Theories 179
The value of these different techniques hes in the fact that they
comprise a unified system capable of achieving a profound trans-
formation in man. However, such systems can be adapted only to
certain individuals and certain groups, a fact that explains the
great number of orders and regulations in the same rehgion. These
techniques show a profound understanding of the human psyche,
and modem psychologists have only rediscovered similar devices.
Some of these techniques, especially those concerned with the
necessary, step-by-step gradation in education, seem to be httle un-
derstood by today's practitioners. If such techniques appear, at
first, too awesome and daring, they may be recast into more com-
prehensible and acceptable human terms, so that the great principles
they embody may provide the inspiration and motivation to use
themsomething which would certainly be more difficult to do in
the case of the Yoga system. For example, a system which is
clearly an attenuation of the monastic system is that which is
exercised by modern fraternities, particularly tlie "Free Brother-
hoods."
Sorokin reproaches contemporary psychology, particularly, be-
cause of its lack of awareness of the profound knowledge of the
human psyche which is revealed in the rules and regulations of the
monastic life. Moreover, he attacks in a most telling manner the
theoretical principles and practices of Freudian psychoanalysis on
the one hand, and psychological testing methods on the other.
Finally, he makes certain criticisms of the sciences of human be-
havior in general, criticisms which, for the most part, are valuable
for the psychologist. Let us examine these four criticisms of
Sorokin's, starting with the last one first.
V. Criticisms of Contemporary Psycbology^^
The criticisms that Sorokin hurls at modem psychology which,
although often severe and sarcastic, are not lacking in humor, may
be found scattered throughout his various works; but they are to be
found set down in a most systematic manner in his Fads and Foibles
^*
Consult, among others, concerning these criticisnis : The Ways and Power
of
Love,
pp.
121, 383, 414-15, 420, 432, and passim; The Crisis
of
Our Age,
pp.
93-94,
121, 244, 267, 312; The American Sex Revolution, passim.
1 80 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
in Modern Sociology and Related Sciences}^ In spite of its title,
this work refers as much to psychology as it does to sociology, if
not more so. These criticisms may be grouped under three broad
headings: (A) criticisms of the social sciences, including psycholo-
gy;
(B) methods of psychological testing; and (C) psychoanalysis
and techniques derived from it.
We shall scarcely mention Sorokin's criticisms that refer to "The
Wonderland of Social Atoms and Small Groups."^" As in the
positive part of his works, Sorokin supports his thesis here with an
enormous quantity of facts, quotations, and examples; for this
reason, the comments here can give only a faint idea of it all.
A. The criticism of the psycho-social sciences which, at different
points, is particularly aimed at psychology will be presented under
six rubrics:
i. Forgetfulness
of
the past, which is a sort of amnesia, perhaps,
causes psychologists, more than their colleagues in other disciplines,
to be seized by "a giddiness of discovering." Everything happens,
so they think, as if their science had emerged from a void several
decades ago at the very most. They extend mutual congratulations
to each other for what they have discovered, "for the first time in
history," without suspecting that in the majority of areas they
explore they have had at least some predecessorssome, very distant
onesand, in many cases, their "discoveries" concern facts which
have been as well known and thoroughly studied in ancient times
as in modem ones. Thus, Sorokin cites fifteen authors, among the
better known, for whom the unconscious could have been dis-
covered "for the first time, by Freud." Several examples of this
type are given, drawn from various areas, such as anthropology,
semantics, metalinguistics, and other studies that concern them-
selves with "basic personality," etc. If this does not always show
bad faith, it reveals at least a notorious lack of culture among con-
temporary "scientists." In many of these discoveries, it is a matter
that was known before; at other times only empty ideas which were
known before are produced; and at still other times there is only
an evidence of platitudes, set forth in a pretentious and pedantic
language.
^
In particular, chaps, iv, v, vi, x.
^
Ibid., chap. x.
VEXLIARD: Sorokin's Psychological Theories 1 8
1
ii.
The pseudo-scientific jargon which is particularly flourishing
in psychology merely continues the pretenses of originality. The
lack of simple logic in "new discoveries" is apparently, then, con-
cealed in "speech disorders." The common error in this jargon
consists in the substitution of vague expressions for clear and in-
telligible terms, which vague expressions often acquire several defi-
nitions, equally inconsistent and obscure, under the pretext of
scientific precision. Thus, one uses such terms as "adience" and
"ambience" instead of "love" and "dislike," and "entropy" instead
of "habit," etc.
iii.
Operationalism is a philosophy adopted, for the most part, by
the human sciences, particularly by psychology. Psychologists give
"operational" definitions of "happiness in marriage," of "dynamic
social forces," etc. Such a philosophy, already considered inade-
quate in the natural sciences from which they pretend to draw their
inspiration, turns out clearly to be ridiculous upon being applied
to the human sciences.
iv.
The quantophrenia of utilizing pseudomathematical methods
has produced a veritable "cult of numerology." Words are replaced
by algebraic expressions, so to speak {a,h,c,
x,y,z), and inter-
human ties are represented by arithmetic signs
(+,
, x,
:,=),
without the reader's knowing why the author has chosen such and
such a sign instead of another. Such writers try to quantify matters
that are given qualitatively through a process, which, clearly, is not
legitimate. They buttress with statistics what, in fact, shows no
resemblance to the facts studied. They establish correlations be-
tween facts which turn out to be unrelatable (congeries), etc.
Sorokin is not at all reluctant to use mathematical and statistical
methods in the human sciences, as his works abundantly show.
But he insists that such methods be applied only in those areas
where they are legitimately usable, "controllable," and not for pro-
cedures that turn out to resemble numerological "rites."
V. The use
of
models borrowed from physics and
from mechanics
has become also a kind of "grand cult." In mechanistic psychology,
as in sociology, we use expressions such as "social distance," "social
atom," "valence," "dimensions of social space," "cohesion" (for
solidarity), "social entropy" (for political and economic freedom),
1 82 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
social "mass," models borrowed from cybernetics, etc. All these
forms of interpretation provide only very superficial analogies, which
do nothing to increase our knowledge and which only needlessly
obscure things.
vi. The psychology
of
small groups and social atoms, currently
fashionable, is an object of especially vigorous attack by Sorokin.
He criticizes the very notion of social atomsborrowed from physics
in which the emotions simply play the role of forces of attraction
and repulsion, without taking into account intellectual and volitional
elements of human relations. The so-called small-groups studies,
as he sees them, may deal with groups of two to six hundred mem-
bers, who are wholly unaware that they constitute a group. In their
works the "ideologists" of small groups do not seem to know what
they are talking about, and they are totally unaware of their
predecessors in this area. The complexity of the real problems,
here, seems to combine sancta simplicitas with sancta ignorantia.
B. Testomania and testocracy. Under this very significant double
rubric, Sorokin assails the psychological testing methods which,
progressively, have been invading all areas of individual and social
hving. Thousands of tests have been devised and continue to ap-
pear daily. Sorokin classifies them into eighteen categories. The
enormous influence acquired by these tests, he says, is due to the
fact that we suppose that they are "scientific and infallible." But
human nature, says Sorokin, is essentially changeable and unstable.
He cites the cases of dozens of great men (Newton, Tolstoi, Vico,
Aquinas, etc.) in areas in which they have revealed their genius,
of whose studies the modem test makers have taken little note.
He demonstrates the mechanics of the tests, and he shows the
reasons for the insufficiency and inconsistency of the pseudo-mathe-
matical methods of which they make use. Such criticisms are as
valid for intelhgence tests as they are for aptitude, personality, and
projective tests.
Sorokin marshals technical arguments, showing methodological
errors, and he emphasizes the fact that replies made to tests, or to
questionnaires, may vary considerably with the same individual,
according to the time and method of administering such tests, etc.
In the same way he brings to light the errors of the statistical meth-
VEXUARD: Sorokin's Psychological Theories 1 83
ods used, and he does this by citing psychological texts themselves.
This type of test seems to him particularly disastrous, since it
stifles potentialities and talents at the outset, by preventing their
possible realization, and it damages society as a whole, since it per-
mits poor social distribution of individuals into various social ac-
tivities. Moreover, where such tests have a sound basis, Sorokin
shows, particularly in the case of "projective tests," that they have
aheady been used for centuries to test novices in convents, in the
East as well as in the West.
C. Psychoanalysis. Freud and his disciples are the object of
vigorous attacks by Sorokin. He is especially contemptuous of this
school, because of its willingness to explain tlie superior, conscious,
and supraconscious activities and creative genius of man as derived
from his lowest, instinctive, "hbidinal" drive, particularly the "sub-
hmated" sexual instinct. We have noted above Sorokin's view con-
cerning this matter: the superior creations of the mind cannot be
explained in terms of inferior intellectual activities. It is even said
( and Freud is not the only one saying this ) that the sexual drive is
closely related to creativity, not only in the artistic area, but also in
all social activities.
^^
With numerous examples to support him,
Sorokin shows that, on the contrary, the creative activity of great
artists has often dried up at the very time they succumbed to "their
sexual unorthodoxy." In a general way, the idea which Freud de-
rives from the unconscious is one that "makes out of it a grotesque
fantasma, fallacious logically, Mrrong factually, ugly aesthetically,
and demoralizing ethically."
VI. Answers to Certain Criticisms Made by Sorokin
We can only express regret and surprise that psychologists
have not paid closer attention to those parts of Sorokin's works
which deal positively with psychological matters. To his great
credit, it must be said that he has given us an extremely pene-
trating analysis of the backgrounds of contemporary psychology.
He has brought out into the open certain psychological meth-
ods and has provided us with a superior understanding of the
"^
The American Sex Revolution,
pp.
69-70.
1 84 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
process whereby human beings are transformed.^^ It is truly re-
grettable that all this wealth of psychological knowledge, sup-
ported by centuries of experience, has not been more thoroughly
investigated by psychologists. Sorokin, moreover, is the founder of
the "Research Center in Creative Altruism," whose investigations
and publications should be of primary interest to psychologists.
In view of all this, as well as in view of what we have pointed out
earlier, we are tremendously indebted to Pitirim A. Sorokin, who
deserves our highest esteem.
At the same time, we cannot refrain from commenting upon
the very severe criticisms that Sorokin makes of contemporary
psychology. We can more or less agree with the essential point of
his criticisms regarding certain matters: psychologists have, indeed,
shov^ni too much of a tendency to overlook the past and to glorify
their own present "discoveries" in certain areas. Unfortunately,
moreover, they are inclined to utilize useless neologisms; to mistake
"concocted phrases" for "scientific discoveries"; to divert verbal ex-
pressions from their usual clear meaning and to give them their own
special meaning, thereby creating a pseudo-scientific jargon which
does nothing but promote confusion in science where, already, there
are enough other diflBculties. As for operationalism itself, it can be
considered a nebulous philosophic position, unadaptable to the
conditions under which the psychologist works.
As for mathematical methods, their use is completely justifiable
in psychology, especially where they may be adequately applied.
But the invasion of mathematism, whereby pseudo-formulae re-
place normal vocabulary, is a sore spot, indeed, which we should
never cease to denounce. Psychology, in brief, has no need to look
for its models in the physical sciences and in the mechanical area on
the pretext that in these disciplines it may alight upon rigorous
ideas worth emulating. Prediction, as Sorokin says, is not the only
basic criterion of a science.
On the other hand, with regard to Sorokin's criticism of testing
methods, certain of his positions seem to us somewhat extreme. In
the first place, there is hardly a psychologist at the present time
who claims that tests are "infallible." The results obtained from
^^
We should point out, however, that rehgious orders often turn to psychology
to test and select their novices. We can beheve that their traditional, as well as
secular, methods are not always satisfactory.
YEXUARD: Sorokin's Psychological Theories 1 85
tests administered to an individual are handled with infinite pre-
cautions. In practice, in any case, these results alone are not taken
as a basis for counseling, nor for a decision. Within the framework
of an examination, or of a psychological consultation, the tests do
not necessarily have a privileged place. They take place within
the setting where the subject, such as an amnesia victim, is inter-
viewed (although the tests, perhaps, may guide the conversation).
Where young persons are concerned, parents or teachers will be
consulted, or sometimes a meeting (of parents, teachers, and chil-
dren) is arranged. And from such a social investigation, scholarly
conclusions may be reached. The tests allow one either to confirm
what he already knows through material gathered elsewhere, or to
clarify certain ideas in the light of hitherto unforeseen possibilities
and correct them, usually in the subject's favor. A realistic orienta-
tion of the psychologist requires that he be aware of the tastes and
preferences of the individual, as well as tendencies and possibilities
for his self-realization. The test is only one of the objective in-
struments which permit precision in a number of cases where pre-
viously there was lack of precision and general chaos. Sorokin cites
a large number of geniuses whose achievements were unappreciated
by their contemporaries. But the testing method has not been de-
vised for the selection of geniuses. The psychologist, more than
anyone else, knows only too well how "unstable and changeable"
a subject man is. He never makes a statement of greater or less
probable certainty, therefore, without taking infinite precautions.
Except when excessive, then, testing methods cannot be condemned
as "testomania" and "testocracy." On this point Sorokin should
certainly agree. Actually, these excesses do not come from psy-
chology; they come from a public eager to have simple and definite
answers to vibrant, complex, and many-sided questions. It is such
a public that is responsible for the commercialization tendency in
psychology.
As for Sorokin's assessment of psychoanalysis, one may be jus-
tified in observing that Freud and his disciples have gone too far
in their attempt to explain the higher psychological levels of human
activity in terms of deviation, or in terms of sublimation of lower,
instinctive impulses; or to explain talent and genius in terms of
neurosis and psychosis, sado-masochistic tendencies, the Oedipus
complex, etc.
186 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
However, one must render unto Caesar what is Caesar's. For
one thing, Freud's early works, as well as the works of his first
disciples, show that such explanations were made in only exceptional
cases. It was somewhat later that these explanations came to be
applied more widely over the civilized world; for civihzation, ac-
cording to Freud, represses the most demanding biological needs of
man. But beyond this, being a man of great learning, Freud him-
self fully acknowledged his indebtedness to predecessors; not only
to Schopenhauer and E. von Hartmann, but also to authors of great
myths and to famous authors of well-known tragedies (Sophocles
and Shakespeare )
.
At the same time, Freud was well acquainted with the psycho-
logical role of religious rites and obligations. According to him, it
is precisely because religious feeling has weakened that we have
witnessed an epidemic of neuroses, and that the birth of psycho-
analysis has become possible. His summary statement of this whole
aflFair is a pure gem: "Formerly (in case of insurmountable difficul-
ties) the individual took refuge in a monastery; today, he takes
refuge in a neurosis." It remains true, nevertheless, that Freud and
his disciples have pushed to excess the unsupportable propositions
which, at the very most, can be found to be applicable to only a few
sick individuals. The widespread dissemination of such a doctrine
indeed does constitute an evil, which Sorokin denounces with
force and not without humor.
Only a few more words will suflBce to conclude this assessment.
By presenting a "humanly" realistic gradation of mental structure
and human personality, and by projecting into bold relief the
psychological and moral role of creative love, Sorokin has given us
a profound analysis of methods of investigation and transformation
of human personality in religious groups, and he has demonstrated
with precision and lucidity the complex mechanisms of interaction
between the individual and the group. He has, in brief, given us a
tremendous push forward through his great work emanating from
the "Research Center in Creative Altruism."
By the novelty and originality of his views and by the great,
exemplary power of his achievements, Sorokin's work is capable of
bringing renewal and a vigorous forward thrust to the psychology
of the future, which should become a human science, and no longer
VEXLIARD: Sorokin's Psychological Theories 1 87
remain a simple appendix of biology, or a museum of monstrosities.
Finally, he has provided us with an idea of the science of man and
with a knowledge, in this area, which should permit us to act in a
more brotherly fashion, in the highest human sense, and to become
most adaptable in this world man has created.
Sorokin's Rural-Urban Principles
T. Lynn Smith
Professor P. A. Sorokin, more than any other man, has influenced
the nature and content of the systematized body of knowledge that
today is designated as rural sociology or the sociology of rural life.
This will be readily apparent to anyone who will take the trouble to
trace the development of this science in the United States; and it
probably is even more true with respect to the scope, content, and
method of rural sociology in other parts of the world. Such an
achievement might well be a source of great satisfaction to a scholar
who had devoted his entire life to the building of a scientific disci-
pline, but it becomes all the more remarkable in view of the fol-
lowing facts. Although Sorokin, along with other noted sociologists
such as William F. Ogbum, consistently used rural-urban compari-
sons as a fruitful way of securing meaningful understanding of social
phenomena, for only three or four years of his long, productive
career was the specific study of rural society his principal work;
and probably never was rural sociological research included among
the activities for which he was paid all or even a part of his salary.
Furthermore, it is unlikely that the royalties he received from his
now classic books in the field ever totaled more than a fraction of
his own out-of-pocket expenses in connection with their production.
His rewards were satisfaction with the successful personal execu-
tion of important tasks and that which comes to the great teacher
who lives to see his own students, the students of his students, and
even the third generation of his "intellectual descendants" construc-
tively building upon the foundations he has laid.
SMITH: Sorokin's Rural-Urban Principles 189
I. The Setting: The University of Minnesota
Befriended by Professor E. C. Hayes of the University of Illinois
and Professor E. A. Ross of the University of Wisconsin, Sorokin
lectured briefly at these institutions following his arrival in the
United States in November, 1923; and then, in 1924, he secured a
position as professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota,
where he remained until 1930, when he moved to Winchester,
Massachusetts, and became chairman of Harvard University's new
department of sociology. It was during these last four years at
Minnesota and while he was carrying a full-time teaching load that
Sorokin produced (in collaboration with Carle C. Zimmerman) the
Principles
of
Rural-Urban Sociology'^ and (in collaboration with
Zimmerman and Charles
J.
Galpin) the three-volume work A Sys-
tematic Source Book in Rural Sociology.^ These are the now classic
works which contain the systematic exposition of his principles
of rural sociology. It also was during the last four years of his work
at Minnesota and the early part of his career at Harvard that he
stimulated so greatly and trained the small corps of highly selected
graduate students which has had such a large hand in developing
the scientific study of rural society.
According to E. C. Hayes, Sorokin's principal motive in coming
to the United States was "to study the cultural and economic organi-
zations of farmers" in this country during the years following his
banishment from Soviet Russia and while he and other refugees
were "preparing to take part in the reorganization of Russia when it
is possible for them to return."^ Even so, during his first four years
in the United States the tasks connected with a full-time teaching
load and the writing and publishing of Leaves
from a Russian Diary,
'^
Sociology
of
Revolution,^ Social Mobility,^ and Contemporary Soci-
ological Theories'^ must have left him comparatively little time for
concentrated study of rural society in the Midwest and other parts
of the United States.
^
New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1929.
"
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1930, 1931, and 1932.
'
"Editor's Introduction" to Pitirim A. Sorokin, The Sociology
of
Revolution
(Philadelphia and London;
J.
B. Lippincott Company, 1925),
pp.
vii-viii.
*
New York: E. P. Button & Company, 1924.
^
Op. cit.
"
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1927.
''
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1928.
190 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
While Contemporary Sociological Theories was in press (in
1927),
Sorokin, collaborating with Carle C. Zimmerman, then as-
sistant professor of sociology and rural sociology at the University
of Minnesota, threw himself enthusiastically into the preparation
of the manuscript of a systematic treatment of the field of rural
sociology. When the present writer arrived in Minneapolis, in
July,
1928, to begin graduate work in sociology, that manuscript was
complete. However, "it was so long that it could not be published
in one volume."* Fortunately for the development of rural soci-
ology, though, at about this time Dr. Charles
J.
Galpin, then Chief
of the Division of Population and Rural Life in the U. S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture, sought to enlist the co-operation of Sorokin
and Zimmerman in the preparation of a comprehensive three-
volume source book for rural sociology. The expression "fortunate-
ly" is used because from daily personal contacts in the fall of 1928,
the present writer knows that during the impasse which developed
when the manuscript proved to be too voluminous, and the making
of the arrangements for the Source Book taxing, Sorokin already
was well along with the preparation of a volume on The History
of
Social Thought. As it was, though, Sorokin's primary atten-
tion was not diverted from a study of the sociology of rural life
late in 1928, but continued through 1929 and 1930, or until the
organization of the department of sociology at Harvard University
and the beginning of work on Social and Cultural Dynamics^ mo-
nopolized his time and attention.
II. Objectives
In the preface to their Principles
of
Rural-Urban Sociology
Sorokin and Zimmerman stated specifically the five ways in which
they sought to make their book different from existing texts in
rural sociology, and since to a considerable degree these endeavors
served to orient the future development of the field, they deserve
specific mention. They are as follows:
First, it tries to be a rural sociology and not a mere collection of
various data pertaining to aspects of rural life and rural communities. . . .
^
Sorokin and Zimmerman, op. cit.,
p.
v.
*
Four Volumes. New York: American Book Company, 1937-1941,
SMITH: Sorokin's Rural-Urban Principles 191
It is certain that we use such data extensively, but not, so to speak,
for their own sake: they are taken and used in intercorrelations with
other social phenomena and serve only as "bricks" for the construction
of more complex, general and sociological formulae of functional rela-
tionships and interrelationships.
Second, the book does not try to "preach" and does not bother itself
with any evaluations of what is good and bad in rural life. . , , Likewise,
the book does not stress "the sympathetic attitude" of the authors re-
garding rural life. . . .
Third, the courses in rural sociology in this country (in other coun-
tries such courses hardly exist) have been dealing almost exclusively with
American data and have not touched the data of other countries. This
present book tries to base its conclusions on the existing data of almost
all countries. . . .
Fourth, several problems which have already been well studied and
in which the conclusions reached are relatively certain, are only briefly
summarized. . . .
Fifth, for all those who like "all embracing, clearly cut, and sweeping
generalizations," easy to remember and thrilling in their universality,
simplicity, and "rectilinearity" this book may appear somewhat disap-
pointing. . . . we are convinced that a scientific text is not a "detective
story"; and that a student of any science must take some pains to learn
it. . . . We are not writing a "best seller" but a scientific study.
Later, in the preface to A Systematic Source Book in Rural
Sociology, Sorokin and Zimmerman, along with Galpin, were equally
explicit in stating their determination to help make the discipline of
rural sociology more comprehensive, more scientific, and less pro-
vincial. Note especially the following statements from the pre-
amble to that classic work:
The editors have been moved by the following considerations:
Human society throughout its historyits origins, forms, activities, proc-
esses, growth, evolutionhas been so largely under the pressure of
agricultural and rural forces that up to the present sociology as a science
of society has virtually been the sociology of rural life. A world view
of the sociology of rural life is important for the development of the
science. . . . There is need that the content of rural sociology . . . should
contain facts of indubitably sociological character. There is need in the
textual organization of the facts of rural sociology for a resolutely scien-
tific methodology. In the training of American rural sociologists there
is need for a broad acquaintance with the rural sociological thought and
theory of Europe and Asia. And, finally, in this era of American teach-
ing, research, and extension of rm-al sociological facts and theory and in
this period of experimental agrarian legislation, a systematic source book
world-wide in scope is timely.
192 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
Of course there still lingers today, at a time when mankind already
is well within the portals of the atomic age, much of the provincial-
ism that Sorokin and his asociates were trying to replace. In 1962,
as in 1930 when Sorokin, Zimmerman and Galpin surveyed the
scene, many of the "textbooks in rural sociology in America are still
quite provincial, not even being developed on the geographic basis
of the entire country." Even so, however, the charge that con-
temporary sociology and sociologists are provincial, an accusation
that since 1950 has come with disconcerting frequency from men in
the related social science fields, is not entirely justified; and certain-
ly it is much less valid with respect to rural sociology and sociolo-
gists specializing in the sociology of rural life than it is with refer-
ence to sociology and sociologists as a whole. In this connection,
therefore, it is important to recall that more than any other man,
Sorokin deliberately sought to enlarge the mental horizons of those
working in the field and to promote the comparative studies of rural
societies by those engaged professionally as rural sociologists.
III. Sorokin's Share in the Work
Because the two works in which Sorokin's principles of rural
sociology appear both were prepared in collaboration with other
authors, it is essential to identify specifically the portions of those
books for which he personally was responsible. Fortunately this is
easily done, because in the preface to the Principles
of
Rural-Urban
Sociology and also in that to A Systematic Source Book in Rural
Sociology the portions for which each author was responsible have
been clearly identified. Thus of the twenty-seven chapters in the
Principles the sixteen chapters written by Sorokin are as follows:
I. Definition of Rural and Urban Sociology
II. Definition of Rural and Urban Worlds
IV. Bodily Differences between the Urban and Rural Popula-
tions
V. Comparative Health of Rural and Urban Populations
VI. Predominant Diseases of the City and the Country
VII. Rural-Urban Suicides
VIII. Comparative Longevity, and Mortality of the Rural and
Urban Populations
SMITH: Sorokin's Rural-Urban Principles 193
XIII. The Experience Worlds and Psychological Processes of the
Rural-Urban Populations
XV. The Rural and Urban Family
XVI. Comparative Criminality, Immorality, and Intemperance
XVII. The Role of the City and the Country in Innovation, Dis-
ruption, and Preservation of the National Culture
XVIII. Rural-Urban Rehgious Culture, Beliefs, and Convictions
XX, Agricultural Classes and Political Regimes
XXI. Rural-Urban Arts and Esthetic Culture
XXII. Farmer-Peasant Attitudes of Individualism and Collectivism
XXVII. Retrospect, Present Situation, and Prospect.
In addition, he and Zimmerman jointly were responsible for three
other chapters, namely:
III. The Status of the Farmer-Peasant Class Among Other
Social Classes
XIV. Sources and Theories Concerning the Psycho-Social Traits
of Farmers and Peasants
XIX. Political Culture, Attitudes, and Behavior of Rural Groups.
Even greater was Sorokin's part of the responsibihty for the contents
of the Source Book, as is stated expHcitly in the following extract
from its preface:
It should be stated also that most of the introductions, selections and
systematization of the material and, in general, the greater part of the
work of the Source Book were done by Professor Pitirim Sorokin.
Elsewhere the present writer has attempted to sketch the nature
of the original contributions made by Sorokin in the preparation of
the Source Book, and in the interest of brevity these comments are
reproduced here:
[The Source Book] is in no sense a "scissors and paste job." It is true
that liberal extracts are presented from the writings of great thinkers in
aU countries and all ages along with substantial parts from the contri-
butions of twentieth-century sociologists. But most of these were trans-
lated into English and then they were presented only after the setting of
each chapter was carefully prepared by original expositions giving the
basic frame of reference, classifications, and discussion of variations in
time and space. Nor are the topics limited to those treated earlier in the
Principles. In Volume I, for example, Chapter I, with the introduction
and the materials from ancient Oriental, Greek and Roman sources, went
over ground previously untouched in rural sociological literature; and the
same is true of Chapter II, devoted to a "History of rural sociology: four-
194 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
teenth to nineteenth centuries." Here, thanks to Sorokin's depth of
knowledge of social thinkers of all ages, the ideas and theories of the
great thinkers from Ibn Khaldun, to John
Graunt, and to Alexander
Hamilton came into the arena of rural sociological theory. Furthermore,
except for Chapter III, which is largely a repetition of Chapter II of the
Frinciples, all of Volume I is occupied with what then were new and
challenging aspects of the subject matter of rural sociology. Chapter V,
"The ecology of the rural habitat," and Chapter VI, "Differentiation of
the rural population into cumulative communities and functional associa-
tions," opened up new and challenging vistas to the men then working
in the field. Chapters VII and VIII, devoted to social stratification and
social mobility, respectively, did much to make these highly important
subjects integral parts of rural sociology, some years before they gained
comparable status in general sociology or in urban sociology.
In Volume II, also, the portion of the work devoted to "Rural social
organization in its institutional, functional, and cultural aspects," the
chapters dealing with the family, education, social control, religious
organization and culture, and aesthetic and recreational organization
helped greatly to advance these aspects of the general field. Volume III
closely follows the subject matter and outline of the Principles, although
even here the additional wealth of material contributed greatly to under-
standing of differences between the physical traits and health of rural
and urban populations, vital processes, intelligence and migration.
In its entirety, a careful study of the book is still a must for all those
wishing to achieve professional competency in the field of rural soci-
ology.^"
IV. Significance for the Development of Rural Sociology
In the work just cited the present v^nriter has attempted to assess
the importance of the publication of Principles
of
Rural-Urban
Sociology and A Systematic Source Book in Rural Sociology in the
development of rural sociology as a scientific discipline.
^^
There
the work of building the new discipline was divided into four epochs
or stages, as follows: the period of genesis, to 1920; a decade of
progress, 1920-29; the period of maturation, 1930-45; and develop-
ments and trends, 1945-56. In this schema Sorokin's contribution
to the development of the principles of rural sociology came as the
^
T. Lynn Smith, "Rural Sociology: A Trend Report and Bibliography," Current
Sociology, VI, No. 1 (1957),
42-43.
^^
Ibid.,
pp.
1-75. See also, T. Lynn Smith, "La Sociologia Rural en los
Estados Unidos de America
y
en Canada," Revista Mexicana de Sociologia, XX, No.
3 (1958),
817-42.
SMITH: Sorokin's Rural-Urban Principles 195
culmination to the work during the second period and a major stim-
ulus to that in the third. The following paragraphs are the ones in
which an attempt was made to place these fundamental contribu-
tions in perspective:
Finally, the decade 1920-29 was the one in which eflForts at synthesis
got underway in earnest. This difficult work began on a small scale
with the preparation of Gillette's new book on Rural Sociology. It was
advanced considerably when in 1926 Taylor published the first edition
of his Rural Sociology, and with the appearance of the first edition of
Sims' Elements
of
Rural Sociology in 1928. The culmination came in
1929 with the publication of The Principles
of
Rural-Urban Sociology
by Sorokin and Zimmerman, followed within a few years by the ap-
pearance of the three volumes of the Systematic Source Book in Rural
Sociology by Sorokin, Zimmerman, and Galpin. The work of preparing
these books brought to bear upon the field of rural sociology, in a long
concerted effort, the ingenuity of Sorokin and his vast knowledge of
European society and sociology, and Zimmerman's genius, determination,
drive and mastery of developments on the American scene. Rarely have
such extraordinarily able representatives of two such diverse currents of
thought been brought together to work intensively side by side for a
period of five or six years. The result was the finest synthesis of the field
of rural sociology achieved to date.
The years 1930 to about 1945 may be characterized as the ones in
which the discipline of rural sociology came of age. During the first
few years of this period, the difficult work of synthesis was the out-
standing feature, the appearance of the Systematic Source Book in Rural
Sociology being the chief event.^^
These extracts, along with a few brief excerpts from the annota-
tions in the bibliography, also adequately express the present writer's
evaluation of the importance of Sorokin's contributions to rural
sociology. Thus the annotation commenting upon the Principles
opens with the following sentence: "This volume constitutes one of
the principal landmarks in the development of rural sociology";
and that pertaining to the Source Book indicates that along with
the work just mentioned, "this three-volume set represents the
greatest work of synthesis as yet achieved in the field of rural
sociology."^^
After the appearance of Sorokin's Contemporary Sociological
Theories in 1928 it was fairly easy for sociologists in the United
States to gain a passing acquaintance with the works and ideas of
^^
Smith, "Rural Sociology,"
p.
12.
"
Ibid.,
pp.
32, 42.
1 96 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
those in other countries who had contributed most to theory and
method in the scientific study of society. Nevertheless, for sociolo-
gists in general and rural sociologists in particular the manner in
w^hich Sorokin w^ove the principles developed by European soci-
ologists into his own systematic exposition of the principles of rural
sociology was of great utility. This alone advanced by several
decades the date at which the tested results of scholarship in other
lands would form an integral part of rural sociology in the United
States. Prior to 1929 and the publication of the Principles
of
Rural-
Urban Sociology rural sociologists in this country rivaled their
fellows in other branches of sociology in the degree to which they
were unaware of the writings and ideas of their fellows abroad.
Prior to this date few of them gave evidence of being acquainted
with the work of any of the following: Emile Durkheim, Frederic
Le Play, Ferdinand Toennies, Leopold von Wiese, Ibn IGialdun,
R. Livi, E. G. Ravenstein,
James
G. Frazer, Max Weber,
John
Graunt, A. Meitzen, Vilfredo Pareto, Frederic Seebohm, Max Ser-
ing, Werner Sombart, L. T. Hobhouse, and Edward Westermarck,
to mention only some of the more important names. Indeed the
books and other publications by rural sociologists gave httle indi-
cation that they were familiar with the fundamental contributions
made to the sociology of rural hfe by such noted U. S. sociologists
as William F. Ogbum, Howard W. Odum, Florian Znaniecki, W. I.
Thomas, and G. E. Howard. After Sorokin had drawn heavily on
these and, to a lesser degree, upon the works of hundreds of others
in his own great work of synthesis, however, several of those pre-
paring the textbooks and other compendia dealing with rural soci-
ology leaned heavily upon the original works of these scholars; and
it is evident that this was not done merely by relying upon the
summaries of their studies which are conveniently available in
Contemporary Sociological Theories and other books.
^^
In this way
alone, Sorokin achieved one of his stated objectives and thus con-
tributed immeasurably to the reduction of the provincialism that
characterized rural sociology in the United States at the time he was
banished from Soviet Russia.
^*
Note, for example, that one of the outstanding specialists in the sociology
of rural life, Charles P. Loomis, is also the scholar who eventually was responsible
for the translation and pubHcation of Toennies' classic work. See Community
and Society (Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft) , translated and with an Introduction
by Charles P. Loomis (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1956).
SMITH: Sorokin's Rural-Urban Principles 197
Perhaps even more directly and immediately, however, was the
eflPect of his own exposition and use in the Principles
of
Rural-Urban
Sociology of principles and concepts hitherto entirely unknown to
or understood only vaguely by sociologists of all varieties in the
United States. Little purpose would be served by listing all of
these.^^ It is essential to include, however, some of the items for
whose formulation Sorokin himself was largely if not almost exclu-
sively responsible. Among these are the concepts of social space, and
vertical and horizontal social mobility, the difference in social mo-
bility in rural and urban areas, and the factors responsible for these
differences. Closely related are his concepts of social stratification
and his definition of social class, wliich he set forth explicitly in his
book entitled Social Mobility and used effectively in analyzing the
basic differences between rural and urban society. Even the most
abbreviated hst also should include Sorokin's definition of the social
group, his elaboration of the differences between elementary and
cumulative groups, and the manner in which he employed these
concepts in the Source Book^^ to promote understanding of the
structure of rural society.
It also is essential to mention specifically some of the concepts
and principles of other scholars which made their way into rural
sociology in the United States largely as the result of Sorokin's work
as an author and as a teacher. In this category come such items as
Toennies' dichotomy of gemeinschaft and gesellschaft, Durkheim's
mechanistic and organic social solidarity, Ravenstein's laws (of
migration), and Livi's law.
Finally, in addition to the principles described in the following
section, it is necessary to mention, even though briefly, some of the
analyses presented by Sorokin in the two books under consideration
in this chapter which still stand almost alone in the literature of
rural sociology. They remain basic sources that must be consulted
by anyone who desires understanding of the important matters they
treat. Three of these are as follows:
(1)
the differences between
the rural and urban social worlds analyzed and described in
Chapter II of the Principles;
(
2
) the history of rural sociology to the
^*
More to the point would be a series of doctoral dissertations on such topics
as the following: "The Roles of Social Stratification and Related Concepts in
Sociology in the United States before and after the Pubhcation of Sorokin's Social
Mobility."
"
Chap. vi.
198 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
nineteenth century, Chapters I and II of the Source Book; and
(3)
"the differentiation of the rural population into cumulative com-
munities and functional associations" which makes up Chapter VI
of the same indispensable work.
V. The Durabilify of Sorokin's Principles
Because Sorokin's principles of rural sociology represented the
work of synthesis at its best, the generalizations of others that he
adopted and wove into his own work and those he formulated
personally have stood the test of time in a high degree. Indeed,
the large majority of them still retain a validity that makes the
Principles and the Source Book, as earlier indicated, recommended
reading for anyone who would aspire to professional competence in
the fields of rural and urban sociology. This point is emphasized
by a brief consideration of some of the basic principles which he set
forth in his chapters in the Principles.
A. The psychosocial status of farmers. The fundamental gen-
eralization on this subject, in a chapter whose authorship was shared
with Zimmerman, is that the economic, occupational, and socio-
pohtical status of farmers is fundamentally different from that of
any of the urban social classes. In some respects farmers have
basic interests in common with urban managerial and capitalistic
groups, whereas in other fundamental respects their sympathies
and actions are more closely tied in with those of the workers.
For this reason the hopes for any lasting political alliance between
farmers and those who work with their hands in the cities, such as
was envisioned by those trying to promote a "Farm-Labor party"
in the Midwest at the time Sorokin was writing, are doomed for
disappointment. Although such movements are not entirely dead,
in the United States and abroad, they appear to enjoy even less
support among farm groups and labor groups alike than was the
case in 1929. Indeed, Sorokin's generalizations with respect to the
psychosocial status of farmers seem to be fully valid today.
B. Livi's Law. During the first thirty years of the twentieth cen-
tury much was written (and read) about the bodily differences
SMITH: Sorokin's Rural-Urban Principles 199
between rural and urban populations. Many studies had seemed
to show that rural people differed from those who lived in cities
in stature, weight, pigmentation, and the shape of the head, and the
selectivity of migration versus environment was vigorously debated
as a possible explanation of tlie asserted differences. Sorokin him-
self set the problem as follows:
Are there some bodily differences between populations of the city
and the country, taken as whole groups? If so, what are they? If so, to
what are they due: to selection or environment or to both of these fac-
tors? Much has been written about the topic. And yet, the problem is
still definitely unsetded.^^
Then he proceeded to a detailed analysis of the findings of the
specific studies and the interpretations that had been placed upon
them. This involved the presentation of a host of theories, some
applying only to the study of stature, or weight, or pigmentation,
or the cephahc index, and others to two or more of these character-
istics. Finally, he generahzed the findings as follows:
. . . we do not -find any valid evidence that the cities attract particularly
those who are tall, or heavy, or dark, or dolichocephalic, or with large
size
of
heads and so on, or vice versa. . . . The fact of recruiting of city
populations from more remote and different places than the population
of the country, and the interpretation by R. Livi, explain the differences
found much more satisfactorily than the hypothesis of "selectional
selection." . . . Correspondingly, the hypothesis formulated by many, but
especially well demonstrated by R. Livi, remains the most important
generahzation in this field.^^
As nearly as the present writer has been able to determine, Sorokin's
use of Livi's principle here and in Contemporary Sociological
Theories^^ is the first time this important key to an understanding
of an immensely complicated sociological problem was made avail-
able to sociologists in this country. Moreover, in his classes Sorokin
applied the same principle effectively in explaining cultural dif-
ferences between city and country such as those in religious prefer-
ences and affiliations, and for both purposes Livi's Law continues
to be of prime importance today as it was in
1929.^
As a matter
of fact the present writer is convinced that a familiarity with Livi's
"
Principles,
p.
101.
"
Ibid.,
p.
142.
"
P. 278.
^^
Cf. T. Lynn Smith, The Sociology
of
Rural Life (3rd ed.; New York: Harper
& Brothers,
1953),
pp.
87, 89.
200 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
Law and an elementary knowledge of the social ecology of cities
would have prevented the revival of Lombrosian theories of crime
which emanated from Harvard's Department of Anthropology a
few years ago.
C. The experience worlds of farmers. Using procedures compa-
rable to those employed to arrive at the conclusion that Livi's Law
is the principle which explains the observed diflFerences in the physi-
cal characteristics of rural and urban populations, Sorokin took stock
of the evidence that had been accumulated with respect to the con-
scious events which make up the sum total of the experiences of
those who reside in the country and those who live in the city. All
of this, on the basis of his analysis, he then classified into "direct
experience," or that a person gains for himself, and "indirect ex-
perience," or that not secured by face-to-face or personal contact
with the phenomena. Next, he proceeded inductively to generalize
that the experience world of the farmer tends to be made up in
large measure of direct experience whereas that of the person who
lives in a city is secured for the most part in indirect ways.
... in the field of indirect experience the superiority belongs to the
urbanite; in the field of the direct experience it belongs to the farmer.
The city dweller knows everything from indirect sources; his mental
vistas are broad; he talks about and can talk about the most different
things. . . . But all of this is known to him quite superficially and in a
fragmentary manner. . . . The farmer's outlook, from the standpoint of
indirect knowledge, is much narrower; he often does not know anything
that is going on outside of his country or province. . . . Nevertheless, in
the field of direct experience, the farmer's share is rather better than
that of the average "proletarian" with his very narrow field of direct
and substantial dealing with realities.^*
Finally, he developed several corollaries from these propositions,
including the following:
. . . the farmer-peasant's mental luggage is more stable and less fluctu-
ating than many attitudes and convictions
of
the city population, often
based on an inadequate and overdeveloped indirect experience, which
inadequacy makes many changes necessary in order to correct or to
replace one attitude, opinion, or belief with another.^^
If valid, these generalizations certainly represent some of the most
"^
Principles,
p.
289.
"
Ibid.,
p.
290.
SMITH: Sorokin's Rural-Urban Principles 201
important principles yet advanced in the study of the social psy-
chology of rural life; and if not valid, in 1962 that fact remains to
be demonstrated fully as much as was the case in 1930.
D. Rural-urban incidence of crime. Perhaps Sorokin's legal train-
ing and experience in Russia made him cautious about conclusions
relating to comparative criminality of the rural and urban popula-
tions, but in any case he was far less certain in this respect than
appears to have been true of many of his contemporaries. Exactly
this reluctance to attribute great criminality to urban populations
seems to have added durability to his principles. After a lengthy
examination of the data he did conclude that the city crime rates
"remain somewhat higher than in the country or among the agri-
cultural population."^^ Then, in accounting for the differences, he
first dismissed as of little consequence the economic and educa-
tional factors, admitted the possibility of selectivity of migrations
between rural and urban areas, and attributed in a large measure
the slightly higher crime rates in cities to differences in the rural-
urban density of population, family and home life, psychosocial
heterogeneity, and social mobility.
E. The city as the innovator and the country as the preserver of
national culture. Sorokin saw in the city's demographic, social, and
cultural heterogeneity the forces which make for change, and in the
country's homogeneous and self-perpetuating population and social
and cultural system the factors favorable to the retention of the
established order. In brief the city is the innovator and the country
the preserver of national culture.^* The facts he marshaled to
demonstrate this thesis seem to have been suflBcient to establish its
validity, and the principle remains at the service of sociologists to-
day. The present writer himself has found it useful in a variety
of situations, ranging from the endeavor to introduce college stu-
dents to the city's role in social change^^ to an attempt to determine
how mortality rates in Latin American cities compare with those in
the rural districts.^
"
Ibid.,
p.
388.
"*
Ibid.,
pp.
105, passim.
"^
See T. Lynn Smith and C. A. McMahan, The Sociology
of
Urban
Life ( New
York: Dryden Press, 1951), pp.
781-89.
'^
T. Lynn Smith, "Drferencias Demograficas Rur-Urbanas en Latino-america,"
202 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
F. The distinctive features of rural religious culture and expression.
Among those who have sought to understand rehgious phenomena
as they are expressed in rural areas, Sorokin is distinguished by the
breadth as well as by the depth of his analysis. He devoted rela-
tively little attention to the statistics of rural church membership,
data about programs and Sunday Schools, facts relating to minis-
ters' salaries, and similar features which figure prominently in
many rural sociological works, but concentrated upon five principal
ways in which he maintained the religious beliefs and practices of
rural people diflFered from those of urban residents. First, he drew
upon Livi's Law and stressed the importance of the "native" ele-
ments in religious forms and expressions of country people, in con-
trast with the features drawn from all parts of the world that are
found as part and parcel of the religious heritages of the hetero-
geneous masses who inhabit the cities. Second, as a result of the
interaction of the diverse elements found in the city, changes take
place, and these changes later on spread or are carried to the rural
districts. Rural people, though, have a tendency to cling firmly to
their old gods and forms of worship. In the case of the spread of
Christianity (from Rome), for example, the rural inhabitants of the
Italian Peninsula maintained tlieir traditional religious culture so
tenaciously that their name {pagan from paganus) became synony-
mous with non-Christian, and a similar development took place in
the British Isles where the term heathen originally meant nothing
more than those who lived in the heather. Third, the agricultural
setting of rural religion gives its various expressions a "coloration"
quite different from that which surrounds the forms of worship in
the cities. Fourth, rural religious beliefs and practices are less de-
terministic, materialistic, and mechanistic than those that have
been influenced by an urban and industrial environment. Fifth,
rigidity, firmness, lack of relativism, and so forth, are characteristic
of rural religious doctrines and behavior, whereas skepticism, so-
phistication, relativism, and the Hke, are more characteristic of
urban beliefs and practices.
Institute de Investigaciones Sociales, Estudies Sociologicos (Sociologia Urbana)
(Mexico: Institute de Investigaciones Sociales, 1956), II, 19-20.
SMITH: Sorokin's Rural-Urban Principles
203
G. The nature of rural radicalism. Because of his personal, in-
tense interest in revolutions and revolutionary movements, Sorokin
also delved deeply into the nature of rural radicalism and the rela-
tionship of the agricultural classes to political regimes of various
types. Far from asserting that rural societies are always con-
servative and that rural populations tend to support the status quo,
he indicated that at times rural society is radical to the extreme.
This contrasts w^ith the radicalism of the urban populations, though,
in that it is more sporadic and less sustained, is less frequent and,
when it does arise, it bursts like a thunderstorm. On the whole,
socialistic and communistic tendencies gain little support among
the farmers, and the agriculturists sometimes direct their activities
against the laboring classes in the cities and at other times against
the upper classes. Rural radicahsm is centered about the possession
and control of the land, and it is likely to erupt violently if situa-
tions arise in which the farmers are threatened with the loss of their
farms and homes. As a result, as mentioned above, over thirty years
ago Sorokin gave little chance of success to the eflForts, then wide-
spread in the area in which he was living, to establish a Farm-Labor
political alhance or party; and the results since that time bear out
the vaHdity of his analysis.
VI. Teocher and Teacher of Teachers
From what has been said above, it should be evident that
Sorokin's great influence upon the development of a sociology of
rural life was achieved through the publication of the two monu-
mental works, namely, the mislabeled Principles
of
Rural-Urban
Sociology^^ and the Source Book. Of course the emphasis he gave
to rural-urban comparisons and contrasts throughout his other
books, at least one paper^^ reporting on a project completed in his
seminar on rural sociology, and the paper on rural religious culture
which he presented at the 1928 meetings of the American Soci-
ological Society played some part in relating his name to the study
of rural social phenomena. But in addition to his two fundamental
^^
Mislabeled because, as mentioned above, the authors state specifically in the
preface that they had attempted to prepare a textbook in rural sociology.
^^
P. A. Sorokin, Carle C. Zimmerman, and others, "Farmer Leaders in the
United States," Social Forces, VII, No. 1 (1928),
33-45.
204 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
books devoted specifically to synthesis in the field of rural sociology,
his work as a teacher was the principal way in which his influence
was exerted in the development of a science of rural society. This
is not to say that any considerable amount of his effort was ex-
pended teaching courses which carried the label of "rural sociology."
Indeed the bulk of his time at Minnesota was devoted to teaching
courses and seminars in the fields of sociological theory, the history
of social thought, social organization, the sociology of revolution,
and population problems, and only a small fraction of his teaching
load was accounted for by the seminar on rural sociology for which
he and Zimmerman were responsible; and at Harvard he did not
even have time for the rural sociology seminar. Nevertheless, the
small, highly selected corps of graduate students who trained as
sociologists under his inspiration and direction, and then devoted
much of their own lives to buildingupon the foundations he had
laida sociology of rural life, represent tlie second important way in
which Sorokin influenced decisively the nature and development of
rural sociology as a scientific discipline. Among those who studied
with Sorokin at Minnesota or Harvard, or both, and whose names
figure prominently in the annals of rural sociology since 1928 are
the following: C. Arnold Anderson, Otis Durant Duncan, Fred C.
Frey, Homer L. Hitt, Paul H. Landis, Charles P. Loomis, Bryce
Ryan, Edgar A. Schuler, T. Lynn Smith, Conrad Taeuber, and
Nathan L. Whetten.
There appears to be a widespread belief, at home and abroad,
that some of Sorokin's students and teaching assistants have not
been inclined to give appropriate credit to their teacher for the
ideas and materials that eventually appeared in their published
works. Be this as it may, it should be noted that none of the men
enumerated above has shown any reluctance to acknowledge his
indebtedness, in professional matters, to Sorokin's inspiration as a
teacher and to his published works, a fact that will be apparent to
all who will take the trouble to examine the publications they have
produced.^ Furthermore, during the third of a century that has
^''
For illustrations of this point, see, for example, the rural sociology texts prepared
by members of the group: Paul H. Landis, Rural Life in Process (New York: The
McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1940 and 1948); Charles P. Loomis and
J.
Allan
Beegle, Rural Social Systems (New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1950); Charles P.
Loomis and
J.
Allan Beegle, Rural SociologyThe Strategy
of
Change (Englewood
Cliffs, N.
J.:
Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1957); and T. Lynn Smith, The Sociology
of
Rural
Life (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1940, 1947, and 1953).
SMITH: Sorokin's Rural-Urban Principles 205
passed since Sorokin began work on the Principles, Sorokin's stu-
dents themselves have trained considerable numbers of the men
now prominent in rural sociology, and even those whose graduate
work was directed by the students of his students are making signifi-
cant contributions to the development of the sociology of rural
life. All of this represents not a slavish copying or imitation, but
earnest endeavor to test, modify, add to, and otherwise build upon
in a scientific manner the principles of rural sociology formulated
by Sorokin.
Sorokin's Use of Sociological Measurement^
Matilda White Riley and Mary E. Moore
How will the historian of the future assess Sorokin's attempts
to classify and quantify sociocultural phenomena? Our predic-
tion is that he will look upon this work as well ahead of its time.
In essence, what Sorokin has attempted to do is :
(
1
) focus on total
systems as they change over the entire course of history, and
(2)
adapt the procediures of scientific research to these pecuHarly soci-
ological problems.
Thus, on the one hand, Sorokin's research materials reflect the
erudition and sweep of European scholarship. His problems are
formulated within the frame of his prodigious knowledge and
critical understanding of world sociology. And the extensiveness of
his objectives is indexed by the far-flung secondary analyses of Social
Mobility^ or Rural-Urban Sociology, and by the measurements in
Social and Cultural Dynamics which are based, for example, on
nearly a thousand wars, over sixteen hundred revolutions, many
thousand works of arts, all the historical figures mentioned in the
Encyclopaedia Britannica, and the like.
On the other hand, Sorokin has at his disposal in this remarkable
undertaking an empirical research approach which most American
social scientists of the time were applying only to short-run, small-
scale phenomena, and which they were using without any special
regard for the matching of technique to theory or for the special
problems of sociological analysis. Few techniques were ready at
hand which were appropriate to Sorokin's objectives.
^
Robert K. Merton and John W. Riley,
Jr.,
were land enough to read an earlier
version of this manuscript and to make valuable suggestions. This methodological
analysis of Sorokin's work was facihtated through a program of research which is
supported in part by a research grant, M-926, from the National Institute of Mental
Health of the National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service.
^
References are to the revised edition of 1959, Social and Cultural Mobility,
(Glencoe, 111.: The Free Press).
RILEY & MOORE: Sorokin's Use of Sociological Measurement 207
This imbalance between his objective and the methods available
in the field of sociology to carry it outan imbalance which was at
once a bm-den and a challenge for Sorokin's researchhas not yet
been fully redressed. While research sophistication has been
steadily increasing, sociologists on the whole have been slow to
develop either the interest or the background for systematic dy-
namic analysis of Hterate societies throughout their history. Thus
it may well be that Sorokin's work will reach its full impact only
at some point in the future when these two Hnes of development
converge.
As a means of hastening this impact, it seems worthwhile to
pause now to consider his achievements from the viewpoint of mid-
twentieth-century methodology. This paper will, accordingly, be
concerned with Sorokin's research itself, referring to his underlying
theories and the results of his investigations only insofar as this is
necessary to a discussion of the matching of his research to his
theory. This paper will deal primarily with his procedures for
measuring (i.e., either classifying or quantifying) as a major focus
of his methodological contributions. It will select for scrutiny only
a few examples from the broad array of his analysesexamples
which are scattered, far from complete, of varying degrees of gen-
erahty and importance. These examples are selected in order to
illustrate some of Sorokin's contributions to sociological research
method, and some of the further methodological problems which are
suggested or implied by his work. Thus the formulations and as-
sessments are not those which Sorokin himself has made, but those
of the present-day sociologist who considers the important bearing
of the work on the developing apphcation of scientific measurement
to sociological concepts.
I. Elements of Measurement
The framework for Sorokin's use of measurementprototype of
much current researchis suggested in the early statement by
Sorokin and Zimmerman.^ From this statement may be abstracted
a number of the elements in the measurement procedure as this is
defined today.
^
Principles
of
Rural-Urban Sociology, chap. ii.
208 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
a. The authors start by defining the fundamental "traits"often
referred to now as the dimensionsior the classification of societies.*
b. They then refer to "quantitative variations" along these di-
mensions. They point out, for example (as apphed to rural-urban
sociology), that "many diJfferential characteristics of the rural and
urban community w^ould consist not so much in the presence of
certain traits in rural, and their absence in urban communities, as
much as in a quantitative increase or decrease of these character-
istics or in their positive or negative correlation with 'rurahty' or
'urbanity.'
"^
As the modern methodologist might read this, they
attempt to measure the degree to which a given group has a
particular traitor, more importantly, to locate the position of a
given group in terms of an underlying dimension.
c. They explain further that all of these dimensions (or vari-
ables
)
are interrelated with one another, so that "societies and their
differences are undescribable in terms of one characteristic, and
require a definition which combines several typical traits."^ As
they put it, "The first Variable,' so to speak, carries the others with
it."^ Therefore, they employ here, following Max Weber, the
typological method. This enables them to classify "a complex and
an uninterrupted series of phenomena into a few types or
classes. . .
."^
That is, in the language of contemporary methodolo-
gy,
they first locate societies, not merely on one dimension, but in
a multidimensional property space, and then they focus on those
cells within the space which are, to revert to their own phraseology,
"typical and constant."*
d. Finally, they anticipate a question which is of much concern
in modern measurement: that is, how can the assumptions of a
particular measuring procedure be tested? While they do not raise
the question in this form, they do express concern that a com-
pounding of multiple dimensions may become a "purely mechanical
piling together' of various unrelated traits." A scientific approach,
they feel, must rest on "a logical unification of traits functionally
correlated with one another."^"
Each of these elements will be considered in further detail at
appropriate points in the following discussions.
*
Ibid.,
p.
13.
"
Ibid.,
p.
14.
Ibid.,
p.
13.
'
Ibid.,
p.
57.
"
Ibid.,
p.
15.
"
Ibid.,
p.
57.
"
Ibid.,
p.
14.
RILEY & MOORE: Sorokin's Use of Sociological Measurement 209
II. Classification of Cases on Multiple Dimensions
Many of the measurements reported in Dynamics illustrate such
a procedure, of continuing concern to the modem methodologist,
of using sense data as indicants to classify cases on each of several
dimensions which are later combined so as to represent the concept
as a whole.
^-"^
For example, in his measures of war and of internal
disturbances^^both of which are taken to reflect the breakdown
of crystallized systems of relationshipsSorokin (and his various
collaborators) provide two examples of this approach. Since these
represent two rather different attacks on what appear to be rather
similar problems, an examination of them may prove methodologi-
cally instructive.
In both cases Sorokin decides to use multiple, dimensions. As
the important quantifiable aspects of the magnitude of wars, he
selects the total strength of the army, the number of casualties, and
the duration of the conflict. Each of these is measured simply by
counting such ready-made units as persons or years involved.
In the case of internal disturbances, however, he specifies
various dimensions which require quite different means of quantifi-
cation in order to match his definition of the concept.^^ These are
the extent and social importance of the area involved, the duration
of the disturbance, the proportion of the population engaged, and
the proportional intensity of the conflict (i.e., "the amount and
sharpness of violence and the importance of effects"
).^^
Here his
procedure is to construct numerical scales for the evaluation of each
dimension of any given disturbance. On a scale 1 to 100, for
example, some of the points designated along the dimension of
the "social area" of the conflict, together with the numerical values
assigned to these points, are:
1disturbances of a local character in a rural county or similar
hmited area,
40disturbances in several large provinces or in the whole capital
city,
100disturbances which involve the entire country.^^
^*
The distinctions made here between the concept as a whole and its component
dimensions are purely arbitrary and relative to the particular focus of research.
^'
Dynamics, III, Parts II and III.
^^
Ibid., Ill, 387.
^*
Ibid., Ill, 389. He also classifies disturbances on a nominal scale according
to their objectives (see Appendix), but does not employ this in his analysis.
"
Ibid., Ill, 394.
210 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
Apart from the obvious problems of such arbitrary quantification/^
these scales make the important attempt to approximate the dis-
tinctively social definitions of the several dimensions. Even the
scale of duration of the conflict is apparently assumed to have social
implications which are not strictly commensurate with the scale
obtained by simply counting the number of years.
III. The Combining of Dimensions
After these relevant dimensions have been selected, defined, and
measured, the two analyses continue to diverge.
A. The oggregofion of dimensions. In the case of internal dis-
turbances, Sorokin aggregates the dimensions to form an over-all
index. Each disturbance receives a single total score which com-
binesas a geometric average, in this instanceits scale values on
the several dimensions.^^
Without considering the difficulties engendered by this process
of weighting and averaging these dimensions, let us examine the
utility of the outcome. The resultant over-all index has the great
advantage, of course, of providing a single measure
of
a complex
phenom^enon. Thus, Sorokin can conveniently plot trends in the
movement of disturbances over time and relate these to the trans-
formations in the types of culture. Yet, the geometric average is
merely one of many methods of combination by fiat
which have in
common the disadvantage that the roles of the individual dimen-
sions may be lost within the total score. Thus, several disturbances
with the same score may be produced by very different combina-
tions of factors;^* or two apparently similar trends might mean, in
one case, a marked change in the social area involved, but, in the
other case, a marked change in intensity and violence. Therefore,
when the results for the total index are studied, little is learned
about the trends for the separate dimensions,^^ and the relationships
^'
Sorokin tries out several sets of weights here and discusses some imphcations
of their arbitrary character. Ibid., Ill, 390 flF. See also ibid., II, 21-23.
"
Ibid., Ill, 392.
^^
Sorokin himself was, of course, aware of such difficulties. See, e.g., his early
discussion of an "aggregate index" in Social Mobility,
p.
137.
^
To be sure, the raw data are all presented in the Appendix to Volume III of
RILEY & MOORE: Sorokin's Use of Sociological Measurement 211
among them may be completely obscured. Nothing in the measure-
ment process itself serves to confirm any hypotheses Sorokin may
have had in advance about the nature of such relationships as they
reflect his definitions of the concept under study.
B. Relationships among dimensions. In dealing with war Soro-
kin's use of multiple dimensions is entirely different. Instead of
combining them into an over-aU index, he uses each one as a sep-
arate measure, in much the same way as he used the combined index
of internal disturbance.^" On the one hand, this procedure fails to
reduce the complexity of the several dimensions. The magnitude of
war must be examined, not through one measure, but through all
three.
On the other hand, this approach avoids some of the difficulties
of the arbitrary aggregation of dimensions. Not only does it illumi-
nate, rather than obscure, the contributions of the several dimen-
sions, but it also facilitates analysis of the relationships among
them. Thus, Sorokin studies separately, and compares trends for,
the number of years with war in each period, the size of the armies
employed, and the number of casualties.
^^
In Europe, for example,
he notes, not merely that army strength and casualties have in-
creased in absolute numbers^^ since the twelfth century ( except for
a drop in the nineteenth), but also that the increase in the number
of casualties is greater than the increase in the size of the armies.
By expressing the casualties in each century as a proportion of the
total army size, he is able to demonstrate a steady increase in the
casualty rate.^ In such fashion, by studying the relationships be-
tween dimensions, he uncovers additional information about the
changing nature of wars: not only has the absolute size of armies
been increasing, but the destructive power of armies of a given size
has been increasing also. Thus, this measurement procedure, in
contrast to the aggregate index, begins to meet an important ob-
Dynamics, and some analysis by countries is presented
(pp.
476 fF.
),
but no
measures are developed showing trends over time in the separate dimensions.
"^
Dynamics, Vol. Ill, chap. x.
"^
He recognizes a certain degree of necessary association between the last two.
See ibid.. Ill, 289.
'^^
His major conclusions are based upon further corrections of these figures in
terms of population size.
"=
Ibid., Ill, 337.
212 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
jective of modern measurement: i.e., the measurement process itself
tends to reflect the empirical patterning among the dimensions, and
thus helps the investigator to clarify the concept under study.
Such examples, which merely hint at the ingenuity of this
research in utilizing available techniques and inventing new ones,
point clearly to the need for an improved measuring procedure
which combines dimensions, not as arbitrary aggregates, but as a
reflection of the actual patterning among them. The examples fore-
shadow such later^^ developments as Guttman scaling, image scales,
latent structure analysis, and similar attempts to handle the pat-
terning of acts or attributes of a given system^^which avoid (in
Sorokin's language) the study of variables "torn from" their system
context.^
Finally, such models from Sorokin's work seem to call for pro-
cedures which will reflect, not only such patterns within a system
at a single point in time,^^ but also its properties of immanent
change,^^ "changes in togetherness,"^^ and development of in-
herent strains.^*' The dynamic character of the analysis, by adding
an entire further dimension to the measures used in static (cross-
section) studies, constitutes a highly important contribution, al-
though it also passes on many problems to subsequent research.
How, for example, can measures designed as relative to a socio-
cultural system at a given time be used to compare changes over
time?^^ How can researchers carry further the aim of Dynamics
''*
To be sure, L. L. Thurstone published his "Multiple Factor Analysis" in 1931
(Psychological Review, XXXVIII, 406-27); and this procedure was being used as
early as 1939 by such sociologists as Ernest W. Burgess and Leonard S. Cottrell,
Jr.,
in Predicting Success or Failure in Marriage (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1939).
*"
See, e.g., Samuel A. Stouffer, et al., Measurement and Prediction (Vol. IV of
Studies in Social Psychology in World War II) (Princeton, N.
J.:
Princeton University
Press, 1950); or, in regard to the study of social systems, Matilda White Riley,
John W. Riley,
Jr.,
and Jackson Toby, Sociological Studies in Scale Analysis (New
Brunswick, N.
J.:
Rutgers University Press, 1954).
^^
Society, Culture and Personality,
p.
689.
"
Dynamics, III, 373 ff.
^
Ibid., IV, 587 ff.
^*
Society, Culture and Personality,
p.
635.
^**
See the recent formulation by Wilbert E. Moore, "A Reconsideration of
Theories of Social Change," American Sociological Review, XXV (1960), 810-18.
^^
See the discussion of the cultural differences among major premises. Dynamics,
III, 62 ff., and the consequences implied for systematic comparisons. See also Hans
Speier's criticism of the dynamic analysis of an economic index which is relative
to a changing historical context, American Sociological Review, II (1937), 928.
RILEY & MOORE: Sorokin's Use of Sociological Measurement 213
to fit together the "infinitesimal fragments of an unknown picture"^^
as these are revealed over time?
IV. Concepts vs. Indicants
Fundamental to all such details of the measurement procedure
itself is an underlying assumption about the relationship of re-
search to theory. Much present-day work rests on a conceptual
model of a social system and its properties which is clearly dis-
tinguished from the concrete groups and their observable acts and
characteristics which are taken as indicants of these concepts.
Sorokin was working at a time, however, when many sociologists
were influenced by extreme forms of "raw empiricism"; when the
data themselves were frequently the ultimate interest; and when an
index was rarely, as Durkheim put it, seen primarily as representing
the internal fact which escapes us. Many students of the reactions
and attitudes of individuals had not yet hit upon such constructs as
the "intervening variable"^^ or the "latent structure,"^^ which organ-
ize in conceptual or probabilistic terms the myriad sense data used
in measurement.
Sorokin himself, whose critical work attacks the extreme tend-
encies of raw empiricism,^^ is explicitly seeking underlying proper-
ties which are "repeated in time and space."^ He writes, for ex-
ample: "Hidden behind the empirically different, seemingly un-
related fragments of the cultural complex lies an identity of mean-
ing, which brings them together into consistent styles, typical forms,
and significant patterns."^'' He wants to "establish conclusively the
empirical value of our conceptions" by throwing light on the re-
lationships among "countless fragments, traits, details, events, proc-
^
Among the promising attempts to meet this challengewhether or not it be
called "functionar' analysisis the model for studying "goal-directed systems."
See, e.g., Robert K. Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure (Glencoe, 111.: The
Free Press, 1957), chap, i, and Ernest Nagel, "A Formahzation of Functionalism,"
in Logic without Metaphysics (Glencoe, lU.: The Free Press, 1956).
**To be sure, Tolman himself had begun to define this construct in the early
1930's. See, e.g., his discussion in Edward C. Tolman, "The Determinism of Be-
havior at a Choice Point," Psychological Review, XLV (1938),
1-41.
'*
See, e.g., the chapters by Paul F. Lazarsfeld in Samuel A. StoufFer, et al.,
op. cit.
*"
See Fads and Foibles, passim.
**
Society, Culture and Personality,
p.
7.
^^
Dynamics, I, 23.
214 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
esses" and ordering "their chaotic multitude into comprehensible
general formulas."^^ Thus, he frequently refers to his figures, which
are based on these diverse phenomena, as "approximate," "rough,"
"rude" indexes from which "inferences" may be drawn, "aimed not
so much to measure as to indicate. . .
."^^
This loose relationship
between the observed phenomena and the underlying meaning
derives from his basic theory of pure meaning as employed by
"human agents," and embodied in overt action and material objects
as "vehicles." As he puts it:
Since any meaning may manifest itself through different vehicles and
human agents, and since any vehicle or human agent may incorporate
different meanings, their relationship is "polygamous" rather than
"monogamous," loose rather than close.^"
V. Groups vs. Action
Not only does Sorokin distinguish thus explicitly between con-
cept and indicant, and define the loose relationship between the
two; he further differentiates between the two types of indicants
(1)
the vehicles and
(2)
the human agentsthat are of continuing
importance in sociological measurement. While the mid-twentieth-
century sociologist may not use the term "vehicles," he still recog-
nizes that, on the one hand, indicants must be found to reflect the
nature of social action (or collective orientation, or the product of
social action). On the other hand, a group measure must often
refer to the actors themselves as they make up the group. Thus, in
one aspect a measure might classify symphony orchestras, for
example, according to the pattern of notes which they play (ac-
tion); and in another aspect it might classify the same orchestras
according to the organization of the players of the several instru-
ments (actors).
Sorokin himself states of "cultural" and "social" phenomena that
"technically they can be studied separately, and for the sake of
analysis can be isolated from each other, as different aspects of the
same one and indivisible 'sociocultural world.'
"^^
And he formu-
*
Ibid., I, 195.
""
Ibid., II, 23; III, 228, 286; Social Mobility,
p.
418.
*
Society, Culture and Personality,
p.
49.
"
Dynamics, III, 3.
RILEY & MOORE: Sorokin's Use of Sociological Measurement
215
lates what he regards as the appropriate co-ordinates for classifying
both vehicles and human agents.'*^
Examples of both aspects of measurement abound in Sorokin's
research. An early illustration of the distinction is his proposed
index of the vertical mobihty rates of societies.'*^ One dimension
of this measure (its "intensiveness" ) is indexed by the number of
social strata crossed by an individual in a given period of time-
thus referring to the action of the individual (as a vehicle). The
other dimension
(
"generahty" ) is indexed by the number of indi-
viduals changing their social positions in a vertical directionre-
ferring, that is, to the component actors ( human agents ) within the
society.
Each of these aspects of measurement presents its own peculiar
difficulties; and still more stubborn is the research problem in fitting
the two back together in some appropriate way. Some further
examples from Sorokin's work will illustrate the nature of such
problems and point to some possible solutions.
VI. Measurement of the Component of Meaning
Sorokin uses vehiclesthe various cultural phenomena or social
actions which he selects as indicants of the first typeprimarily to
measure underlying meanings. Such measures continue to provide
a highly valuable model for the sociologist today because they deal
with values, norms, and the subjective states of the actor as these
are relevant to the understanding of sociocultural systems.
Several devices are employed by Sorokin and his collaborators
for measuring fluctuations in the forms of art, scientific discoveries,
law, and other aspects of culture. Here the usual procedure ( known
to the modem scholar as "content analysis") uses one or more
"judges" to classify the particular phenomena according to a set of
definitions and rules. Forms of painting and sculpture,^* for ex-
ample, are rated on a number of dimensions, according to whether
the content is predominantly rehgious or secular; the style is im-
pressionistic, formal, naturahstic, expressionistic, or mixed; the char-
*^
Sociocultural Causality,
pp.
122 ff.
*^
Social and Cultural Mobility,
pp.
136-37.
"
Dynamics, 1, 369 ff.
\
2 1 6 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
acter or atmosphere of the work tends to be spiritual or sensual;
and the like. Each of these dimensions is defined in advance, and
each is, in turn, related to the basic categories of ideational, idealis-
tic, and visual (sensate). In view of the "subjective nature" of
many of these ratings, the same works of art are independently
classified by scholars working in two different countries, and the
ratings compared.^^
These procedures may interest the modem scholar less for their
technical details than as illustrations of Sorokin's approach to the
study of meaning. Any special science must, according to Sorokin,
modify the general method of science in conformity with the phe-
nomena under study. And the peculiarly distinctive feature of the
sociocultural, in contrast to the natural, sciences, lies in the com-
ponent of meaning-value-norm.^^ Various studies of this com-
ponent as reported in Dynamics illustrate an approach in which
the investigator ( or the several judges ) acts as an outside observer.
Indeed, the methodological notes on the study of the main systems
of truth start by "assuming the position of a perfectly impartial ob-
server, and taking the systems involved as the factual datum. . .
."^'^
And a comment on the classification of crimes states that the
analysis is "behavioristic," without reference to the intent or the
state of mind of the criminal.^^
In his discussions of this important approach, Sorokin distin-
guishes between this "logical reading" of meaning by an outside
observer and a "psychological interpretation," which refers to the
states of mind of the persons involved in a relationship.^^ The way
a master feels toward his slave, for instance, might differ markedly
from the outside investigator's view of this same relationship. Or
the intent of the artist may be quite different from the social mean-
ing of his creation. Although Sorokin says that "any social relation-
ship has to be studied from both standpoints,"^** his work suggests
that the sociologist uses the "psychological interpretation" in a
special waythat he maintains the system level of analysis, treating
"
Ibid., I, 372-73.
^^
Society, Culture and Personality,
p.
18.
*''
Dynamics, II, 14-15.
**
Ibid., II, 535. Sorokin carries on a continuing struggle, of course, against
the more extreme forms of behaviorism, emphasizing the central importance of his
notion of "meaning." See, e.g., Fads and Foibles, passim.
"
Ibid., 1, 57-61; III, 3-5.
^"
Ibid., Ill, 4-5.
RILEY & MOORE: Sorokin's Use of Sociological Measurement 217
the actor's intent as a part of the social process rather than as a
"cause" to explain social phenomena.^^
At this level, some of his measures based on cultural phenomena
might be interpreted as indicants of the actors' subjective states.
On the one hand, as he points out, "most of the cultural phenomena
represent the results of the activities of many individuals and
groups, whose purposes and meanings may be different from one
another. . .
."^^
In this sense, his measures of sets of mores, or of
architectural structures, might be thought of as indices of the com-
posite ideas of many actors. On the other hand, his measures of
personal influenceas of prominent thinkers on their partisans-
might be taken to reflect the subjective states of the persons to
whom the meaning is transmitted. Thus interpreted, this phase of
Sorokin's work appears to afford a challenging model for the study
of such contemporary topics as mass communication and other
"vehicles" of culture and social action.
VII. Combining Indicants of Action and Actor
The sociologist of today often seeks measures which will fit
together the two types of indicants: those which refer to collec-
tive acts or attitudes and their underlying meaning, and those
which refer to the actors as parts of the group.
Much present confusion over this problem has arisen because
one major line of development in recent years has concentrated on
measures of the individual, thus isolating for exclusive attention the
component of actions and attitudes. And when this line of develop-
ment is carried over to the group, it often leads to treatment of the
group as an undifferentiated entity which is formally analogous to
the individual.^^ Such a "sociologistic" treatment (to borrow
Sorokin's term) might classify orchestral performances, first, ac-
*^
Sorokin's formulation of Durkheim's theory, for example, states that the
cause of suicide is "the total character of the respective society and culture. . . .
When the entire network of social relationships is well integrated . . . people feel
themselves to be vital parts of the society to which they belong. . .
."
Society,
Culture and Personality,
p.
12.
^^
Dynamics, I, 61.
^^
Cf. Matilda White Riley and Mary E. Moore, "Analysis of Two-Person Groups:
Some Notes on Lazarsfeld's Formalization," paper delivered at the annual meetings
of the American Sociological Association, 1959.
218 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
cording to the pattern of their notes ( acts ) and, second, according
to the proportions of the members (actors) who play strings,
woodwinds, brasses, or percussion instrumentsall without any-
fitting together of actors and their respective acts, without taking
cognizance of the orchestration involved.
Yet these sociologistic measures may fail to match the concept
which the sociologist has in mind. He often wishes to represent
the group, not as an undiFerentiated entity, but as a system of
parts. His hypothesis frequently takes a form which cannot be
tested merely by counting the number of transients and the number
of suicides in a group. Because of growing awareness of such
problems, there is an urgent present search for social system meas-
uresas distinguished in this sense from sociologistic measures.
One solution which has been recently suggested lies in identifying
the actors in respect to their contributions to the over-all pattern.^*
Such social system measures would indicate which members of
the orchestra contribute which notes to the symphonic pattern.
Their classification of groups according to the rates of transiency
and of suicide would show also whether or not the same group
members who are transients also commit suicide.^^
Our re-analysis of Sorokin's research suggests that some portions
of it anticipate exactly this kind of solution to the problem. For
example, in his appraisal of the economic well-being of countries,
he starts out by rating each society as a whole according to its
changing prosperity. Then he goes beyond this to provide some
further information: he also shows the prosperity ratings of each
of the main classes within the society. As he says, "even though the
country as a whole is on the upward trend, this does not mean,
necessarily, that the economic situation of all its classes follows
the same trend."^^ Thus he accounts for the over-all trend in terms
of the trends for the various classes ( clergy, nobihty, etc. ) . That is,
in our formulation, his group measure of prosperity identifies the
various parts ( classes ) within the group with respect to their pros-
perity, and follows each of the parts through the over-all process.
^*
See the discussions in Riley, Riley, and Toby, op. cit.. Part III.
^^
Our notion of a "sociologistic fallacy," which refers to research dealing with
groups, is not to be confused with Robinson's "ecological fallacy," where the focus
of theoretical concern is the individual. For a recent related discussion, see Peter
M. Blau, "Structural Effects," American Sociological Review, XXV (1960),
178-93.
^^
Dynamics, III, 230.
RILEY & MOORE: Sorokin's Use of Sociological Measurement 2 1 9
Sorokin's concern with classifying the group in terms of the
circulation of subgroups or individuals within it dates back to his
classic study of Social Mobility. Here he postulates "two opposite
types of society: one in which all children (100 per cent) 'inherit'
the occupational status of their father; another in which no child
inherits it."^^ By assembling data from many sources he is able to
show that the average index of transmission in present Western
societies is much less than 100, indicating that "contemporary oc-
cupational groups are far from being rigid.
"^^
Seeking further for
possible trends in this transmission index, Sorokin and his students
collected new data from several hundred families covering occupa-
tional changes over four generations. Again the important method-
ological point, as we see it, is that the same parts of the systemin
this instance, famihesare identified in terms of the property under
study (occupation) and followed through the analysis, in order
to explicate the nature of the total social process. Because he uses
this form of measurement, Sorokin is able to suggest that "within
the same society there may be groups in which inheritance of oc-
cupation goes down, while within other groups it increases."^^
To be sure, this form of analysis is suggested, rather than fully
developed, in such examples from Sorokin's work. Although he was
eminently concerned with the "group structure" of a population,^^
his practical research approach seems generally better suited for
over-all characterizations of societies than for indicating how various
subgroups contribute to these over-all characteristics.^^ On the one
hand, he is often (unwilhngly) forced to a "statistical approach"^^
in which individuals are merely countedor, at best, aggregated
after weighting for their "influence"; and, on the other hand, many
of his analyses are not concerned with identifying which of these in-
dividuals may contribute differentially to the total pattern of action
or of culture. Nevertheless, the few examples which we have
^^
Social and Cultural Mobility,
p.
415.
^
Ibid.,
p.
419.
^^
Ibid.,
p.
424. This analysis of groups is in some respects comparable to
"panel analysis" which was later developed for study of individuals. Cf. Paul F.
Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet, The People's Choice (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1948).
'
See, e.g., his important discussion of the classification of groups in Society,
Culture and Personality,
pp.
296 S.
'^
Robert K. Merton has pointed this out in Social Theory and Social Structure,
p.
467.
'^
Society, Culture and Personality,
p.
296.
220 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
selected seem suficient to set the stage for a further methodological
development which would allow systematic analysis of the connec-
tions between
(1)
various aspects of the culture and
(2)
identifi-
able groups, classes, or individuals within the society.^^
VIII. Social System Tests
A central problem in measurement today concerns the possible
procedures for testing the assumptions underlying the selection and
use of certain sense data as indicants of the concept under study.
Various tests in current use (paired comparisons, item analysis,
Guttman scaling, and the like) are concerned with estabhshing the
existence of patterns and consistencies in acts or attitudes (e.g.,
perceptions of objects or responses to test items )
.
In addition to this, however, sociologists often need procedures
for uncovering the underlying structure of the group.^ Measure-
ments may, for instance, be based on reconnaissance activities of a
large number of soldiers, or the avowed aspirations of a large num-
ber of adolescents. The question may then arise: Is there any
underlying structure among these individuals? Are the soldiers
acting together as members of squads? Have the adolescents in-
fluenced each other's aspirations through interaction as members of
peer groups? That is, is there any basis ( apart from direct observa-
tion of the process itself) for treating and interpreting these data
as measures of groups?
One incipient approach to this problem is a present attempt to
develop a new type of statistical test^^ for making inferences from
observed phenomena to the underlying social system. The ultimate
objective is to test some of the peculiarly sociological assumptions
about the interaction and mutual expectations which characterize
the social process.
Sorokin is also directly concernedat a high level of generality
**
The chapter in this volume by Barber and Merton deals with this matter in
further detail: e.g., see their Summary, point 4.
'
See Riley, Riley, and Toby, op. cit.,
pp.
210 ff.
*
See, e.g., Richard Cohn, Frederick Mosteller,
John W. Pratt, and Maurice
Tatsuoka, "Maximizing the Probability that Adjacent Order Statistics of Samples
from Several Populations Form Overlapping Intervals," The Annals
of
Mathematical
Statistics, XXXI, No. 4 (Dec, 1960), 1095-1104.
RILEY & MOORE: Sorokin's Use of Sociological Measurement 221
with this kind of problem.^* The problem, as he states it, is to
determine "whether a given set of cultural phenomena are parts of
a single system or merely coexisting congeries.
"^^
He establishes
two criteria for such determination (apart from "synchronicity,"
which, according to Sorokin, "plays some part," and which other
scholars today often find extremely helpful in such tests). One
criterion is the "meaningful, logico-aesthetic unity" which may be
latent within a given science, for example, or a given set of social
actions. The other criterion is the "causal interdependence" in
which the actors may, perhaps, influence each other through inter-
action.^^ The test for system then consists in ascertaining that both
the meaningful consistency and the interdependence are inherent
in the set of phenomena. And here Sorokin suggests a "short-cut"
method of first establishing the "meaningful relatedness between
two or more phenomena," and only then going to the further re-
search required to establish "factual contact between them."
IX. Limitations and Difficulties
This discussion has been concerned with the constructive aspects
of Sorokin's research, not with its defects. But the very magnitude
of Sorokin's undertaking and the relative lack of technical sophisti-
cation of the time meant that some shortcomings were inevitable.
His methods have met with a storm of criticism in some quarters of
the sociological fraternity, and, in other quarters, with what some-
times appears as a studied neglect.
At the technical level, many of the diflBculties which beset this
work in the 1920's and 1930's are now solved. If Sorokin were
starting the research today, modem sampling methods and data
processing techniques would be available to reduce the enormous
volume of materials and the time required for their analysis.^
Moreover, increasing sophistication concerning mathematical sta-
tistics would ehminate much of Sorokin's experimentation and re-
sulting confusion over what kind of statistical average to choose,
or what set of weights to use in combining various dimensions.
*"
Society, Culture and Personality,
pp.
635 ff.
"'
Ibid.,
p.
637.
Ibid.,
pp.
146-48.
*"
The senior author of this paper, who worked on a few of the statistics for
Dynamics, remembers doing all of the computations by hand!
PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
, At the broader methodological level, many of the basic diffi-
iulties facing Sorokin's research arise from the vastness of the
design and from the attempt to adapt scientific method to peculiarly
sociological questions. Since his critics seem, in effect, to expect
that he should overcome all the weaknesses of a composite Weber-
Durkheim-LePlay, they are, by the exaggerated standard, often
right. It is certainly true that his method is only partially adequate
to his research objectives.
Yet Sorokin himself, far from professing complete adequacy
for the task, is one of his own best critics. After his thorough anal-
ysis of the work of others in Contemporary Sociological Theories,
he is fully aware of many of the pitfalls. Thus, he seems to set
forth upon the stupendous task of avoiding as many of them as he
can. He writes that the study of war, for example, is "no more
than a pioneer survey of an unknown country, made without perfect
instruments and without perfect training for the task."^^ Of the
study of internal disturbances he says, "Anybody who attempts to
tackle these problems meets difficulties at every step, and realizes
the dangers possibly more fully and clearly than any critic."^^
Despite these patent difficulties, he proceeds anyway, as he says,
for the sake of "my adventurous spirit" and the "welfare of
"72
science.
'
The almost unparalleled extent of such difficulties is suggested
by the author in various passages of the Dynamics. For example:
"We collected so many singularistic facts that at the present mo-
ment we are lost in their multitude; . . . we do not know what to do
with them and still less do we know what they mean and what
knowledge they contain. Courageously we continue to compile
them. . .
."^^
Most researchers have run into similar difficulties.
But not on this grand scale!
X. From the Observer's Viewpoint
In spite of the color and the pathos which such comments add
to our inquiry, our objective in this paper has not been to deal with
the psychological state of Pitirim A. Sorokin qua actor. We have
'"
Dynamics, III, 288.
"
Ibid., Ill, 384.
"
Ibid., Ill, 271.
"
Ibid., II, 303.
RILEY & MOORE: Sorokin's Use of Sociological Measurement 223
rather attempted to play Sorokin to Sorokin's own data, to "grasp the
hidden meaning" in the details of his work, to look for its "typical
and constant" elements. That is, we have attempted to take the
viewpoint of the observer.
Hence our eflFort has been to avoid even the methodological
component of his polemics. His own research, together with such
scholarly formulations as those in Sociocultural Causality, Space,
Time, constitutes the best answer to his opponents. Through his
own example he counters various aberrations and limitations of
modem sociology with his emphasis on meaning, his use of imagina-
tion and reason as well as sense perception, his efforts to deal ap-
propriately with systems in contrast to congeries. Yet, his zest for
disputation often leads him to unfortunate overstatement. He tends
to weaken his own powerful position by inveighing against friend
and foe alike. Thus, for example, despite his avowed use of verbal
materials (where these "do not disagree with real behavior")^* in
the study of subjective states of actors within the system, he never-
theless seems to condemn, as useless, all "speech reactions"from
answers to hypothetical poll questions,"^^ or psychological test re-
sults,^^ to changes in knowledge or reported behavior following a
mass communication^^ or the verbal interaction observed in small
groups.
^^
Similarly, notwithstanding his continuing concern with
problems of measuring qualitative variables, he ridicules as "metro-
phrenia"^^ the solutions to these problems worked out by serious
and competent scholars. His gratuitous attack on Guttman scaling,
for example, serves only to demonstrate his fundamental misunder-
standing of the meaning of scalability and his own failure to recog-
nize the procedure as an important complement to his own work.
Thus the reader can find passages in his critical writings which
seem to support almost any standpointor its opposite!
If Sorokin avoids consistency (the hobgoblin of little minds
)^
in his polemical writings, he also escapes it through his discussions
of the epistemological dilemma. Having defined three systems of
truth, he sometimes denounces his own research as the product of a
''*
Social and Cultural Mobility,
p.
17 n. See also Fads,
p. 93, or the interesting
use of verbal materials in prediction cited in Fads,
p.
259.
'^
Fads,
p.
146.
'"
Ibid.,
p.
58.
"
Ibid.,
p.
181.
"
Ibid.,
p.
234.
"
Ibid.,
pp.
122-30.
*
Editor's note: The full statement of Ralph Waldo Emerson is: "A foolish
consistency is the hobgoblin of Uttle minds."
224 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
sensate age in which the truth of the senses is largely predominant.
Here, too, our aim has been to cut through the ambivalence implied
in what he says, in order to focus on what he does.^^ We try to
employ only those "speech reactions" which fit our observations of
his researchlike the following: "In this work [Dynamics], I am not
engaged in the study of the sociocultural phenomena from the
standpoint of this truth of faith exclusively or mainly. I am study-
ing them from the standpoint of the truth of reason and senses."^^
As late as the volume on Society, Culture and Personality, he shows
how "in essence the methods and referential principles of sociology
are the same as those of science generally," using logical and de-
ductive methods, moderately exploiting "intuitive insight (always
checked by other methods)," and widely applying empirical ob-
servation, statistical analysis, case study, and even experiment.^^
Thus, our reading of his works leads us to expect that sociology
will continue to benefit from his methodological models, both
through the problems which he has solved and the problems which
he has either formulated or implied. We can, in fact, imagine that
the sociologist of the future may well complain, much as a frustrated
successor to Plato once did, "Whenever I go anywhere in my at-
tempts, I meet Sorokin coming back." We dare say that our read-
ing will differ from the present "psychological" reading of the
actor himself, and we look forward to Professor Sorokin's reply to
our comments.
^'^
We have not dealt with any question as to how he, qua investigator, establishes
criteria for the classification of meaning. At the same time, we are quite aware
that our own attempt to play the observer role in this paper is aflFected by our
personal perspectives!
"
Dynamics, IV, 734.
**
Society, Culture and Personality,
p.
18.
Russia and fhe United States: A Problem
in Comparative Sociology
Alex Inkeles
Professor Sorokin's volume on Russia and the United States^
grew out of a series of lectures he gave during the early years of
World War 11. It is easy to understand, under the circumstances,
that his chief aim was to assess the chances that the wartime allies
would continue to enjoy peaceful, or even cordial, relations in the
postwar period. In evaluating the book, therefore, we should keep
in mind that he did not set out to present a systematic comparative
analysis of the social structure of the two countries. Nevertheless,
one of the assumptions with which Professor Sorokin approached
his task of prediction was that "sociocultural similarities conduce
toward peaceful relations between communities of men."^ In order
to estimate the future course of Soviet-American relations, there-
fore, he was led to examine the extent of sociocultural similarity
between the United States and Soviet Russia. Indeed, he acknowl-
edged that the possibility of reconciling the American way of life
and its system of values with those of Soviet Communism posed a
problem "so important that it cannot either be dodged or passed
by."^
Professor Sorokin felt it was a "fallacy" to argue that "there is an
irreconcilable conflict between the Soviet and American way of
life."^ Feeling as he did he understandably sought mainly for
evidence of sociocultural similarity or congeniality between the
social structure of the United States and that of the Soviet Union.
His illustrations include instances of technological progress, eco-
^
E. P. Dutton and Co., New York, 1944. Unless otherwise indicated, the page
citations given in parentheses all refer to this first edition.
'
P. 162.
Ibid.,
p.
177.
*
Ibid.,
p.
209.
226 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
nomic growth, development of music and the arts. In the last
hundred years these two countries, he argues, have become the
"chief bearers of the torch of sociocultural creativeness." "Far
from being polar antitheses," he concluded, "the two nations reveal
a series of most striking similarities geopolitically, psychologically,
culturally, and socially."^
As background for an evaluation of Professor Sorokin's analysis,
I have drawn up a series of brief statements comparing and con-
trasting five of the major institutional realms of Soviet and Ameri-
can society: political structure, economy, social classes, family, and
school. In those instances in which Professor Sorokin made relevant
comments, particularly with regard to the pohty and the economy,
I have reported his assessment. I do not, however, focus my
presentation directly on an evaluation of his position, reserving for
a separate concluding section a fuller assessment of Professor Soro-
kin's contribution and its imphcations for students of comparative
social structure.
I. Some Features of Social Structure in the U.S. and U.S.S.R.
A. Polity. Our era is characterized by the predominance of the
centralized national state over the autonomy of the region and the
diffuse power of the local community, both of which progressively
lost their significance in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Any comparison of the Soviet and American systems must, there-
fore, begin with a discussion of the nature of the state and its
relation to the rest of the society. The contrasts here are under-
standably the most obvious, but they are none the less basic.
Despite Marx's emphasis on the primacy of economics, that is of
the mode of production and productive relations, in determining the
character of the social order, the distinctive contribution of Lenin
and Stalin was to reverse the formula and to demonstrate the possi-
bility of determining the economic system through control of the
political power. This is the basic meaning of Stahn's affirmation
that the Soviet revolution was made "from above," from those
"commanding heights" of which Lenin spoke so often. The Soviet
state did not spring full grown from the head of Marx; indeed, its
^
Ibid.,
p.
161.
INKELES: Russia and the United States 227
development was never dreamed of by him, and if he had con-
ceived it he would almost certainly have labeled it a bastardno
child of his. Credit for the conception must go to Lenin, but even
he did no more than suggest its outlines and provide it the breath
of hfe. The actual forging of the system was the work of a man
initially as obscure and demeaned among the Bolshevik lords of
creation as was Hephaestus among the Greek gods. While others
busied themselves with oratory and stood on the front lines of the
battle, Stalin quietly went about the unromantic work of fashioning
an apparatus of control which in time carried him to the highest seat
of power.
Almost from its very inception the Soviet Union has known only
a one-party system in which all pohtical power was concentrated.^
Indeed, with the exception of a very few years this system has
functioned as a one-man dictatorship. In any event no one will
quarrel with the characterization if we say that it is a self-per-
petuating oligarchy. The Communist party has never been a mass
movement, certainly not in the sense that the trade unions or the
Youth League are. It has for a long time numbered its members
in the millionsmost recently over seven millionyet, these have
represented only between 2 and 4 per cent of the population. Al-
though size, therefore, has not been an absolute barrier to its at-
tainment, there has at no time been effective democratic control of
the leadership. On the contrary, the rank and file of the member-
ship has served mainly as the agent of those whom they nominally
elect and control. Within the government, party members serve as
a kind of special extra-governmental bureaucracy for enforcing the
party's decisions and checking on their application. Among the
people the party members serve as a source of exhortation and
inspiration in the effort to mobilize the masses behind the party's
program. Soviet leaders place great store on the semblance of
legitimacy. They fear the label of "adventurers" in politics, which
would be applicable to them by Leninist standards if they acted
without the consent and support of the working masses who pre-
sumably define each historic moment for appropriate revolutionary
action. Hence the solemn play which is periodically acted out, of
'
There are several excellent standard works on the development and structure
of the polity in Soviet society. Generally acknowledged as outstanding is Merle
Fainsod, How Russia is Ruled (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1953).
228 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
citizens voting for the Supreme Soviet and party members electing
delegates to congresses of the Communist party. In all elections
there is only one slate, which is ofiBcially designated, and for which
one can only vote yes or no. In elections to the Supreme Soviet
one is expected as a show of loyalty to disdain the available secret
polling booth and to cast one's ballot openly and proudly for the
officially sponsored candidates.
At every point this system is polar to that in those societies
generally acknowledged to have democratic political systems. To
qualify for inclusion in this group a country must have at least two
pohtical parties which are factually independent and autonomous.
The concept of a loyal opposition must be accepted by the party in
power, and it may not deny the opposition the reasonable oppor-
tunity to continue to work for its platform and the prospect of
holding office in the future. This requires, as a minimum, that the
group out of power have the freedom to hold pohtical meetings and
to propagandize for its program, to maintain an independent press
and other organs of commimication, and to criticize the policies of
the government on all matters including the most fundamental.
In no respect are these conditions met in the Soviet Union. The
legislatures of all the democratic regimes of the world are in more
or less continuous session, engage in protracted debate, and produce
legislation which clearly reflects the compromise of diverse interests
and aspirations. Soviet legislative bodies, including the congresses
of the Communist party, meet infrequently or even rarely, conclude
all their momentous business in a matter of days, hear almost no
discussion, let alone debate, and produce legislation which virtually
without any alteration represents the precise wishes of the leaders
who convened the legislative session to give approval to policies
already selected.
Even within the Communist party itself the maintaining of a
free minority is not possible, since such groups are labeled as im-
permissible factions intending to destroy the "monohthic unity" of
the party. There is a nominal rule that public organizations such as
the trade unions are allowed to publish newspapers, but their con-
trol is in fact in the hands of the ruling Communist party. Exercise
of the rights of free speech and press are explicitly limited in the
Constitution to those forms which are in accord with the interests
INKELES: Russia and the United States 229
of the proletariat, and these are, of course, in turn defined by the
Communist partyJ
A democratic system assumes the general recognition and firm
institutionalization of definite limits on the powers of all govern-
ments, including the central government. The United States has no
doubt gone much further in implementing this principle than the
more centralized goverrmient of France and, indeed, exceeds Eng-
land in this respect. Nevertheless, in all democratic systems such
principles as the inviolability of the judiciary, the rights of the local
community, the rights of security of person and of property, the
autonomy of family and home reflect the general recognition, and
legal implementation, of definite limits on the power of government.
By contrast, we may note, in the words of Sorokin, "an almost un-
limited and centralized regimentation of government is the heart of
the Soviet system."* While endorsing Professor Sorokin's general
characterization of the Soviet system in this respect, we yet cannot
accept his reservation that this is not distinctive to the Soviet Union,
nor his assertion that such regimentation developed there mainly in
response to the emergency of revolution and war. On the contrary,
it represents a typical feature of the conception of government in
the Soviet Union. This is not to deny that as the regime has become
stabilized or normalized, actions exceeding constitutional, legal, and
moral and popular value limits have decreased in frequency and
extremity. That there has been less need for repression does not
mean that in principle the Soviet leaders accept the idea of legiti-
mate limits on the freedom of action of the central authorities, or
that in fact they would hesitate to take drastic action at home, as
they did on the international front in Hungary, should the domestic
situation require it.
Even if we acknowledge the profound differences in formal
structure and in the regular practice of politics in the United States
and the U.S.S.R., is it not correct that the direction of change in the
two political systems is such as to make them ever more alike?
C. Wright Mills, for example, argues that effective power in the
United States has drifted into the hands of a self-perpetuating
ehte which cuts across government, industry, and the military and
^
The system of control of means of communication, and the Communist theory
underlying that control, are dealt with at length in Alex Inkeles, Public Opinion in
Soviet Russia (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1956).
*
Sorokin, op. cit.,
p.
173.
230 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
which actually makes all of the important decisions afiFecting the
fate of this country.^ Numerous Sovietologists argue that the pro-
gressively entrenched vested interests of Soviet industrial manage-
ment and military leaders severely limit the freedom of action of the
Soviet political rulers. Does this suggest that each system is mov-
ing away from its polarized position toward some common middle
ground? Perhaps, but the evidence on either side is far from com-
pelling. If Mills were correct, it hardly seems likely that programs
such as the Marshall Plan or the American aid program in India
and Pakistan could have been launched. On the Soviet scene, we
must recognize that an autonomous and powerful army would hard-
ly have permitted the demotion of Zhukov or the demobilization of
the Soviet ground forces, that a politically eflFective managerial
ehte would have demanded a larger role in shaping the decentrah-
zation of Soviet industry, that an even slightly eflFective pohtical
opposition would hardly have allowed, even in defeat, the exile of
its leaders in the persons of Molotov, Kaganovich, and Bulganin.
The diflFerences in the formal structure and the informally ac-
cepted rules of the game in Soviet and American politics have pro-
found consequences in the capacity of each system to act, and
especially to act on itself in order to effect adaptive change. The
essence of the democratic system is that it permits the embodiment
of diverse groups and their interests in competing pohtical organiza-
tions and programs. The democratic process then becomes the
slow, protracted, often inchoate development of compromise and
adjustment between these interests in the gradual evolution of
new programs and policies. This feature of democratic systems is
almost entirely absent in Soviet society. This is not to say that the
leaders need not reckon with any group. On the contrary it is
evident that Soviet leaders, especially since the death of Stalin,
weigh very carefully the effects of various actions on popular morale
in general or in specific segments of the economy. They are
especially concerned with morale as manffested in willingness and
ability to produce or otherwise effectively to perform functions of
importance to the state. This mode of influence, however, has little
in common with the direct participation by workers, managers,
fanners, or others, acting as interest groups in the process of pubhc
discussion and the exercise of influence through votes, funds, or
"C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite (New York: Oxford University Press, 1957),
INKELES: Russia and the United States 231
appeals for public opinion support. It is very different indeed from
direct action in strikes or non-violent defiance of law, as in the
Negro fight for civil rights in southern United States.
One consequence of the suppression of such struggles is that
there is always a clear and precisely identifiable national purpose
in the Soviet Union, one defined by the only group with the right
and the power to determine it. In the United States, by contrast, it
is almost impossible to state a clear and commonly accepted national
purpose, except the dubious principle of giving everyone a break
sooner or later. This means that the Soviet system is characterized
by enormous flexibility, by almost unlimited freedom of action, by
exceptional capacity for adjustment of its internal organization to
take account of changes in either its externally defined situation or
the internal structure of the society. Since these changes can be
made without full consultation, and certainly without effective op-
position by the various interest groups in the society, the capacity of
the Soviet system to adjust to changed circumstances, to adapt to
developments arising from technological advance, or to reorganize
more effectively to meet changed goals is virtually unprecedented
in modem society. It certainly gives the Soviet system, for good or
ill, an enormous advantage in competition with the governments of
democratic societies, which must always consider the vital interests
of major strata of the society as a matter of principle, and in fact
are often unable to act at all effectively because of the resistance of
entrenched local, parochial, class, and related interest groups.
B. Economy. It is one of those typical anomalies of history that
the feature of the Soviet and American societies which in both
Marxist theory and popular thinking most distinguish them is in
fact far from being the most reliable indicator of the nature of the
two systems. Professor Sorokin argues that in the United States
the role of the modern corporation and that of government inter-
vention in economic life have transformed the "classic capitalist
system," while in the Soviet Union the principles of mass ownership
have in fact not been fully implemented. We may agree with him
that "in neither country do the real ownersthe Russian people
and the hundreds of thousands of shareholders in the United States
232 PlTIRiM A, SOROKIN IN REVIEW
manage what they theoretically own."^^ He may even be right
in saying that "American capitalism and Russian Communism are
now little more than the ghosts of their former selves."^^ Never-
theless, it is not very likely that anyone will mistake the one system
for the other.
Both the Soviet Union and the United States are outstanding
exponents and embodiments of modem industriahsm, with its
glorification of mechanization and its fostering of large-scale pro-
duction, rapid transportation, and vast urban complexes. Produc-
tion as an end in itself, the preoccupation with the making of things,
especially things which make other things, has in both countries
come to dominate the value system to a degree probably without
precedent in history. Despite this similarity, the two systems re-
main profoundly different. Corporate and state ownership are very
different forms which produce profoundly different consequences.
Not the least of these is the fact that the big corporation, however
much it may escape the control of its stockholders, may still be
regulated by the state, whereas in the government-owned estabhsh-
ment the interests of state and economic enterprise are fused.
Among the many consequences of this fusion is the vital fact that
the freedom to strike is generally denied the employees of state
enterprises, which in the Soviet Union means it is denied to every-
one.
The outstanding characteristic of Soviet economic Hfe is its
uniform pattern. This contrasts sharply with the mixed nature of
the American economy, which involves government controls in
some areas, but not others. Large corporations predominate in
some sectors while others, such as trade or newer industrial realms
hke electronics, tend to be dominated by smaller business. It is
rather striking to note, in this connection, that Professor Sorokin
says almost nothing of the role of planning. Planning is after all a
distinctive feature of the Soviet economy; indeed, some would argue
it to be the chief distinction. By contrast, in the United States
planning is almost completely absent, at least in the sense of a cen-
tralized, co-ordinated program backed by the power of the state.
This contrast was certainly less sharp when viewed from the war-
time perspective from which Sorokin wrote, but it was certainly
evident even then. In any event, since the war the American
"
Sorokin, op. cit.,
p.
202.
"
Ihid.,
p.
179.
INKELES: Russia and the United States 233
economy has returned to its more characteristic low level of control,
whereas planning persists in undiminished strength in the Soviet
Union. The postwar decentralization of industrial administration
under Khrushchev was not accompanied by any decrease in the
importance of the centrally determined plans which the locally ad-
ministered industries must follow.
Not only is the role of government in economic life profoundly
different in the two systems, but so also is the part played by the
mass of citizens. In their status as shareholders, Americans may be
denied essential control over management, but they exercise pro-
found, indeed almost absolute, control over industry in their role as
consumers. By marked contrast the consumer has almost no signifi-
cance in the Soviet industrial scene. Economic planning for pre-
eminence in heavy industry, government allocation of materials and
administration of prices have contributed to a chronic shortage of
consumers' goods and to the high prices and poor quality of what
has been available. The situation of the consumer has been bet-
tered and continues to improve in the post-Stalin era, but he still
plays a markedly different role in the structure of the Soviet econ-
omy from that he occupies in the United States.
One sector of the Soviet economy does more approximate the
economic pattern appropriate to a mixed economy, namely agri-
culture. It is true that the State Farm, which is run on the same
principles as a factory, has been of increasing importance, especially
in the newly opened steppe regions. Nevertheless, the collective
farm remains the overwhelmingly predominant form of agricultural,
productive organization in the Soviet Union. Like the factory, the
collective farm is subject to centralized planning and allocation of
resources, and the greater part of its crop is purchased at fixed
prices. Yet the collective farm is unlike the factory in that it runs
on a modified profit-sharing basis. A part of its crop is sold in an
open and only mildly regulated market. In addition the peasant
has his own priva^-e economy alongside that of the collective, raising
food on a family plot not only for his own consumption but for
sale in the peasant market. We can by no means accept Professor
Sorokin's version of the common misconception that the peasant
collective farm is "merely a modernized form of an old national insti-
tutionthe peasant 'mir' and 'obschina,' or a variety of workers'
productive cooperative society known to all countries and greatly
234 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
developed in pre-revolutionary Russia."^^ But we must acknowl-
edge the collective farm as the structural feature of Soviet society
most approximating the principle of mixed economy which char-
acterizes the United States and the democratic countries of Europe.
The similarities and differences in the nature of the respective
economic systems generate characteristic similarities and differ-
ences in the responses of the typical occupational groups working
within each. This presents an interesting realm for sociological
investigation, which Professor Sorokin has rather notably neglected.
To a degree both management and labor in the United States and
the Soviet Union work in a very similar institutional setting. In
both countries people work in large-scale units functioning bureau-
cratically under centralized but distant centers of control. Each
unit is expected to maximize the effective exploitation of the re-
sources placed at its command.
A comparison of Soviet industrial managers with their counter-
parts in American industry, therefore, reveals a striking number of
similarities in their response to their situation. Professor Granick
has called to our attention the conflicts of line and staff units, the
conflict between loyalty to one's shop as against that to the plant
or the economy at large, the low level of worker participation in
programs to encourage innovation, and the circumventing of bureau-
cratic rules and regulations promulgated at the top and meant to be
executed at the local level.^^
In addition, the researches of the Harvard Project^* revealed
that workers and other occupational strata in the Soviet Union re-
spond to their hfe situation in ways comparable to the response of
the corresponding groups in the United States and other industrial
countries. For example, in both the Soviet Union and the United
States the proportion enjoying job satisfaction is very high among
professional and managerial personnel, and falls steadily as one
descends the occupational ladder. In both countries the upper
white-collar group feels the most important qualities of a job are its
^'^
Sorokin, op. cit.,
pp.
203-4. For the definitive statement on the similarities
and differences between the mir and the collective farm, see Lazar VoUn, "The
Peasant Household Under the Mir and the Kolkhoz in Modern Russian History," in
The Cultural Approach to History, ed. Caroline F. Ware (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1940).
"David Granick, The Red Executive (New York: Doubleday and Co., 1960).
^*
Alex Inkeles and Raymond A. Bauer, The Soviet Citizen (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1959).
INKELES: Russia and the United States 235
intrinsic interest and the opportunities for self-expression it offers,
whereas those lower in the occupational scale give more emphasis
to pay and security.
Whether such similarities are significant or merely curious and
unimportant is an issue which we cannot, unfortunately, enter
into. Certainly such parallels should not be allowed to obscure
persistent bases of structural differentiation. When discussing their
occupational problems, American managers place labor relations
and selling their product in a competitive market at the very fore-
front of their concern, whereas neither problem is ever mentioned
spontaneously by Soviet managers. This difference in emphasis
arises, of course, from the structural differences in the two econ-
omies. Under a system of planning, allocation of material, and
high production goals, the Soviet manager's prime problems are to
secure the materials to attain his output targets. Since trade unions
are defined as adjuncts of the party in the task of mobilizing the
workers and have no power to strike, labor relations hardly loom as
a major problem to the Soviet manager. This means, equally, that
the significance of the trade union to the worker in both countries
is also profoundly different. The Soviet worker is not particularly
conscious of his trade union. He does not look upon it as distinc-
tively "his ovTn" organization, and he certainly does not think of it
as a militant force acting to advance the workers' interests. On
each of these dimensions we should be obliged to place the Ameri-
can worker at the opposite pole. Differences of this order cannot
be freely put aside for the sake of easy generalizations which sug-
gest that the two systems have become so much ahke that this over-
shadows the remaining contrasts.
C. Social classes. In our examination of the economic systems
of the Soviet Union and the United States we stressed that certain
similarities should not obscure the basic differences. In assessing
the structure of stratification in the two societies we must reverse
the emphasis and urge that certain differences between the two
systems not be allowed to obscure the basic similarities.
True, the American "big capitalist" still exists, even though he
exerts much less influence on the American scene. We must grant
that there is no equivalent in the Soviet Union of the independent
236 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
small businessman, a socially important if not numerous element
in the American class structure. Soviet peasants form the largest
class in that nation, and although there are some parallels between
their situation and that of agricultural labor on large ranches,
estates, and farms, there is no very precise equivalent in the United
States. Yet in important respects the Soviet class structure is like
that of the United States. As industrial countries, both have the
familiar strata of administrative-professional elites; white-collar,
skilled, ordinary and unskilled worker; and lower-level service per-
sonnel and farm labor in approximately that rank order of prestige
and standing in the community. In both societies class position is
predominantly determined by one's occupational position rather
than on the basis of inherited characteristics, and one's occupational
standing in turn rests largely on educational attainment or technical
training. Both countries, therefore, qualify as open class societies
characterized by substantial upward mobility. Under these con-
ditions consciousness of class and interclass hostility tends to be
modest and mild, the sense of opportunity for the capable and will-
ing is strong. Manners are informal, relations between classes easy
and natural, and the feeling of equality pervasive. These easy
relations are greatly facilitated in the United States by the absence
of a history of traditional legally enforced class distinctions. The
equivalent force in Russian history was the sharp break in the class
pattern introduced in the early period of the Soviet Revolution.
Comparable structures encourage comparable responses. Soviet
citizens talk about their class structure in much the same way as
Americans do about theirsbeginning with the high frequency of
initial denials that there are any classes at all in their country.
There are of course distinctive attributes. The role of the political
elite is much wider and their domination of the status scene in-
finitely more marked and pervasive in the Soviet Union. But equal-
itarianism is deeply rooted in the values of both sets of people, as
well as being institutionalized in both social structures. Indeed,
there is probably no realm of social structure in which an American
set down on the Soviet scene would feel more at home. Consider-
ing this fact it is rather striking that Professor Sorokin said almost
nothing systematic about social stratification, classes, social mo-
bihty, and the like, since his thesis of increasing similarity of the
INKELES: Russia and the United States
237
American and Soviet social structure receives considerable support
in this area.
D. Family and character formation. One feature the United
States and the Soviet Union certainly exhibit in common is con-
siderable confusion about the role of the family in modern society.
The United States of course has never had a national family policy.
In the earher years of the republic such an idea was unthinkable,
and in any event unnecessary. By the time it became apparent to
all that a policy was essential, no one could propose any which was
meaningful and could be implemented. Everyone is, however,
piously agreed that the family is the very foundation stone of society
and must be aided in every way.
Initially the situation was quite different in the Soviet Union.
Engels' writings had made it quite clear that the family was ex-
pected to wither away under Communism. After a number of
rather foolish assaults on that doughty institution, it was the policy
itself which withered away. Today in the Soviet Union as in the
United States the family is defined as a pillar on which society
rests. The family is called upon to shape the future by bringing up
well-mannered, conscientious, courteous citizens who will not litter
the streets, will work hard, and strive to succeed in life.
In either the Soviet Union or the United States it is very diflB-
cult, however, to ascertain just what one is supposed to do to bring
about the beneficial results everyone expects from the family. The
ineffectual pamphleteering by the Soviet Academy of Pedagogical
Sciences and the women's magazines bears a striking resemblance
to the message disseminated by the U.S. Children's Bureau and
similar agencies in the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and
Welfare. It cannot be said of either country that the government
knows how to bring about the results it desires. In both cases it
is evident that the government does not wish to become too directly
involved in internal family affairs. Consequently in both countries
there is much wailing and wringing of hands about juvenile delin-
quency and the less serious but more widespread failings of youth-
disrespect for parents and general disregard for authority; shirking
work, and other forms of irresponsibility, especially as regards
money and property; emotional instability, volatility, and often ex-
238 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
plosive destructiveness. Since the character of youth is laid down
in the internal relations of the family, and these are relatively in-
accessible to the respective governments, effective countermeasures
are not easily come by short of accepting full-time public responsi-
bility for the rearing of childrensomething which no one is willing
to attempt.
In an important degree each society has nothing but itself to
blame, because in each the family is only responding to forces
emanating from the larger society. Both systems stress the future
rather than the past, and acclaim youth as the hope of the future.
American and Soviet society value daring and initiative, which
leads to the encouragement of aggressive self-assertion in the young,
and in turn often encourages disdain for authority. In the Soviet
Union, as in the United States, the obvious reason for success and
the validation of it lies in amassing prestige and income, with which
in turn one amasses consumption goods, which again fosters self-
aggrandizement and a basic hedonism. Emphasis on the essential
dignity of every person, and on the more radical belief in basic
human equality, weakens respect for hierarchical, formally consti-
tuted authority.
The virtual disappearance of the extended family and the pro-
gressive depersonalization of the work setting in modem ofiBce and
industry have encouraged people to concentrate their search for
emotional satisfactions on the few members of the nuclear family
unit and particularly on the children. Modem parents manifest
deep fear of loss of the child's lovean interesting reversal of the
classic training pattern in which emphasis was laid on the child's
fear of the loss of parental love. Parents are therefore led to
overindulge their children, which again contributes to producing
in the young an exaggerated sense of their importance, and the
expectation that they should be served and cared for without limit
and without contributing their own efforts. The end result is often
a person who secures rewards by effective use of his personality
and by the manipulation of others rather than by effort and mastery
over nature and materials.
These tendencies in the larger society are, perhaps theoretically,
amenable to change. In most cases, however, they are part and
parcel of the basic social structure of the two most modem, ad-
vanced, and "progressive" of nations. In many ways both countries
INKELES: Russia and the United States 239
depend on these qualities, which are functional to the system.
How often are we told how important to the American economy it
is that people so strongly want things, and so deeply wish to ac-
cumulate them without end? Although a passion for consumption
goods cannot be so easily satisfied in the Soviet economy, the
system depends heavily on the strength of the desire for increased
earnings felt by manual, white-collar, and professional workers.
If the family cannot be relied on to inculcate in the young
certain values important to society, it must seek to exert influence
through other segments of the social structure which play a role in
character formation and in shaping values. This is more readily
accomphshed in the Soviet Union. The greater and more intimate
control over education exercised there by the central authorities
(rather than by local school boards subject to parental influence)
gives the government great leverage in using the primary school
to indoctrinate children in the virtues of obedience, the values of
group participation, the importance of co-operation, and a sense of
obhgation to the community. The more authoritarian structure of
the school regime aids the regime's self-conscious effort to inculcate
these ideas. Youth movements organized by the Communist party
the Pioneers enrol children from the age of ten to fourteen and
the Komsomol which takes them from thereprovide an additional
source of training in social service and co-operative action. They
also serve to inculcate the values of service, self-sacrifice, submission
to group disciphne, respect for authority, and orderliness. They try
to teach the children the pleasure of sharing work and production
rather than leisure and consumption.^^ The United States lacks
comparable extra- or non-familial sociahzing agencies of this type,
at least on a scale which would influence a large proportion of the
youth and do so with an effectiveness greater than that of the Boy
Scouts. This is one of the most serious deficiencies in the con-
temporary American social structure, and one of the decided dis-
advantages it suffers in long-term competition with the Soviet
system.
^^
The role of the Communist youth organizations in socializing the young for
life in Soviet society is dealt with at length in Allen Kassof, "The Soviet Youth
Program: Socialization in a Totalitarian Society," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation.
Department of Social Relations, Harvard University, 1960.
240 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
E. Education (the school). Until the Soviet regime came on the
scene no other large country rivaled the United States in the extent
to which the society as a whole had accepted and implemented the
principle of universal free education, and not only at the elementary
but also at the secondary and to some degree even at the university
level. Although the "struggle" against illiteracy, as it was called in
the U.S.S.R., was there waged more dramatically, and with greater
propaganda eFect, the underlying forces impelling this develop-
ment were in both societies broadly similar. The dominant political
ideology in both countries stressed the widespread and active
participation of the citizen in the process of government and in the
management of public affairs. In the United States this tradition
can be traced back to Jeffersonian, certainly to Jacksonian, de-
mocracy, while in Russia it had its roots in the Zemstvo schools of
the mid-nineteenth century, to which Sorokin calls our attention.^
The Bolsheviks revived this tradition and vastly extended the princi-
ple of mass action. Such participation, however, required an edu-
cated and informed citizenry. Education for all was the indis-
pensable precondition for the attainment of that state in which
every cook would help to run the government and every worker
at the bench would take his turn at record keeping and administra-
tion.
Lenin's hopes for mass participation in government were not to
be realized, but the impetus to widespread education was preserved
because literacy was deemed a necessary qualification for effective
participation in the more complex labor processes of modem in-
dustry and for the growing ranks of white-collar employees who
serviced it. The same need was felt in the United States. Perhaps
a more important consideration, however, lies in the fact that both
systems stressed the right of the individual to secure full personal
development of his faculties and to win a position in society com-
mensurate with his native talentsgoals which could be attained
only by individuals with access to educational opportunities.
Neither the Soviet Union nor the United States has quite ful-
filled the goal of giving everyone all the education he is capable of
absorbing. The United States, being in terms of gross national
^'
Professor Sorokin does not explicitly mention the schools, but he does discuss
the role of the Zemstvo in local government and in supplying medical care. See
pp.
75, 78, and 149.
INKELES: Russia and the United States
24
1
product roughly twice as rich as the Soviet Union, does better in
the proportion of young people it provides a college education, but
even there as many as a third of the qualified high school graduates
do not go on to college. More difficult to evaluate but probably
more important than the failure to meet the quantitative demands
for higher education are the changes in the conception of educa-
tional goals and the methods of their implementation.
Over the years Soviet education came progressively to be subor-
dinated to training for vocational purposes, even at the higher levels,
with less and less emphasis placed on general education as a means
for personal rather than occupational or professional development.
In the process an approach to curriculum and classroom atmosphere
which had originally stressed freedom, initiative, and creativity was
suborned to emphasize authority, obedience, and rote learning.
On the American scene the popularization of education led to a
general decline of standards and values, and at the college level to
the demeaning of education through replacement of the conception
of the hberally educated man by the image of college man as
playboy.
Certainly, at their best both the Soviet and American educa-
tional systems are quite impressive. The Soviet Union does a
remarkable job in training a steady and large supply of the teachers,
doctors, engineers, technicians, and scientists needed by the nation,
and the good students of the better American colleges can certainly
qualify as men of broad culture and learning. At the average level
and below, however, the Soviet educational system becomes a
glorified trade school and the American college a never-never land
in which the youth pass time in a prolongation of adolescence,
acting out their own impulses and living out their parents' fanta-
sies of the good life, before accepting adult responsibilities.
These differences are not merely happenstance, or cultural "ac-
cidents." They reflect important differences in the social structures
in which the respective educational systems are embedded. The
objectives of education in the Soviet Union are determined by the
central political authorities, and the emphasis on technical and
scientific training reflects both the primacy they assign to produc-
tion and economic development and the fear and hostility to free
and full exploration of philosophical, literary, and humanistic ideas
which characterize the narrow dogmatism of the Soviet Marxist
242 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
leadership. In the United States the local community has relatively
complete autonomy over elementary and high school education.
At the college level the importance of private money in both the
support of educational institutions and the payment for the stu-
dent's educational expenses permits the colleges to be relatively free
of central control and dictation of the content of their curriculums.
This, plus the absence of any clear and compelling national purpose
in education to which most would adhere, fosters the extraordinary
diversity and complexity of the American educational system.
It also permits the degradation of education encountered in many
schools and in parts of almost all American college student bodies.
II. Problems in Comparative Structural Analysis
No doubt there are important, often striking, similarities in
Soviet and American social structure, and in some respect they may
have followed parallel paths in the course of their development.
In addition to those developed by Professor Sorokin, I have pointed
to several others in the comparison of the two systems in the pre-
ceding section. Both nations are large-scale societies, composed
of populations of diverse ethnic origins, sharing a diffuse secular
culture. The United States and the Soviet Union are outstanding in
their devotion to the maximization of industrial production through
large-scale organization, the exploitation of science, and reliance on
widespread popular education. In both countries physical and
social mobility is taken for granted in an open class system which
stresses equality, challenges tradition, and encourages individual
and collective progress.
This hst of similarities could be expanded to great length. The
same is unfortunately true of the Hst of differences. Dictatorship,
or at least one-party oligarchy, as against a multi-party democratic
political system; state control and planning as opposed to corporate
management and the dominance of the market; controlled com-
munication and governmental dictation in art as against free ex-
pression and private pursuit of the arts. Here again the list could
be expanded to greater length.
We are therefore faced with the same difficulty which sooner or
later confronts all efforts at the systematic comparative analysis of
INKELES: Russia and the United States 243
social structure, namely that of combining or weighting similarities
and differences to yield one composite judgment. Unfortunately,
sociology does not provide any equivalent for such measures as gross
national product, per capita income, or rate of grov^th of industrial
output, which permit us to combine diverse economic factors into
one common and standard measure. There is no unified scale to
the metric with which we can reduce the similarities and differences
in social structure, leaving us with a single score for the comparison
of the Soviet Union and the United States.
Professor Sorokin stresses the fact of change. However wide
apart their starting points, he says, the two systems are "now little
more than the ghosts of their former selves.
"^^
Indeed, he argues
that "economically and politically the two nations have been steadi-
ly converging toward a similar type of social organization and
economy."^^ There are many who would challenge this assertion,
especially as regards the political structure and the economic organi-
zation of the two countries. Yet, even if the two nations were
moving closer together, the fact of convergence could be much less
important than the nature of the differences which persisted. How
can we then assess the relative significance of one or another
similarity or difference between two social systems? Although he
does not explicitly state them to be such. Professor Sorokin's study
suggests implicitly two relevant tests or standards of judgment.
One is a test in action, the other a judgment based on values.
The test in action is provided by the pattern of relations between
the United States and the Soviet Union after World War H. In
the first edition, published in 1944, Professor Sorokin at a number of
points asserted quite vigorously a prediction about Soviet-American
relations in the postwar period. Since the two nations were not
separated by deep-seated value conflicts and were socioculturally
"congenial," this was "bound to perpetuate [the] noble record of
peace between the two nations, regardless of the personal whims of
their rulers." Professor Sorokin went even further, to declare:
"If and when these rulers become unwise and begin to commit one
blunder after another, there may conceivably be some temporary
differences and quarrels between the countries. But even these
conflicts are bound to be minor and can hardly lead to an armed
"
Sorokin, op. cit.,
p.
179.
^"
Ihid.,
p.
208.
244 PITIRIM A, SOROKIN IN REVIEW
conflict."^^ At a later point he commented that the same forces
making for similarity and congeniality of the two systems "presage
still closer cooperation in the futurea welcome destiny, beneficial
to both peoples and to the rest of mankind."^*'
We need not labor the point that the development of "cold war"
relations after World War II, an unceasing arms race with inde-
scribable powers of mass destruction, and actual armed conflict in
Korea, all lead to the conclusion that Professor Sorokin's prediction
of cordial relations was hardly borne out by subsequent events. In
the second edition of Russia and the United States,^^ which appeared
in 1950, Professor Sorokin acknowledges these facts, and seeks to
explain why, when "there was every apparent reason for the post-
war continuation of American-Russian friendly relationships, and no
apparent reason at all for the 'cold-war,'" the latter nevertheless
suddenly replaced the previous co-operation of the two countries.^^
In considering this change, Professor Sorokin argues that the
popular explanation in terms of ideological, social, and economic
differences is not adequate, because there are so many historic ex-
amples of cordial relations and alHances between the United States
and other countries which were even more profoundly different
from it than is the Soviet Union. It is not appropriate to enter here
into a discussion of the alternative explanation Professor Sorokin
does offer. We should note, however, that he has here shifted the
basis of his argument. In the first edition he did not restrict himself
to saying that differences did not preclude understanding. Rather,
he mainly emphasized the similarities, and asserted that the two
nations were "steadily converging toward a similar type of social
organization and economy."^^ Furthermore, he argued that it was
above all these "similarities" and the "congeniality" of the two socio-
cultural systems which made for such good prospects for cordial
relations. We must conclude, therefore, either that the theory is
inadequate and that similarity in social structure does not make
for a greater probability of cordial relations, or that Professor Soro-
kin was incorrect in his assessment of the degree of congeniality
between Soviet and American social structure. It is, of course, pos-
sible that he was incorrect on both counts.
"
Ibid.,
p.
162.
'"
Ibid.,
p.
209.
^^
London, Stevens and Sons, Ltd., 1950. Page citations for the second edition
refer to this source.
"'
Ibid.,
p.
165.
"'
Sorokin, op. cit., first edition,
p.
208.
INKELES: Russia and the United States 245
The test of values provides quite a different basis for dealing
with the fact that social science provides no single standard scale
on w^hich any two nations may be placed, but rather always con-
fronts us with a hst of discrete similarities and differences. Clearly,
the mere number of similarities and differences, however important,
is unhkely to be decisive. The critical question will be the weight
each of us assigns to one or another factor according to his own
scheme of values. On this score Professor Sorokin makes his posi-
tion quite explicit in the second edition. While acknowledging some
important differences between the United States and the Soviet
Union, he judged them to be unimportant relative to certain other
overriding common values such as survival. In the face of this
common interest he ruled that all other "seemingly conflicting
values . . . are so insignificant that their 'incompatibihty' amounts to
no more than the 'incompatibility' of the advertisements for this or
that brand of cigarettes, each claiming superiority over all other."^*
We do not deny Professor Sorokin the right to his perspective,
but we need not automatically accept it for ourselves. Professor
Sorokin chooses to judge the Soviet Union and the United States
from a great distance, an Olympian height. Yet, if we get sufficient-
ly distant from the immediate and concrete, any two contemporary
large-scale systems will seem basically alike, just as any two men,
no matter how different in character and action, are alike as "men."
No doubt there are similarities in the two societies as great industrial
nations. Without question we can in each and for both point to
flaws, defects, failures, denials of liberty, denigration of values, and
the like. When we have completed such a tabulation, however,
there remain certain stubborn facts with which we must reckon.
Probably the most important are the differences in the freedom of
political activity, the share people have in deciding their future, the
opportunities for free expression of the spirit in art and religion,
which in the United States are at a level comparing favorably with
most periods in history, but which in the Soviet Union remain at a
point very near the bottom in the experience of Western European
society.
It is very difficult to believe that in the judgment of history the
differences in the political structure of the Soviet Union and the
United States, and in their role in the period following World War
"*
Sorokin, op. cit., second edition,
p.
176.
246 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
II, will be seen as inconsequential. It may be true, as Professor
Sorokin asserts, that in both societies "germs" of the "disease" repre-
sented by the disintegration of the sensate Western culture are
equally abundant and active. Although the germ may be the same,
and the illness equally advanced, this hardly makes the organism
infected the same. Many features of the Soviet system violate the
most profound principles of the liberal political tradition painstak-
ingly built up in European culture over several hundred years.
With regard to these differences we cannot agree with Professor
Sorokin that "any sane person pays no attention to such incom-
patibilities."^^
""
Ibid.
Sorokin on Law, Revolution, War, and
Social Calamities
N. S. Timasbeff
I. Low
Sorokin is one of the very few contemporary sociologists ascrib-
ing to law a prominent position in the universe of sociocultural
phenomena. For him law is one of the most important components
of the cultural system, an essential mechanism in social organiza-
tion, possibly the strongest single motive power in the operation
of the personahty system, and the very mechanism of orderly
sociocultural change.
A. Law as a component of the cultural system. Law can be ap-
proached from several points of view. One may emphasize the
legal norm, or rights and duties, or behavior as molded by law, or
legal conviction. For Sorokin law is first of all a system of norms
forming one of the major culture systems.
In the total culture system of an inhabited area, he says, we find
five major culture systems. One of them is ethics, consisting of law
and morals. This is an empiric generalization since, according to
Sorokin, every organized group and its culture has a set of ethical
values. In other words, every culture has a kind of division of the
field of human actions and of other events into opposite classes:
right-wrong; approved-disapproved; recommended-prohibited; sa-
cred-sinful; moral-immoral; and lawful-unlawful. In this sense the
ethical mentality (of which law is a part) is a universal and perma-
nent component of any culture.^
Sorokin distinguishes law and morals as the two subsystems of
^
Social and Cultural Dynamics, II, 523; III, 479; IV, 117.
248 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
the system ethics in the following way. By law, he says, is meant
the totahty of the imperative-attributive conviction of a given per-
son or the totahty of persons, i.e., two-sided convictions ascribing
rights to one party and duties to another. In contradistinction to
that, the purely moral rules are one-sided, only imperative (not
attributive) rules which urge, recommend, and advise to do such
and such, but do not ascribe to anybody the right to demand such
action.^
These definitions exactly follow the theory of Sorokin's major
source of inspiration in the field of law, the great Russo-Polish jurist
Leon Petrazhitsky, whose classic works appeared in Russian in
1904 and
1906-7.^
Indebtedness to Petrazhitsky in matters concern-
ing law is gratefully acknowledged by Sorokin in both major works
dealing with law.* As those of Petrazhitsky, Sorokin's definitions of
law and morals, in contradistinction to his definition of ethics in
general, are "imposed definitions."^ They are definitions not ar-
rived at by induction, but chosen because of their adequacy, or
ability to serve in theory construction. This is approximately the
same procedure as that used by Max Weber in constructing ideal
types. Sorokin continues by saying: "In any organized group there
is an 'official' code of law ( and respectively of morals ) which by the
powerful part of the group is regarded as 'obligatory' for all its
members, and as such is enforced. What generally is known as law
represents only this 'official' subclass of the law and moral phe-
nomena."^
This addition to the definition (also inspired by Petrazhitsky,
but significantly modified by Sorokin ) is extremely important when
interpreting most of his statements about law. Relative to law in
culture, it allows one to decipher the true meaning of propositions
which otherwise could be termed as a sort of "legal imperialism."
These propositions read as follows: The legal system "embraces
the so-called economic system because the norms of law determine
what it is . . . what is the system of commercial relations . . . what
=
Ibid., II, 526 n. 3.
^
Now available in an abridged English translation, Leon Pefarazhitsky, Law and
Morals (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1955), with an introduction by the
present writer.
*
Dynamics, II, 526 n. 4; and Society, Culture and Personality,
p.
71 n. 3.
^
N. S. Timasheff, "Definitions in the Social Sciences," American Journal
of
Sociology, LII
(1947), 8.
"
Dynamics, II, 526 n. 3.
TIMASHEFF: Sorokin on Law, Revolution, War, and Social Calamities 249
is wealth or economic value." Similarly the legal system embraces
the "so-called political system, because [the latter] is determined
by the norms of the constitutional and administrative law." Law
and morals embrace also almost all the norms of conduct which
often are loosely covered by the terms mores, customs, and the like.
Outside of law and morals there remain only the technical norms,
i.e., purely utilitarian norms prescribing how to do this or that and
devoid of any imperative-attributive urge, and finally, the norms
of etiquette, fashion, religion, folkways, mores, custom, if and when
the parties regard them neither imperative-attributive, nor im-
perative.^
From the statements above it appears that Sorokin is inclined to
classify the norms or rules depending on the meaning ascribed to
them by those whom they concern. This is in full accordance with
his general treatment of culture. He identifies the "cultural aspect
of the superorganic universe [with] meanings, values and norms . . .
as they are objectified through overt actions and other vehicles in
the empirical sociocultural universe."^ Consequently, his general
conception of norms and their relations to meanings and values is
essential for the understanding of his sociological theory of law.
In Society, Culture and Personality, where Sorokin has no op-
portunity to discuss ex professo norms, no definition of norms is
offered.
In Society, Culture and Personality, Sorokin is incfined to
identify the three terms and declares that "the terms, 'meaning,'
Value' and 'norm' will be used interchangeably to denote a general
class of meaningful phenomena superimposed upon the biophysical
properties of persons and objects."*^
The identification of meanings ( ideas
)
, norms, and values is not
felicitous. The three obviously form a triad of interrelated "terms,"
but each of them conveys a somewhat different emphasis.
Contrary to Petrazhitsky for whom norms were "phantasmata,"
projections of specific states of mind of the individuals who experi-
enced attributive-imperative or purely imperative emotions, for
Sorokin norms are real. "A law-norm is not a futile and lifeless
figment of the imagination of jurists [as assumed by Petrazhitsky],
^
Ibid., IV, 117-19; Society, Culture and Personality,
pp.
84-85.
*
Society, Culture and Personality,
p.
313.
"
Ibid.,
p.
47.
250 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
but a powerful living force in constant operation." We will unfold
the meaning of this statement when discussing the operation of
law-norms in personality systems.
B. Law and social organization. As has already been stated, law,
particularly the law-norm, plays the dominant part in Sorokin's dis-
cussion of social organization. The existence of interaction does not
mean as such that the interacting persons constitute an organized
system or group. (The two terms, as well as institution, are used
by him interchangeably.) The central trait of organized (group)
interaction is, for him, the presence in it of law-norms regulating and
controlling the conduct of the interacting persons.
^^
These law-
norms must precisely define all the relevant actions-reactions of the
interacting individuals in their relationship toward one another, to-
ward outsiders, and toward the world at large. Moreover, these
norms must be eflFective, obhgatory, and, if need be, enforced by the
conduct of the interacting persons. Only if these conditions are
met, the totality of the interacting individuals forms an organized
group. In order that they be met, the group (which equals the
totality of interacting individuals) must possess a central set of
meanings and values somewhat consistent within itself. That cen-
tral set forms the very reason for the interaction of the individuals
and is expressed in the law-norms just mentioned.
Organized interaction is, then, interaction regulated by law.
"Law norms are the essencethe skeleton, the heart and the soul
of any organized group or institution."^^ In Sorokin's view such
interactions constitute the major and, by far, the more important
part of interaction going on in a society. To unorganized and dis-
organized interaction, as well as to interaction regulated by moral
(
purely imperative ) norms, he pays but little attention.
At first glance one may conclude that for Sorokin the field of
sociology almost coincides with the field of jurisprudence. But one
must immediately remember that, for Sorokin, law means a much
larger segment of social reality than for the overwhelming majority
of jurists and sociologists. In principle, law is the sum total of
imperative-attributive norms. Sorokin significantly contracts the
volume of phenomena to be considered legal as compared with
"
Ibid.,
p.
70.
"
Ibid.,
p.
77.
TIMASHEFF: Sorokin on Law, Revolution, War, and Social Calamities 25 I
Petrazhitsky. Though not introducing the trait of enforceabihty into
the definition of law-norms (which Petrazhitsky emphatically de-
clined), Sorokin is inclined to pay attention mainly to norms which
possess this trait. Following Petrazhitsky, Sorokin sometimes dis-
cusses "law-convictions" as a component of law; but if law-convic-
tions are not enforced by the respective group, they do not perform
the basic social function of law, that of organizing interaction, and
therefore remain almost negligible. In consequence, Sorokin actu-
ally confines law to the sum total of norms which are both impera-
tive-attributive and socially enforceable. This modification of Pe-
trazhitsky's views still leaves Sorokin far beyond the conception of
law prevalent among the jurists: enforcement by diffuse sanctions
derived from the existence of social pressure approving specified
conduct and disapproving the opposite one. This is, for Sorokin,
sufficient to make a norm legal while communis opinio identifies the
law with the sum total of norms enforced by the state.
^^
In the final account law becomes almost identical with social
order understood as the sum total of socially enforceable norms of
conduct which, as commonly assumed, depends on the effective
intemahzation of norms by group members. Most commonly, simi-
lar propositions about social order are not further explored. It is
one of Sorokin's contributions that, owing to his expansion of the
commonly held conception of law, he transfers a large number of
propositions found in jurisprudence (which equals general theory
of law in European terminology), especially in Petrazhitsky's inter-
pretation, into the field of custom, which has never been system-
atically explored by sociologists despite the brilliant beginning
found in Sumner's Folkways (which is, however, anything but
systematic). Here Sorokin's ideas meet and fructify another line
of exploration going back to Linton's formulation of status as the
sum total of rights and duties ascribed to the occupant of a social
position.^^ Linton's proposition immediately poses before the sociol-
ogist the problem: What, sociologically speaking, is a right or a
duty? Attempts, rather inconclusive, have been made in that
direction by some members of the Upsala school in the sociology of
law.^*
^^
Sorokin briefly discusses the state theory of law and rejects it for many reasons.
See ibid.,
pp.
71-72.
^'R. Linton, A Study
of
Man (New York: Appleton, 1936), p.
113.
^*
Cf. N. S. Timasheff, "Growth and Scope of Sociology of Law," in Howard
252 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
In the present writer's opinion, a large number of propositions
about law-norms formulated by Sorokin could and should be in-
corporated into general sociology and the sociology of law. One,
however, has to interpret these propositions as the construction of
an ideal type of an organized group, rather than as propositions
covering the infinite variety of configurations met in social reality.
When Sorokin says that law-norms determine in detail the rights
and duties of group members, that the norms generate "the of-
ficial government" of the group with its legislative, executive, and
judicial functions, etc., he leaves unanswered such questions as:
What happens if, in a system of interaction, the rights and duties of
members are not determined in detail? What happens if there is
no oflBcial government? Obviously between the ideal type of an
organized group as conceived by Sorokin and unorganized inter-
action there is a whole gamut of transitions.
C. Law and the personality system. Having emphasized the le-
gal norms in his treatment of culture and of social organization,
Sorokin approaches the treatment of law as operative in the person-
ality systems, again emphasizing legal norms. His basic ideas on
the subject are treated under the heading "Psychological character-
istics of the law norms." These traits are singled out as:
(1)
an
idea of a pattern of action demanded by the law-norms;
(2)
"norma-
tive motivation" behind the respective action; and
(3)
powerful
emotional (affective and volitional) backing of the actions pro-
pelling us to realize unhesitatingly our rights and to fulfil un-
flinchingly our duty. Most important is the second of these traits.
Our law actions (those actions depending on the impact of law-
norms on the individual minds) are motivated in a specific way
(which, however, stands also behind moral motivation) called
"normative motivation." This term, taken over from Petrazhitsky,
connotes a specific stimulant of action reducible to the image of
the action patterns themselves. The normative motivation is dif-
ferent from the purposive and other motivations of human behavior.
It is self-sufficient motivation in the sense that the deeply ingrafted
norm is a perfectly sufficient motive for the person's compliance
Becker and Alvin Boskoff, eds., Modern Sociological Theory: Continuity and Change
(New York: Dryden Press, 1957),
424-49.
TIMASHEFF: Sorokin on Law, Revolution, War, and Social Calamities 253
with it. No other motive is necessary. It differs from purposive
motivation because many law-actions take place without the idea
of a future purpose, without any hedonistic, utilitarian, or other
consideration. Normative motivation is also different from the
"because of" type of motivation. ( Petrazhitsky used the term
causal motivation.) "Because of" actions do not have any definite
norm or pattern. "They are devoid of the specific experience of
normativeness and of ascription of right and duty which is typical
of normative motivation.
"^^
The theory of normative motivation just unfolded allows us to
fill a gap in Sorokin's presentation of the concept of norm. We could
define norms as those meanings (ideas) which are endowed with
the capacity of eliciting normative motivationwhich, for instance,
is not true of a physical or metaphysical theory, provided that it
is not supplemented by corollaries of an ethical nature.
While the theory just reported has been taken over by Sorokin
from Petrazhitsky, he has given it a new meaning by incorporating
it into his theory of culture. Law-norms form purely cultural sys-
tems, i.e., systems independent of whether they remain in the
minds of their originators or are diffused. But they become socio-
cultural systems through the processes of objectification (i.e., ex-
pression in vehicles comprehensible to fellow men) and socializa-
tion (i.e., acceptance, or internalization by members of smaller or
larger groups ) . In this way the law-norms become a motive power
of human actions, especially interactions, Sorokin asserts that in
the totality of actions those performed as a realization of our rights
and duties occupy a larger place than any other kind of actions.^''
The law-norms of different members of an interacting group
may be and often are different, even contradictory. For such a
group no stable or definite distribution of rights and duties is
possible. This function of integration is performed by a set of law-
norms that are obligatory for all the members of the group, i.e.,
official law. "Compulsory enforcement . . . can be accomplished
only by an authoritative power agency capable of enforcing law
and applying sanctions. . . . This authority ... [is founded on] the
law convictions of the members of the group (or their majority)
which attribute to the government the right to govern, to legislate,
^^
Society, Culture and Personality,
p.
78.
"
Ibid.,
pp.
56-57, 75-76.
254 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
to judge . . .
,
ascribing at the same time to the members of the
group the duty to obey its orders."^^
The ojBBcial law of the state regulates the most important rela-
tionships of its members and groups. However, neither in the state
nor in any large group does such an official law exhaust all the law-
norms (and law convictions) possessed by the members. Side by
side with the official law there always exist many norms of unofficial
law supplementing, correcting, or even contradicting the norms
of the official law of the group. Everyone, in the totality of his law-
convictions, side by side with law-convictions identical with the
norms of official law of the state, may have law-convictions partly
supplementing the official law, partly contradicting it. In any
group there is some contradiction between its official law and the
unofficial norms of some of its members, though normally this dis-
crepancy is not too great.
It seems to me that, at this place, Sorokin has wrongly identified
unofficial law, i.e., the complex of imperative-attributive norms en-
forced not by the state, but by other social groups, and legal con-
victions of individuals which, if not sociahzed, cannot be con-
sidered as part of the sociocultural system "law." The confusion
goes back to Petrazhitsky, whose reduction of law to mental state
of individuals has been elsewhere overcome by Sorokin.
D. tow and sociocultural change. The discrepancy between of-
ficial and unofficial law serves as the starting point of Sorokin's
theory of the role of law in sociocultural change. Official law al-
ways lags behind unofficial law. When the discrepancy becomes
considerable the official law is commonly changed in an orderly way
by due process as provided in the official law itself. This orderly
change is contrasted by Sorokin with revolutionary change, which
is tantamount to the overthrow of the official law and its govern-
ment. But so long as the change proceeds according to the official
law of the group, it is legal and orderly, no matter how radical it
may be, or how fast the tempo. Orderly change is possible only if,
for the bulk of the members, the norms of official law have become
their second nature, controlling their mentality and conduct; if the
unofficial law convictions of the members do not sharply deviate or
"
Ibid.,
p.
78.
TIMASHEFF: Sorokin on Law, Revolution, War, and Social Calamities 255
contradict the norms of official law; and finally, if the proportion of
the members unimpregnated by the norms and uncontrolled by
them is not too great.^^
The maladjustment between official and unofficial law calls
forth the phenomenon of crime or violation of official law by ide-
ological or ordinary ofiFenders. Still more important, in these phe-
nomena one can perceive the deepest root of every revolution.
In addition to this rather sketchy treatment of the role of law
in sociocultural change, Sorokin has submitted to empirical test a
number of current propositions dealing with the development of
law. This he has done by an unusual combination of the historical
approach to the study of social phenomena and quantification. The
questions which he has asked and answered are these:
(1)
Have
there been definite trends in the scope of human actions so disap-
proved by society as to provoke penal sanctions? And
(2)
have
there been definite trends in the change of the relative severity of
eventual sanctions?
The task has been performed against the background of a pains-
taking study of the consecutive criminal codes of five major nations
of continental Europe covering about 1,500 years of their develop-
ment.^^ On the basis of a preliminary examination of the codes, a
kind of "historical questionnaire" was prepared listing 104 types of
actions which have been considered criminal, in all or some of the
codes studied, in all or some historical stages of development. The
penal sanctions were codified by reducing them to index numbers
one to ten. Then, relative to each code, it was established:
(1)
which of the 104 types of actions were punishable, and
(2)
how
intensive were the sanctions. Finally, relative to each nation the
consecutive codes were compared to establish the extension or con-
centration of the scope of punishable actions and the ignorance or
decrease of the severity of sanctions. The codes of the particular
countries belonging to the same stage of historical development
were compared along similar hnes.
On the background of these findings, a number of generaliza-
tions could be drawn. Most important has been the establishment
of the fact that, relative to the countries and periods studied, there
"
Ibid.,
pp.
79-82.
^*
This study has been carried out by Sorokin in co-operation with the present
author.
256 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
was no unilinear trend, but a kind of wave fluctuation both with
respect to the scope of punishable actions and to the severity of
sanctions. The age of classic liberahsm (the first half of the nine-
teenth century) proved to be least inclined to extend the scope of
punishable actions, while the age of the greatest severity of punish-
ment was not the Middle Ages, as commonly assumed, but the
period immediately preceding the liberal period ( sixteenth to eight-
eenth centuries ) . These and many other generalizations have been
confronted by Sorokin with his general theory about the wave
fluctuation of culture; but they can serve as well for the testing of
other theories about the factors, the velocity, and the direction of
sociocultural change. And, of course, they form a first-class con-
tribution to the sociology of law.^^
II. Revolution
A. The Inifia! phase of fhe theory. In Sorokin's work the treat-
ment of revolution is systematically connected with that of law.
While law is considered as one of the main mechanisms of orderly
change in social organization, revolution is the mechanism of dis-
orderly change, i.e., change contrary to the rules of official law.
To the sociology of revolution, Sorokin has devoted the first
sociological volume pubUshed by him in America
(1925),
but
written in 1922-23, when he was in Czechoslovakia, immediately
after his banishment from Russia. It naturally reflects the scientific
position he occupied in his earlier (Russian) works. Society is
interpreted in terms of reduction to the individuals and their be-
havior,^^ and the treatment of this behavior is tainted by behavior-
ism. Accordingly, the inner cause of a revolution is to be found
in the repression of the main instincts of the majority of a society's
""
At this place, I should like to divulge some facts showing to what an extent
the gathering of facts for Sorokin's monumental work was free of influence by any
preconceived idea. He asked me (I then resided in Paris) to collect for him data
necessary to answer the two questions above and to find a way of quantifying them,
without communicating his basic hypothesis about the pattern of culture fluctuation.
I carried out this task and, conamunicating my results to Sorokin, expressed the fear
that they probably could not be utihzed in his work since they departed so drastically
from commonly held views. Sorokin answered by cable "OK" and wrote an en-
thusiastic letter stating that the wave fluctuations found by me were in complete
conformity with his own basic hypothesis.
'^
The Sociology
of
Revolution,
p.
367.
TIMASHEFF: Sorokin on Law, Revolution, War, and Social Calamities 257
members. These "instincts" (a term standing both for the innate
and the conditioned reflexes ) are the ahmentary reflex, the reflex of
individual and collective self-preservation, the sex reflex, the reflex
of ownership, and that of self-expression. To cause a revolution,
there must be an exceedingly strong repression of some of such
instincts in a large number of persons. This general cause, however,
must be supplemented by the impotence of the groups which stand
for order.^^
Although the discussion of the causation of revolution is rele-
gated to the last chapter, the whole book may be conceived as a
step-by-step preparation for the demonstration of the basic theorem.
One by one Sorokin discusses "the perversion of human behavior,"
the transformation of speech reactions, the perversion of the rela-
tions concerning themselves with ownership, of sexual relations, of
the actions and reactions of authority and subordination, and of the
rehgious, moral, and aesthetic forms of conduct. There follows a
study of the influence of revolution on the composition of the popu-
lation, the structure of the social aggregate and the main social
functions, political, economic, and spiritual. The author's aim is to
offer a generaUzed image of revolution. He acknowledges, how-
ever, that he has amply used the experience of the abortive Russian
revolution of 1905-6, and of the five years he spent in Russia after
the revolution of 1917. He has supplemented that personal ex-
perience by extensive reading about other revolutions, especially
the Paris Commune, the French revolutions of 1848 and 1789, tlie
English Revolution and, to a minor extent, about major medieval
outbursts, as well as revolutions in Rome, Greece, and ancient
Egypt. Of course the historical events are treated only briefly and
often by analogy with the Russian Revolution of 1917. The ex-
position often suffers from lack of a precise definition of the phe-
nomenon called revolution. Sorokin explicitly states that he had no
intention to add to all the existing definitions one more; but he
does not select one of them and declare his adhesion to it.^^
B. Definition of revolution. In later works, Sorokin has three
times returned to the sociology of revolution, first in Social and
Cultural Dynamics, Volume III, where 120 pages of text and 40
"
Ibid.,
pp.
369-71.
"
Ibid.,
pp.
8-9.
258 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
pages of an appendix are devoted to the topic; second, in Man and
Society in Calamity; and, finally, in Society, Culture and Personali-
ty, where he has condensed and integrated his views on revolution.
In these works Sorokin has entirely discarded the behavioristic ap-
proach and with it the explanation of revolution in terms of re-
pressed instincts and conditioned reflexes. But many of the con-
crete data collected in The Sociology
of
Revolution have been
salvaged by him and used in the more recent versions of the
sociology of revolution.
In the last of these works just cited, he identifies revolutionary
change with comparatively rapid and violent change of the obsolete
official law of a group, or of institutions and values which this law
represented. Using this definition in a set of propositions, he states
that revolutionary change attacks not just one or a few norms of the
official law, or a few minor values, but the entire body of the official
law, or a substantial part of it and either all social institutions ( in-
cluding government) and the whole system of values protected by
official law, or at least several fundamental institutions and values.
He adds that revolutionary change involves the direct or indirect
participation of a considerable part of the membership of the group,
and that revolutionary change is always accompanied by the use of
force or violence, either on a moderate scale, or in the form of
civil war.
The definition thus elaborated serves as a starting point for the
treatment of "uniformities in revolutionary change,"^* but it does
not cover Sorokin's major contribution to the topic offered in his
Dynamics, where, in collaboration with me and S. S. Oldenburg, he
surveyed 1,622 inner disturbances in ancient Greece and Rome and
in the major European states from the sixth century up to 1925.
On the basis of this study he drew important conclusions about the
frequency of revolutions in the particular societies surveyed and in
their totality; moreover, he sketched a theory- o the causation of
revolution entirely at variance with the one found in The Sociology
of
Revolution. But, in contradistinction to the general characteri-
zation of revolution offered in Society, Culture and Personality,
he includes in his Dynamics "relatively small disorders" which could
not be interpreted as "attacks on the entire body of official law or a
^*
First formulated in The Sociology
of
Revolution and reproduced in Dynamics,
III, 487-95.
TIMASHEFF: Sorokin on Law, Revolution, War, and Social Calamities 259
substantial part of it." Many of these smaller disturbances did not
involve a considerable part of the membership of the group since he
has included "palace revolutions," political plots, murders, and so
on.^^
Does this mean that Sorokin changed his conceptual scheme
between 1937 and 1947? Perhaps not, since, in Societij, Culture
and Personality, he reproduces in brief form the findings of his
empiric investigation published in
1937.^^
Actually, Sorokin uses two concepts of revolution which will
later be referred to as Definitions I and II. By Definition I he refers
to a revolution in the meaning of inner disturbance of some im-
portance, from which he has omitted "quite insignificant disorders,"
even though they may otherwise qualify by his criterion of ap-
pearance, or non-appearance, in the records of history,^^ in the
standard works on the history of the countries concerned. By
Definition II he refers to revolution in the sense of an attack upon
a substantial part of the official law of the country and involving a
significant proportion of the population. While the empiric study
of the frequency and movement of revolutions deals with all the
cases covered by Definition I, Sorokin's presentation of uniformities
in revolutionary change deals only with cases covered by Definition
II.
C. Quantification. Quantification has been essential for the
formulation of a number of propositions about the frequency and
movement of revolutionary disturbances. Such quantification has
been carried out by assigning to each disturbance indicators ex-
pressing:
(1)
the proportional extent of the social area of dis-
turbance,
(2)
the proportion of the population actively involved,
(3)
the duration of the disturbance, and
(4)
the proportional in-
tensity of violence, in combination with the importance of the
effects. These four indicators have been integrated by finding their
geometrical average. For each country the general indicators thus
arrived at were summed up for periods of 25 and 100 years. To
trace a curve of the movement in the total area surveyed, different
coefficients have been assigned to the countries considered, chang-
^^
Dynamics, III, 385 and 395.
^*
Society, Culture and Personality,
pp.
482-87.
''Dynamics, III, 385.
260 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
ing in time depending upon the increase or decline of the country's
importance, and the indicators thus modified have been summed up.
Sorokin's quantification of revolutionary phenomena has been
much criticized, even ridiculed. He acknow^ledges that his pro-
cedure has been imperfect, but asserts that an imperfect numerical
quantification is still better than vague verbal quantifications com-
monly used. This argument has been decisive in the mind of the
author, w^ho explicitly states that he is not an ardent quantitativist
at all. In a dehghtful footnote Sorokin tells readers that the pre-
hminary draft of his v^^ork w^as submitted by a prominent scholar
to tv^^o critics w^hose names remained unknowm to him, and that
one of the critics found the findings absurd because they were
contrary to all existing historical know^ledge while the other one
found them unnecessary because they were in full accordance with
knowledge already existingP^
The very findings of the quantitative study can be summarized
as follows:
(1)
Inner disturbances are much more frequent than
commonly assumed. This is probably the case because people
more often than not think of revolution in terms of Definition II,
not I.
(2)
The countries investigated differ but little as to the
frequency and severity of disturbances, so that it is impossible to
divide nations as relatively orderly or disorderly.
(3)
Most of the
inner crises in the life process of a social body come and pass their
acute stage within the period of a few weeks.
(4)
There is neither
periodicity in revolutions nor a continuous trend toward "orderly
progress" which would be expressed in the decrease of the frequency
and intensity of revolutionary upsurges.
(5)
There is a slight
tendency for inner disturbances to occur more frequently in a period
of war and in years nearest to war years; but the tendency is shght.
Even when wars are divided into successful and unsuccessful ones,
the data do not show a particular association between unsuccessful
wars and revolutions.
On the basis of these propositions, Sorokin reaches the following
generalization: inner disturbances simply belong to the life process
of a society, just as tensions and relaxations, sickness and health,
crisis and repose incessantly alternate in the life process of an
individual. Social disturbance is perhaps an immanent trait of
sociocultural life itself and in this sense is inescapable. In particu-
''^
Ibid., Ill, 401-2.
TIMASHEFF: Sorokin on Law, Revolution, War, and Social Calamities 261
lar, the fact that the average duration of disturbances is closely
similar in most of the countries permits one to conclude that the
occurrence of disturbances seems to be controlled by forces and
conditions which lie very deep, far below the specific cultural and
other circumstances in which these countries differ markedly. Here
probably we meet the fact of the immanent self-regulation of social
processes which any thoughtful investigator often comes across.
These statements are almost tantamount to the formulation of a
theory of the immanent causation of revolutions, which is in full
accordance with Sorokin's general views on the immanent character
of sociocultural dynamics.^^
He does not, however, stop at this point; instead, he makes an
attempt to correlate the more or less frequent occurrence of revolu-
tions with specific phases of the fluctuation of culture between the
Ideational and sensate poles. He does not assert that inner dis-
turbances would reach their climax at the time when culture is
sensate, still less when it is ideational. He states that, on the basis
of data collected and projected on the general curves of culture
fluctuations, disturbances have sometimes increased but sometimes
decreased in periods either of blossoming or of decline. He makes,
however, a distinction between disturbance analogous to tensions of
childbirth and of healthy growth and disturbances accompanying
illness or senihty. Later on, he significantly refines his hypothesis
and makes it more plausible. This he does in saying that, during
periods when the existing culture, or the system of social relations,
or both, undergo a rapid transformation, the internal disturbances
increase; when they are strong and crystallized, disturbances tend
to decrease and stand at a low level.^*^ I myself believe that this
formulation of the hypothesis much better fits the facts and
possesses the quality of precision which the other formulation (di-
viding disturbances into those of growth or decline) lacks. Who
shall decide whether a disturbance expressed growth or decline and
how? The answer is especially difficult if one accepts Sorokin's
general view on culture fluctuation which always means simultane-
ous increase of the sensate element and decrease of the ideational
element, or vice versa. The second formulation seems also better
to explain the alleged immanence of disturbances which appear as
temporary but inevitable phases of the sociocultural process. In
"
Ibid., Ill, 383, 479-80.
"
Ibid., Ill, 494-99.
262 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
some places,^^ Sorokin seems to emphasize the increased frequency
and intensity of disturbances in times of transition, thus contra-
dicting his own statement that they appear both in periods of
culture blossoming and culture transition: culture blossoming may
be highly dynamic and may be accompanied by many, perhaps
important, inner disturbances. Nearly all the great revolutions hap-
pened in such a sociocultural framework.
D. The latest phase of the theory. In Society, Culture and Per-
sonality, written ten years after the publication of the volume of
Social and Cultural Dynamics dealing with war and revolution,
Sorokin elaborated his theory of the causation of revolution and ap-
plied the ideas developed when writing Social Causality, Time,
Space, and Russia and the United States. After eliminating the
theory of multiple causation he says: "More fruitful seems to be
the way of discovery of the main, the necessary cause . . . with an
indication
of
supplementary factors that facilitate or inhibit the
effects of
the main cause." He is fully aware of the objections of
the logicians against such a formula, but beHeves that its investiga-
tional advantages are so great that the objections can be disre-
garded.^^
The main cause is, in fact, the same as the one which served
him in Social and Cultural Dynamics as background for the second
formulation of the theory of the causation of revolution. "The
probability of [internal] peace varies directly with the integration
of
the systems
of
basic values and their mutual compatibility. When
their integration . . . declines, especially suddenly and sharply, the
chances
for
civil war increase."^^ He emphasizes that integration
is not tantamount to homogeneity or identity. In a society like
the American, citizens possess different rehgious, aesthetic, and
pohtical values; but their heterogeneity is not conducive to civil
war. It is noteworthy that revolution appears in the formula only
in the garb of civil war. This means that the theory of the causation
of revolution, unfolded in Society, Culture and Personality, is
adapted to Definition II only and does not cover minor disturbances.
The positive supplementary factors of revolution are listed ap-
"
Ibid., Ill, 505.
*^
Society, Culture and Personality,
p.
507.
"=>
Ibid.,
pp.
507-8.
TIMASHEFF: Sorokin on Law, Revolution, War, and Social Calamities 263
proximately as they appear in innumerable books and articles on
the subject, without any elaboration or classification. Similarly
are treated the supplementary negative conditions. Let us single
out one of the particular negative factors because it relates Sorokin's
theory of revolution to that of law: this is an "efficient and fair
legislative apparatus promptly removing the discrepancy between
the old official law and the new unofficial law convictions of the
population."^^
The theoretical propositions are then checked by using evidence
collected in Society, Culture and Personality, supplemented by
cursory references to other facts known from history or from cur-
rent information. One of the most important corroborations is
given by civil wars (revolutions) arising from a rapid and funda-
mental change in the basic values of one part of a given society
while the other part does not undergo it or moves in the opposite
direction. The data show that practically all the civil wars (revo-
lutions) of the past have emerged from a sudden increase of con-
trasts in the major values. We should therefore expect the greatest
magnitude of revolutions in the periods of radical transformation of
a given society. Unfortunately, Sorokin relapses into the ambiguity
found in Social and Cultural Dynamics when, again, he asserts
that revolutions crowd particularly in periods_of_the-blossoming and
decline-ef-ar given nation.^^ It is very difficult to see what periods
would not be covered by this formula and therefore remain relative-
ly free of revolution (perhaps just periods of stagnation?).
E. Uniformities in revolutionary change. In addition to the
quantitative study of the distribution of revolutions in time and
space and to the theory of their causation, in Society, Culture and
Personality Sorokin has made an attempt to formulate, on an empiric
basis, a certain number of uniformities in the revolutionary change
of society and culture.^^ Two generalizations may be conceived as
the key to the whole treatment of the subject: first, "the cycle of
revolution" and, second, "the law of polarization." The former is
not Sorokin's invention, as he explicitly acknowledges. In nearly
every revolution one may distinguish a destructive and a construc-
"
Ibid.,
p.
508.
"^
Ibid.,
p.
510.
*'
Integrating and somewhat modifying statements fomid already in The Sociology
of
Revolution and Man and Society in Calamity.
264 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
tive phase. During the former the revolution destroys much of
the old sociocultural order, usually not only obsolete and moribund
institutions, but also many institutions and values which, were there
no revolution, could have developed. During the second phase
the revolution recedes and many vital institutions and values
emerge.
The law of polarization is one of Sorokin's own contributions.
In the course of a revolution the rather indifferent majority con-
sisting of persons neither markedly social-minded, nor extremely
antisocial, tends to split and is attracted by the two poles; there-
fore, a society emerges where the contrasts are more accentuated
than in normal times. In the first phase, negative polarization
prevails, while in the second the positive polarization increases.
Sorokin had already formulated this law in Sociology
of
Revolution
and then elaborated it in Man and Society in Calamity.
These remarks should be made: First, the generalizations are
applicable to revolution in the meaning of Definition II only. A
palace revolution, a coup d'etat, even a revolution which meets
almost no opposition (e.g., the
July
1830 revolution in France)
cannot be analyzed into the two phases, and no polarization obtains
because of the lack of time. Second, the empiric verification is
very difficult, perhaps impossible, because of the paucity of our
knowledge about earlier revolutions.
These diflBculties are still more conspicuous when Sorokin shifts
to more detailed formulations of secondary uniformities. Revolu-
tion, he asserts, affects the birth, death, and marriage rates. It
results in the breakdovsni of personality structure. Speech reac-
tions and ideologies change, property relations are affected, sex
behavior is liberated of many inhibitions, the productivity of labor
declines, ethical and rehgious conduct is conspicuously dominated
by the law of polarization, the entire integration and differentiation
of the population is blurred, relative positions of many groups
change, the distribution of persons depending on their capacities
is replaced by distribution depending on loyalty to the victorious
party, voluntary and especially involuntary migration of the popula-
tion increases, economic life is disintegrated, political life becomes
unsettled, and cultural life is badly shaken. Of course, the proposi-
tions above are asserted to be true during the first phase of the
TIMASHEFF: Sorokin on Law, Revolution, War, and Social Calamities 265
revolution, while during the second ph^se many disturbances
caused by the revolution are taken care of.
What SQrQkiB-ha:S- offered4s-a-i:ealistic and condensed descrip-
tion of the basic social and cultural processes obtaining during a
^evolution which, in his terminology, is called total, especially
during the Communist revolution of which he has been a keen
participant-observer. But the smaller disturbances and even some
revolutions of the total type, such as the Fascist revolutions in Italy
and Germany, have not displayed some of the traits mentioned by
Sorokin (e.g., decline of the productivity of labor). Consequently,
Sorokin's treatment of uniformities in revolutionary change is tanta-
mount to the construction of an "ideal type" of a revolution, either
total or approximating it, but not a realistic description of any inner
disturbance. As such, it is valuable since it offers a frame of refer-
ence to be used when making a case study of any concrete inner
disturbance. On the basis of such case studies, a new method of
quantifying the intensity of a revolution could gradually emerge
and then be applied to a recalculation of data used by Sorokin in
his pioneer study of the 1,622 cases appearing in Social and Cultural
Dynamics.
III. War
A. Definition and quantification. While, for Sorokin, revolution
is an internal, or intragroup, disturbance manifesting the breakdown
oFcrystallized relationships within the group, war is an external,
or intergroup disturbance, also manifesting the breakdown of a
crystallized system of relationships, but between groups, more
especially states.^^ In Social and Cultural Dynamics war connotes,
however, only the sharpest outbursts of violence resulting from such
a breakdown. The empiric data compiled there are confined to
interstate disturbances giving rise to overt violence.^^ However,
some civil wars involving one state only are considered, such as the
war with the Pretender in England and the Carlist wars in Spain.
Included also are some colonial expeditions where the adversary
of the European power was in the stage of rudimentary political
*^
Such is his standpoint in Society, Culture and Personality
'"
Dynamics, III, 26 and 263.
266 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
organization, or fights waged by an organized state against nomadic
neighbors, such as Russia's wars with the Polovtsi.
fin
Society, Culture and Personality, war is, in principle, identi-
fied with an outburst of violence; most revolutions above the lowest
level are treated as "civil wars," and even murder is considered as a
specimen of interindividual war. But in actuality the discussion of
the major phases of the sociology of war is confined to phenomena
covered by the definition found in Social and Cultural Dynamics,
namely, interstate disturbances resulting in sharp outbursts of
violence.
The most important contribution of Sorokin to the sociology
of war has definitely been the quantitative study of its fluctuation
in time and space. The study was undertaken by him despite his
awareness of the tremendous factual and logical difficulties. As he
states, he had the choice between the answer "ignoramus" and the
manipulation of data which, more often than not, were only esti-
mates. Because of his "own curiosity," he chose the second alterna-
tive. '
On the background of a careful study of historical material
available (with the assistance of two outstanding Russian military
historians), a list of nearly all the known wars of ancient Greece,
Rome, England, Austria, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain,
Italy, Russia, and Poland-Lithuania was compiled, containing 967
items. Relative to each war, its duration, the strength of the armies
and the number of casualties were estimated. The strength of the
armies and the casualties were related to the size of the population
and thus the relative burden of each war was weighted.
^^
The
relative indicators were summed up, for each country, with respect
to
25-
and 100-year periods.
The comparison of indicators thus reached has served as back-
ground for inductive generalizations. As relative to revolution, the
data are shown to be destructive of any "progressivism," i.e., of
theories according to which the march of history could be inter-
preted as a gradual ascension of mankind to more and more pro-
gressive stages.^** Any continuous trend as to the frequency and
intensity of wars is lacking. The erratic fluctuations of these
"
Ibid., Ill, 264-83, 286-95.
*
This statement is especially directed against
Q.
Wright, The Causes
of
War
and the Conditions
of
Peace (London, 1935); cf. Dynamics, III, 264 n. 3.
TIMASHEFF: Sorokin on Law, Revolution, War, and Social Calamities 267
magnitudes mean that in any society at any moment two sets of
forces are incessantly working and struggling with each other. One
set tends to create, magnify, and sharpen the antagonism of a given
state with other states; the other set works for solidarity and peace.
At one period the first set becomes dominant and leads to war; at
another period the second becomes overwhelming; then, peace
prevails.
Under what conditions do the forces of war, or, respectively, of
peace, prevail? "In the life
history
of
nations" he says, "the magni-
tude
of
war . . . tends to grow in the periods
of
expansionpolitical,
social, cultural and territorial . . .at least as frequently as in periods
of
decline,"^^ perhaps even more. "War tends to fall in periods
of
'sinking' or decay
of
a given nation."'^^
B. Theory of war causation. The proposition above has been
used by Sorokin to introduce a tentative theory of war causation,
although he maintains that a systematic analysis of this problem is
beyond the scope of Social and Cultural Dynamics}^ He suggests
an approach logically following from the definition of war as a
breakdown of the organized relationship between states.
Such a breakdown, tantamount to the disruption of existing
interstate equilibrium, is the absolute condition of the possibility
of any war. War, then, appears to be a resultant of this break-
down. On the one hand, however, this proposition is a tautology,
since the breakdown is included in the definition of war. On the
other hand, it does not completely solve the question of war causa-
tion; there have been many cases of the breakdown of organized
relationships not followed by war. Although rejecting as "blunder"
any theory which chooses some variable as a real and main cause of
war, Sorokin asserts that war is always caused, in addition to the
"necessary condition," by a combination of secondary factors which
vary from case to case.
Sorokin rejects the temptation of identifying the fluctuations of
war with the dominance either of the ideational or of the sensate
culture; neither the sensate nor the ideational culture is more bellig-
erent than the other. But the periods of transition from "Ideational
to Sensate culture," or vice versa, are "periods
of
notable increase
'^
Ibid., Ill, 364.
"
Ibid.
"
Ibid., Ill, 371.
268 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
of
war activities and war magnitude," while crystallized and settled
cultures of both types have been relatively peaceful. This proposi-
tion is qualified by another one: the transitional period within a
group comes somewhat earlier than it is manifested outside of the
group, i.e., in international relations. In other words, the transition
in international relations lags behind the transition within the par-
ticular group. With that correction, Sorokin believed he had solved
the problem of the relationship between war and culture fluctua-
tion: "All in all, the movement of war by centuries agrees with the
hypothesis," with possibly the exception of the third century B.C. in
Rome.^*
But the theory of war causation implied in Social and Cultural
Dynamics was only a starting point. One year after the publica-
tion of the volume discussing it, Sorokin contributed an article con-
taining a sketch of a theory which he calls "sociological" since it is
correlated with some basic concepts of general sociology. "As
sociologists we know that the state is a network of relationships and
a system of culture values. We can deduce that each time when
relationships between two or more states and the pertinent values
become shattered, or muddled, or indefinite, such a change favors
the chance of war."^^
The later development of Sorokin's views on war causation has
been somewhat affected by the appearance of an article by Leo
Martin*^ where the author asserted that, in Social and Cultural
Dynamics two incompatible theories about the relationship between
war causation and culture fluctuation have been offered, one that
war was more likely in periods of culture blossoming and another
that war was more likely in periods of culture transition. Going
back to Sorokin's data, Martin expressed his preference for the first
hypothesis.
As a consequence, the next time Sorokin had the opportunity to
discuss the problem of war causation, namely in Russia and the
United States
(
1944
)
, he modified the propositions stated in Social
and Cultural Dynamics and in his article of 1938, which somewhat
mitigated (but did not completely eliminate) the contradiction
"
Ibid., Ill, 375-79.
*^
"A Neglected Factor of War," American Sociological Review, III
(1938),
475^-86.
*'
Leo Martin, "The Problem of War Causation," American Catholic Sociological
Review, III (1942).
TIMASHEFFi Sorokin on Law, Revolution, War, and Social Calamities 269
noted by Martin. In Russia and the United States we read: "The
main cause
of
international peace is the presence in each
of
the
interacting societies
of
a well integrated system
of
ultimate values"'^'^
and the corresponding norms of conduct. This is somewhat sur-
prising: two well-integrated societies may be bearers of two in-
compatible value systems which would make war between them
likely. Sorokin is obviously aware of this fact since he says: "When
within a given universe of societies the integration [of values] de-
clines, especially suddenly and sharply, the chances for interna-
tional war increase." Discussing "evidence of the validity of propo-
sitions,"*^ Sorokin consistently confronts the value systems of two
or more societies and naturally comes to the conclusion that war
and peace largely depend on the compatibility of the value systems.
He correctly emphasizes that compatibility is not tantamount to
similarity, homogeneity, and identity.
If it were so, we should expect the greatest magnitude of wars
in periods of radical transformation of the main values of societies
and, using data from Social and Cultural Dynamics, he is satisfied
that this has been actually the case. It is noteworthy that the first
hypothesis stated in that work (war is more hkely in periods of
culture blossoming, which obviously requires integration, and least
likely in periods of decfine) is lacking, as is also lacking the idea
of the lag of periods of transition in international relations behind
transition in particular groups.
In Society, Culture and Personality, the theory of war causation
receives still another shape. Sorokin returns to the duality of
propositions presented in Social and Cultural Dynamics, but now
makes explicit:
(1)
that in the history of a nation, wars tend to
multiply during periods of political, economic, and social growth
and expansion, as well as during those of decline and decay;
(2)
that in the history of a given constellation of interacting nations,
wars tend to increase during periods of acute transition and change
occurring non-synchronously in the nations involved. It is ex-
phcitly stated that periods of transition from one fundamental type
of culture to another are those in which wars attain their maximum.
Three questions may be asked here:
(1)
How could one dis-
tinguish war causation on the background of phenomena particular
to each of the belligerents from war causation on the background of
"
Pp. 215, 216.
"
Ibid.,
pp.
217-31.
270 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
"non-synchronous change" of value systems in two or more societies
involved?
(2)
If war is at its maximum during periods of growth
and expansion but also of decline and decay, what remains for
peace periods?
(3)
The idealistic culture is, according to Sorokin,
a very important (and likable) type of culture. But it appears
only in periods of transition from ideational to sensate culture.
Should we, then, consider idealistic culture as especially belligerent
(which could perhaps be supported by Sorokin's data for the
Golden Age of Greece, but not for the climax of the Middle Ages
)
,
or should we ascribe highest war frequency to periods of transition
from ideational to idealistic and again from idealistic to sensate
culture? The time limits of such transitions have, however, never
been established by Sorokin with any precision, obviously because
of the very nature of idealistic culture.
Later on, Sorokin returned to the problem of war causation in
an article which appeared in Great Britain^^ and, in expanded form,
in the British edition of Russia and the United States. The problem
as posed in the title is that of the real causes of the Russo-American
conflict. It gives the impression of a complete change of views of
the author on the subject. He begins by asserting that any attempt
to explain the conflict by enormous differences between the prev-
alent ideologies, the political, economic, and social institutions,
and the basic cultural values of the United States and the Soviet
Union is wrong. He asserts that similar differences existed between
the value systems of the United States and of Tsarist Russia, prior
to World War I, which exist now between the value system of the
United States and of such countries as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and
Franco's Spain without provoking war. Then he restates his hy-
pothesis on war causation by saying that wars (as well as revolu-
tions) tend to emerge precisely in periods characterized by the
disintegration of the dominant system of culture, especially of
sensate culture, such as our culture is in our time. Consequently,
wars (and conflicts preceding them) are particularly probable in
our day. That the main conflict has centered in the United States
and Russia is typical of "a world ruled by brute force assisted by
hypocrisy. In such a world, small nations cannot afford to challenge
the most powerful ones single-handed; only the most powerful
*
"The Real Causes of the Russo-American Conflict," World Affairs (London),
New Series, III (1949).
TIMASHEFF: Sorokin on Law, Revolution, War, and Social Calamities 2/1
states, more or less equal in military might, dare to oppose each
other." If, instead of Russia, France or Great Britain had emerged
as the second great power, the conflict would be centered between
the United States and one of them. On the other hand, the Ameri-
can-Russian conflict would have occurred even if Russia had been a
Tsarist, democratic, or any other regime.
The departures from views expressed in the preceding works are
three-fold:
(1)
the incompatibility of value systems is no longer
declared to be "tlie main cause of war";
(2)
periods of maximum
belligerency are asserted to be synchronous with those of the dis-
integration of one of the basic types of culture, while the ideas of
war causation in periods of culture blossoming, or in periods of non-
synchronous evolution of value systems of different nations, have
been put aside;
(
3
) contrary to the explicit statement in Social and
Cultural Dynamics, sensate culture is declared to be by far the
most belligerent of all. But, perhaps, Sorokin could say that there
is still no "hot war" between the United States and Russia. Conse-
quently, his new propositions may be interpreted as covering con-
flicts below the level of war in the narrow meaning.
In my opinion the difficulties met by Sorokin in formulating a
theory of war causation are the result of his attempt to correlate the
fluctuation of belligerency with the fluctuation of culture style.
Moreover, since the writing of Russia and the United States, he has
anchored his general sociological theory on the concept of value
without stating precisely what the term value means for him.
Value may be understood:
(1)
as a more or less steady criterion of
choice, in which sense, value is one of the high-level components
of culture;
(2)
or as an object or a situation in which value in the
first meaning is embodied. In the former meaning, the incompati-
bihty of values is not particularly conducive to international con-
flicts, as is well shown by Sorokin in the article just quoted. On the
other hand, far-reaching similarity of values does not prevent con-
flict and war as shown, for example, by France and Spain in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when they were continuously
fighting each other, despite the fact that both nations were absolute
monarchies. Catholic, and both ascribed high value to the possession
of more territory. In the second meaning, value conflicts are often
conducive to war. France and Spain ascribed particular value to
the possession of the lands having formerly belonged to the
272 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
Dukes of Burgundy. Another instance would be the incompatible
claims of Russia and
Japan
on Manchuria and Korea, prior to
the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5. Against the final version
of Sorokin's theory of war causation, one could say that under
neither idealistic nor ideational culture did a small state challenge
a great power single-handed, and tliat we do not know enough
about wars during periods of decay of ideational culture
(
preceding
the rise of idealistic culture) to allow any comparison of the fre-
quency of wars during these periods and in periods of decaying
sensate culture. The main contribution of Sorokin's sociology of
war seems to be the definitive destruction of arbitrary theories as-
serting a kind of pre-established periodicity in their occurrence,
or a kind of evolutionary trend toward progress making wars rarer
and less bloody.
C. The impacf of war. Exactly as in his study of revolution,
Sorokin's study of war contains a number of propositions on the
impact, temporary or durable, of war on the societies involved.
This topic is discussed in many chapters of Man and Society in
Calamity and is systematically presented in Society, Culture and
Personality. Most processes engendered by war are similar to those
of revolution.^" In particular, there is a phase of "conversion" and
another of "reconversion," when peace returns. There are similar
changes in vital processes. In mental life, war, like revolution, oper-
ates according to the law of polarization.
In the field of overt behavior, activities unrelated to war tend to
disappear while those connected with war tend to increase. The
law of polarization obtains also in overt behavior. There are
changes in social differentiation and stratification. War effects a
sharp increase in centralization and regimentation in the political
field. In ethical and religious processes, one observes the polariza-
tion of the population into "sinners and saints." Important changes
happen in the fields of science, technology, philosophy, and the
fine arts. Of course, these processes run through the period of
"conversion," whereas during "reconversion" the opposite processes
obtain, resulting in "the restoration of equilibrium," an expression
which Sorokin badly dislikes but which nevertheless well connotes
the main social and cultural processes during the after-war periods.
^
Society, Culture and Personality,
pp.
499 ff.
TIMASHEFF: Sorokin on Law, Revolution, War, and Social Calamities 273
In Society, Culture and Personality, the propositions above are
presented dogmatically; but footnotes contain references to sets of
chapters in Man and Society in Calamity, where "empirical verifi-
cation" is offered.
IV. Social Calamities in General
Revolution and war are treated by Sorokin as inner and interna-
tional disturbances, but also as social calamities, together with
hunger ( famine ) and pestilence. In this way a class of social phe-
nomena has been formed to which he has devoted a volume entitled
Man and Society in Calamity
(1942);
there he occasionally men-
tions also flood and earthquake; surprisingly, he does not at all
consider economic depression.
In that volume Sorokin's aim has been to formulate a set of
sociological uniformities connected with social calamities. As indi-
cated by the title, he begins by studying the impact of calamities on
individual behavior, but then shifts to the study of their social
implications, very much as he did relative to revolution in The
Sociology
of
Revolution. He considers their impact on the vital
processes, on vertical and horizontal social mobility, on political,
economic, and social organization, and on the major phases of
sociocultural lifereligious, ethical, scientific, technological, as well
as the fine arts and ideology.
Some phases are treated in more detail than the rest. This is
the case with the impact of famine on human behavior, probably
because, when still in Russia, he wrote a monograph on the sub-
ject, of which, however, no copy seems to have survived a kind of
Bolshevik "book burning." When studying the impact of calamities
on sociocultural life, he singles out two special cases, the Renais-
sance and the rise of Methodism. He mentions also as a good
case the Russian Revolution, but devotes to it only a few lines,
probably because he had already treated the subject in detail in
the Sociology
of
Revolution. Everywhere he finds working the
"law of polarization." Much historical material has been used, of
course, taken over from secondary (but commonly reliable) sources.
But often he says: "and similar things happened during other
famines, pestilences, wars and revolutions," which is quite prob-
274 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
able, but not empirically provedbecause of lack of historical
evidence.
Two major objections could be raised against Sorokin's treatment
of social calamities in general. First, a precise unit of analysis has
not been chosen. In some cases these units are of the same type
as those used in his studies of the fluctuation of wars and revolu-
tions. He speaks, for instance, of the European famines of 793,
868-69, 1005, and so forth.
^^
In other cases he seems to cover long
periods of consecutive or recurring calamities, such as the "long and
protracted crisis of 2,000-1,000 B.C. in India."^^ Some of Sorokin's
uniformities concern themselves with sociocultural change caused
by acute outbreaks of social problems he is discussing; but others,
i.e., change in basic ideologies, could be caused only by long periods
of exposition of human societies to social calamities, perhaps of
various types.
This leads us to the second objection: As has already been stated
relative to revolution, a precise line of demarcation between rather
insignificant cases and cases like long and bloody wars, total revolu-
tions, famine or pestilence affecting large human masses, is lacking.
This makes many "inductive generahzations" plausible relative to
some cases of the four calamities, but dubious relative to the rest.
That this is the case Sorokin seems to notice toward the very end of
the volume, where he writes of the termination of calamities.
^^
There he distinguishes wars and revolutions whose necessary and
supplementary causes^* were superficial and those where they were
deep and formidable. In the former case the manifold changes
predicated by him of calamities do not materialize; in the latter
case they do obtain and may even result in the destruction of a
society and its culture. Mutatis mutandis, the same is true of
famine and pestilence. Consequently, the logical subject of propo-
sitions developed by Sorokin varies, and the class concept, "social
calamity," shows up to be not quite appropriate to the formulation
of "adequate theories."
It is possible that Sorokin has come to a similar conclusion since,
in Society, Culture and Personality, he no longer uses the concept
of social calamity and does not discuss famine and pestilence.
^^
Man and Society in Calamity,
p.
67.
"
Ibid.,
p.
214.
''
Ibid.,
pp.
296-301.
^^
In the same meaning as in his article on "A Neglected Factor of War."
TIMASHEFF: Sorokin on Law, Revolution, War, and Social Calamities 275
Probably the change of Sorokin's views on social causality, con-
spicuous when comparing the first three volumes of Social and
Cultural Dynamics with the last (published four years later), has
also contributed to their omission. The major cause of famine and
pestilence (the biological phenomena of crop failure and of the
increase of the mass and virulence of the germs of infectuous dis-
eases) could no longer be treated along the same lines as purely
man-provoked phenomena of war and revolution. Nevertheless,
Man and Society in Calamity remains an important contribution,
testifying to Sorokin's exceptional ability to grasp uniformities in
seemingly heterogeneous phenomena, comparable only with that
of Georg Simmel.
How Cowell of England Assesses Sorokin^
F. R. Cov/ell
A faithful account of Great Britain's assessment of Sorokin up
to the year 1960 is more reveahng as a comment upon the velocity
of circulation of new ideas in contemporary sociology than as a
considered national judgment upon the merits or demerits of his
theories. Reputations in academic life seem to have at least one
thing in common with national coinage systems in that ideas usually
circulate more vigorously in the land in which they were minted
than beyond its borders. Particularly is this true of international
sociological speculations, many of which are rarely quoted on the
British market.
To report, therefore, that the impact of Sorokin's theories upon
British academic and sociological writings cannot so far be regarded
as at all pronounced is to say something which might equally well
be said of any, if not of most, other eminent contributors to the
subject also. Not that overseas writers are ignored out of a spirit
of narrow chauvinism; it is simply the fact that sociology itself does
not flourish here, and that British contributions to sociology too
often share a similar fate. A recent survey estimated the number of
sociologists teaching in British Universities as "nearly forty, com-
pared with 200 philosophers and perhaps 350 economists," and it
gave the membership of the recently founded British Sociological
Association as
"500
or so."^ In fact the initial impetus given in the
United Kingdom to sociology after the middle of the nineteenth
century, despite a more promising second start at the beginning of
the present century, has not proved as fruitful as the pioneers had
^
Editor's note: This title represents a slight modification of the essay title
originally assigned to Mr. Cowell.
^Donald G. MacRae, in The Twentieth Century, CLXVII (May 1960), 440 and
473.
COWELL: How Cowell of England Assesses Sorokin 277
hoped. In the hght of the figures just quoted, it would seem
somewhat optimistic to beheve that anything in the nature of a
vigorous dialectic in sociology in the United Kingdom has yet be-
gun. It is an impression confirmed by a reference to the British
Subject Index to Periodicals and checked by the Internatiorml Index
to Periodicals, neither of which reveals any British discussion of
Sorokin's contribution to sociology in the wide range of periodicals
they index. Actually the situation was not as bad as this "nil
return" seems to indicate.
When Professor Sorokin's books first began to appear, the only
professional journal in which they might have been noticed, the
Sociological Review, had lost its early impetus and the Sociological
Institute, of which it was the main publication, was struggling along
with inadequate support. The space it could spare for reviews was
Hmited and not one of Sorokin's works was noticed in it. His name,
however, was not unknown to readers of the Review, for already
in 1932, in a paper on "Rural Sociology in the United States,"^
Kaysenbrecht said of Sorokin that "his authority for such work
cannot be contested." That topic has not so far aroused great in-
terest in the different circumstances of rural England and there has
been no further perceptible echo of this aspect of Sorokin's work.
Surprisingly the Sociological Review was also silent upon So-
rokin's later and major works in the philosophy of history and the
sociology of knowledge. Not only were they not reviewed but they
were not even mentioned in the relatively few articles in the Review
devoted to the philosophy of history. The leading British literary
review has done better. Social and Cultural Dynamics was wel-
comed in the Times Literary Supplement, on March 26, 1938, by a
review on page 198 which included appreciative comments such as
the following:
The value of such co-operative labour can scarcely fail to appear at some
point and the mere comprehensiveness of the volumes is spectacular. . . .
The great care and the admirable statistical methods adopted by
Professor Sorokin both in establishing his definitions and in fitting in-
numerable phenomena in the history of art, philosophy and social organi-
zation into his Platonic scheme of classification . . . and his hundreds
of pages of statistics are among the most important though astonishing
things in the work.
"XXIV
(1932),
42-43.
/
278 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
This review refers, of course, to the first three volumes of Social
and Cultural Dynamics which appeared in England, thanks to the
enterprise of the well-known publishing house of George Allen and
Unwin. Sir Stanley Unwin, the founder and head of the firm, in
reply to an inquiry very kindly reported that he does not recall that
a great deal of notice was given to the volumes apart from the
Times Literary Supplement review quoted above. He also said that
for a work of such importance, "the sales were negligible and we
seldom if ever get any inquiries for the book." It was not, however,
completely ignored by British sociologists, fewer though their num-
bers were then than they are today. A weighty assessment by the
doyen of British sociologists, Professor Morris Ginsberg, appeared,
not in the United Kingdom but in the Zeitschrift fiir Sozialfor-
schung,'^ then a refugee publication. Concentrating upon Sorokin's
basic classification by types of mentality as characterizing indi-
viduals, groups, and entire cultural systems and upon their develop-
ment in accordance with a law of immanent causality. Professor
Ginsberg described Sorokin's central thesis that social and cultural
change is subject to fluctuations of varying amplitude showing,
(f
however, no consistent or regular trend, so that the idea of progress
is unfounded historically. He also singled out as a central theme
the fluctuations traced by Sorokin through his statistical studies of
types of mentality of representative exponents and the numbers of
their disciples and adherents, and also the fact the coherent cultural
traits characterizing the cultural systems so revealed are not only
empirically found but are functionally connected.
After briefly signalizing the central features in Sorokin's thought
in this way. Professor Ginsberg offered four main critical reflections.
In the first place he pointed out that "even if we grant the occur-
rence of fluctuations as a historical fact, it does not dispose of the
problem of development," and he pertinently asked in support of
this observation from the side of natural science, whether modem
science is really as subject to erratic changes in fundamental points
as Sorokin seems to thinkadding that Sorokin's examples from
biology and physics struck him as being insufficient to estabhsh the
position he had taken upon this question.
In the second place Professor Ginsberg doubted whether Sorokin
had sufficiently weighed the difficulties inherent in any attempt to
*VII
(1938),
418-20.
COWELL: How Cowell of England Assesses Sorokin
2/9
relate general social mentality to the mentality of particular thinkers
or leaders, especially in the sphere of ethics and practical life. He
instanced the mode of conduct regarded as desirable by utilitarian
philosophers as being no different from that advocated by idealists
and as being far removed, therefore, from the crude, commercialized
hedonism which Sorokin regards as characteristic of contemporary
society. Even today, he thought, it cannot be held that utilitarian
doctrines outweigh those of other schools either in their influence or
importance.
Both these penetrating remarks recall Sorokin's own contention
that a cultural system never wholly dies, so that those which suc-
ceed it can never be wholly pure. It would not seem that the classi-
fication of cultural types proposed by Sorokin would necessarily be
overthrown on this account, or by the need to recognize more
progress and less relativity in scientific knowledge in recent times
than, perhaps, Sorokin allowed for in the first edition of Social and
Cultural Dynamics. Similarly he could, and indeed does, hold that
elements of ethical thought survive from one cultural system to
another. ^ Indeed, if there is to be any hope of transcending the
relativity of all cultural values which would be the logical conse-
quence of regarding Sorokin's three super-systemsideational, ideal-
istic, sensateas self-contained "absolutes," , it must be found in
values or principles able to survive in each,
j
Whatever may have
been true of cultural super-systems in the past, the development of
natural science should be particularly fruitful in this regard in the
future. The modem hospital as a product of a sensate society is,
perhaps, a symbol of such a likely lasting scientific achievement.
The continuing vitality of principles, such as the Golden Rule, may
also be found to support such a forecast from the side of ethical
theory. In drawing attention to these perdurable principles. Pro-
fessor Ginsberg seems to have made an important contribution. It
is evidently one that he thinks that Sorokin might be able to accept,
for he wrote, "if the extreme historical relativism adopted by
Sorokin were consistently maintained, there would be no common
standards for comparing different periods with one another and
therefore no units of measurement. I suspect therefore that Sorokin
is not as sceptical and relativistic as he pretends to be."
His two remaining comments would not seem to be likely to
require more than some drafting changes in Sorokin's presentation,
280 PITIRIM A. SOROKIN IN REVIEW
for Sorokin has in places anticipated Professor Ginsberg's contention
that "the mere occurrence of fluctuations in the past offers no
suflBcient basis for prediction," but the success of some of his more
starthng predictions may have obscured his recognition of the basic
correctness of Professor Ginsberg's logic. The final comment, that
it is not clear how seriously Sorokin takes his own statistics, can
largely be met by reference to Sorokin's own repeated dis-
claimer of infallibility and his reiterated pronouncement that the
statistics and the deductions from them are put forward in the hope
of stimulating others and so increasing knowledge, and not as ex-
cathedra dogmas to be swallowed whole. Since Sorokin and his
teams of researchers worked over the field, mechanical computers
have been invented, and it does not seem too much to hope that his
highly suggestive results achieved without the aid of these new
devices could and should be reworked in the hght of the refinements
of a new generation of inventors.
In considering these early reactions to Sorokin's philosophy of
history, it must be recalled that they were made before the publica-
tion of volume IV of Social and Cultural Dynamics, very few copies
of which reached England for some years. It has never been re-
published in the United Kingdom, as were the first three volumes.
When it appeared, in 1941, World War II was requiring a tre-
mendous concentration of effort from aU British citizens. There
were not merely the physical and financial difficulties of importing
American books, but British newspapers and periodicals were drasti-
cally reduced in size owing to paper shortages. Contributors were
absent on war duty and the limited number of available printing
works were made fewer by bomb destruction. A year or two after
the war, the Times Literary Supplement returned to a general con-
sideration of Social and Cultural Dynamics, including volume IV, in
a front page article, "Man and Society."^ Lengthy in relation to
normal articles in that weekly newspaper, which in common with
others was still suffering from paper shortages in the long aftermath
of a disastrous war, the article attempted a general summary and
commendation of the salient features of Sorokin's philosophy. While
it is impossible to assess the impact of such a contribution, it was at
least a full-dress survey of Sorokin's thought in the one literary
publication seen by most people in the United Kingdom taking a
^
Sept. 18, 1948,
pp.
521-22.
COWElt: How Cowell of England Assesses Sorokin 281
serious interest in books and reading, among whom are the majority
of the country's hbrarians and booksellers. It was not, however,
merely a matter of record for it was directly responsible for pro-
voking, thanks to the enterprise of the old-established publishing
house of Messrs. A. & C. Black, a more extended study of Sorokin's
philosophy of history by the writer of this essay. The book which
resulted was called History, Civilization and Culture, An Introduc-
tion to the Historical and Social Philosophy
of
Pitirim A. Sorokin.^
(It has since been reissued by Thames and Hudson in London.)
Its purpose was to reduce the scale of Sorokin's four volumes by
condensing the main trends of his thought, rather as Toynbee's ten
volumes, A Study
of
History, have been summarized in two volumes
by Somervell. Again it is impossible to estimate the degree of
success achieved by the book in its main purpose of inducing greater
study of Sorokin's own volumes. Unfortunately this short volume
of mine seems to have been regarded less in this light than as a
substitute for first-hand acquaintance with Sorokin's writings and
for this reason, rather than from any pride of authorship, it will be
necessary to give some account of its reception also. Fortunately
it was not alone in the field, for Messrs. A. & C. Black republished
in the United Kingdom Sorokin's Social Philosophies in an Age
of
Crisis, which The Times Literary Supplement described in a leading
article on November 28, 1952
(p.
777), as "a fascinating conspectus
of modern attempts to revive, in one form or another, the cyclical
theory." This book was only indirectly a reflection of Sorokin's own
approach to the problem, but it probably served to alert British
readers to the dimensions of the task of interpreting history and to
stimulate interest in it.
History, Civilization and Culture was noticed in The Times
Literary Supplement on March 13, 1953
(p.
163), when it was re-
marked that "Professor Sorokin's ideas are obviously not easily ab-
sorbed but Mr. Cowell has resumed them very clearly and dispas-
sionately. His book succeeds in being what it is called: an intro-
duction to Professor Sorokin's philosophy." Unfortunately, I had
not succeeded as well as I had hoped, for the review made what
may be said to be the stock objection to Sorokin's work: "Since the
statistics are based on questions chosen and judgements made by
the Sorokin School itself, it is difiicult to accept the claim that the
tional, 436
Renaissance: and impact of calamities,
273; culture of, 113
Repression, penal, age of, 256
Reputations in academic life, 276
Research Center in Creative Altriiism,
160, 184, 186, 311-312
Research difficulties, Sorokin's, 221-222
Research projects, vitiated, 445
Research team, Sorokin's, 454 ff.
Revista Mexicana de Sociologia, vii, 320
Revolution, 256-265; anti-tsarist, 22;
causation, 262-263; comprehensive ef-
fects of, 264; "cycle of," 263-264;
definitions of, 257-259, 260, 262, 264;
demographic effects of, 264; Italian
Fascist, 265;
probability of, 262; prob-
lems of, 454 ff.; quantification of 259-
262; repression theory of, 256-257;
Sorokin as participant-observer, 265
Revolutionary change, imiformities in,
263-265
Revolutionary zeal, 22
Revolutions, 203, 206; artistic and intel-
lectual, 91; breeding grounds for, 456;
effects of, 33; frequency of, 456 f.
Rhythm, ideational-idealistic-sensate, 79,
87, 120
Richmond Area University Center, xvii
Rio de Janeiro, ix
Roman Catholic popes, 89
Subject Index
523
Roman period, 103
Roman sources for Source Book, 193
Romans, 112
Rome, 480; revolutions in 257, 258; Uni-
versity of, vi; wars of, 266
Royal Institute of International Affairs,
ix
Rural radicalism, nature of, 203
Rural societies, Sorokin's studies of, 438
Rural sociology, debt of to Sorokin, 188
Rural-urban differences, 198-200
Rural-urban incidence of crime, 201
Rural-urban principles, 188-205
Russia, 12, 21, 68, 256; blunders of
United States and, 468-469; elections
in, 228; incompatible claims of
Japan
and, 272; Sorokin's prognosis on
United States and, 467; wars of, 266
Russian-American relationships, 242, 270,
461-469
Russian constitution, 228-229
Russian Peasant Soviet, 8
Russian Orthodox reUgion, 12, 21
Russian Revolution, 8, 273; of 1905, 21;
of 1917, 10, 26, 28, 257
Russo-Japanese War, 21, 272
Rutgers University, viii
Rymia, Russia, 7, 23
Sadism in New England, 151
Saints and ascetics, superior health of,
150
Samoyed peoples of Northern Russia,
438
Sampling techniques, Sorokin on, 442,
443-444
San Fernando Valley State College, vi
San Salvador, ix
Sanctions, penal, 255
Sander-VoUcelt Criterion of distinctness,
111
Satvam, Shivam, Sundaram, 301
Saudi Arabia, 270
Scales, image, 212
Scahng, Guttman, 212, 220, 223
Scholars: finicky, 442; obligations of,
143, 146, 147, 158
Scholasticism, 100
School, as a social selector and distribu-
tor, 137-138
Schooling, Sorokin's early, 6, 13
Science: and religion, 366; compatibility
of reUgion and, 404; heroic age of,
365; regressions in, 429-430; uncon-
cerned with moral goals, 312
Scientific discoveries, increase of in sen-
sate cultures, 476
Scientific knowledge, cumulation of, 361-
366
Scientific research, 315-316
Scientific theories, fashions in, 429
Scientific work, assessment of, 316
Scientists: atheistic and religious, 489;
on predecessors' shoulders, 429
Selective accumulation of science, 363
Selective migration and crime, 201
Self, anchored in groups, 424
Self-determination, immanent, 493-494
Self-perpetuating ehte, in United States,
229-230
Self-realization through writing, 9
Self-regulation, cultural, 75
Semblance of legitimacy, in Russia, 227
Semele, in Greek mythology, 401
Seminal fluid and folklore, 149
Sensate and integral orders, struggle be-
tween, 473
Sensate Culture, 79, 103, 107, 120, 121;
mentahty, 83, 171-172, 335, 336, 352;
rapid change in, 477; reahty and, 476-
477
Sensate "hucksters," 473
Sensate, Ideational, and Idealistic cul-
tures: as "ideal types," 480; as sys-
tems of truth, 380
Sensate truth: as one-sided, 403; indi-
cators of, 408
Sensory and logico-mathematical knowl-
edge, 391
Sex behavior: and cidtural trends, 141;
Sorokin's thesis, 147
Sex excesses: and physical damage, 148,
149; lack of definition of, 148; major
consequences of, 471-472; questioned
by Mace, 147-150
Sex freedom and creativity, misunder-
standing of, 470-471
Sex guidance of youth, ideal, 153-154
Sex inhibitions, reduced in revolutions,
264
Sex morality: comparison of in Soviet
Union and West, 154; in America, 155
Sex problems and theories, 469-474
Sex restraint and bloody conflicts, link-
age of, 472
Sex theories, Sorokin's, 140-159
Sex trends, Russia and United States
compared, 156, 159
Sexual anarchy and mental disorders,
142
524
Subject Index
Sexual apparatus, built-in safeguards,
148
Sexual ascetics and fanatical zeal, 151
Sexual functioning, licit and illicit, 148
Sexual licentiousness and Russian Revo-
lution, 153
Sexually restrained cultures and energy
reserves, 152
Shift of culture between dominant types,
meaning of, 494-495
"Shortsighted chronicler-historians," 436
Simmel, Georg, and Soroldn, 275
Simulacra of genuine intuitions, 394
Sinology, 117
Skepticism, 202, 408
Slavic East, 103
Small groups, psychology of, 182
Smith College, v
Social and cvdtural systems, 483
Social change, 201, 202
Social class, 197
Social classes, in United States and Rus-
sia, 235-237
Social-Democrats, in Russia, 22, 24
Social diagnosis and proposed therapy,
158
Social distribution of individuals, de-
fectiveness in, 452
Social distvubances, organismic analogies,
260-261
Social entities as abstractions, 110
Social existence and consciousness, 345
Social group, 197; definition of, 411;
minimum knowledge of, 347
Social groups and cultural systems dif-
ferentiated, 421
Social inequahty, present less harsh, 137
Social mobility: and stratification, 449-
454; horizontal, 197; impact of calami-
ties on, 273; in Sorokin's childhood,
13; index of, 132, 133; influence on
family of, 146; problems in measure-
ment of, 132, 135; study of, 219;
vertical, 123
Social organization, 204
Social phenomena, fluctuations of, 446
Social problems, contemporary, xi
Social psychology, 117; founder of, xiv
Social-Revolutionary party, 22, 24
Social sohdarity, 197
Social space, 197, 324
Social status: influence on thought, 348;
role of in scientific investigations, 492
Social strata, dimensions of, 124
Social stratification, 197; as imiversally
present, 125; functions of, 128; lim-
ited, 125; necessity of, 123
Social theory and philosophy, ties of, 65
Social structure: and culture and per-
sonality, 337; of a university, 333;
relative value of culture and, 487-488;
secondary to cultural variable, 487
Social structures, 116
Social system measures, 218
Societies, primitive, 311
Society: and personality, 168-173; as
viewed by Gini, 310; as viewed by
Sorokin, 310
Society of Brothers, 177
"Socio-Astrology," 444
Sociocultural conscious or socioconscious,
165-166
Sociocultural, distinctive feature of, 216
Sociocultural phenomena, forms of rela-
tionships of, 411
Sociocultural world, exceptions in 457
Sociological classics, Sorokin's, 323
Sociological history, fear of, 288
Sociological Institute, British, 277
Sociological measurement, Sorokin's,
206-224
Sociological theories: conception of, 448;
development of, 395
Sociological theory, 204
"Sociologistic" treatment, 217
Sociologist and historian, comparison of
their methods, 289-292
Sociologists: and "self-styled sociolo-
gists," 306; of knowledge, 24
Sociology: as a generalizing science, 321;
definition of, 438-439; in England,
276 F.; of knowledge, xiv, 277, 284,
293, 332-368, 474 ff.; of science, 332-
368; task of, 437
Solidarity and antagonism, sources of,
462
Sorokin: and Comte, 357; and Marx,
344-345; and Marx-Engels, 346; as
multilinguist, 307; as non-conformist,
307; as prototype to student-critics,
324; as role-model, 333; differences
between Anderle and, 410-411; dif-
ferences between Toynbee and, 410-
411; similarities of Toynbee and, 434-
436; vs. Marx et al, 483
Sorokin's categories, critics' views of, 290
Sorokin's collaborators, 454
Sorokin's conclusions, Munshi on, 300
Sorokin's research findings, 454-455
Sorokin's role-behavior, influence on stu-
dents, 323
Subject Index
525
Sorokin's tasks, 297
Sorokin's views, changes in, 275
Sorokin's works and Indian thought, 300
Soviet Academy of Pedagogical Sciences,
237
Soviet-American relations, 225, 244-245
Soviet and American systems: conver-
gence of, 243; differences in, 242,
245-246
Soviet Communism, 225
Soviet economic life, uniformity in, 232
Soviet education, vocational, 241
Soviet elections, polar to democratic,
228
Soviet government, 8
Soviet leaders, 230
Soviet legislative process, 228
Soviet Marxist leadership, narrow dog-
matism of, 241-242
Soviet neo-Puritanism in marriage and
family, 154
Soviet Revolution, 236; made "from
above," 226
Soviet Russia, Sorokin's banishment from,
189
Soviet Union: and strict Victorian fami-
ly, 153; as self-perpetuating oligarchy,
227; cultural growth and expansion,
159; future of, 153; government of
characterized, 229; one-party system,
228
Spain: Franco's, 270, 271; inventions in,
428
Specialists, reciprocal intransigence of,
xiii
Specialization, academic, xiii
Speculations, sociological, 276
"Speech disorders," in pseudo-scientific,
psychological jargon, 181
"Speech reactions," 223, 224
Spengler and Sorokin, 300
Spengler-Danilevsky-Toynbee, 414
Spirit, 175; as ultimate reality, 376
Stages, Sorokin's three, 479
State farm, in Soviet economy, 233
Static (cross-section) studies, 212
Statisticians, Toynbee on, 69, 70
Statistics: basic to Sorokin's theory, 352;
massive accumulations of, 350; So-
rokin's, 280; validity of in Kinsey re-
ports, 144
Status, defined, 251
Stereotypes, historians', 286
Stock objection to Sorokin's works, 281-
282
Stockholm, University of, v
Stoicism, 169
Strains, inherent, 212
Strata variables, 124
Stratification: and instability, 129; eco-
nomic, 451-453; fluctuational and not
unidirectional, 125; future changes in,
450; increase of in later periods of cul-
tures, 451; relative absence of, 17,
18; softening of, 450-451; trendless
fluctuations in, 451; trends in, 129
Students: like plants if cultivated, 474-
475; of Sorokin, 474
Study
of
History, A, Toynbee's, 409
Study
of
War, A, Quincy Wright's, 313,
444, 457
"Subconscious," 381
Subject Index to Periodicals, British, 277
Subjectivity, reduction of in Sorokin's
research, 444-445
Success: and creativity, 434; intoxi-
cating when unmerited, 435
Successful climbing, glorification of, 452
Suchman's "scalogram-board," value and
hmits of, 447
Sulfism, and ideational mentality, 169
Summum bonum, 372, 373
Sumner's Folkways, 251
Sunday Schools, 202
Superconscious : control by, 303-304;
role of, 303
"Superrational" energy of creative
genius, 25
Supersystem: characteristics of cultural,
409-410; coexistence of dominant with
other two, 480, 489; Sorokin's, as
"ideal type," 480
Supersystems : creativity in alternation
of, 494-495; cultural, 78, 79, 80, 81,
82, 86, 106; decline of, 435
Supraconscious, 167-168, 175, 378, 381
Suprarational, 378; not "supranatural,"
386
Supreme Essence, 175
Supreme Soviet, 228
System: cultural, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77; defi-
nition of cultural, 411-412; test for,
221
Taoism, 373; and ideational mentality,
169
Taoist ages, 400
Taoist "no knowledge," 381
Tautology, nature of, 476
Teacher of teachers, Sorokin as, 203
Techniques: for transformation of per-
526
Subject Index
sons and groups, 177; pedestrian, 448;
vs. substantive studies, 448-449
Technology, regressions in, 429-430
Teleology, in Sorokin's theory of stratifi-
cation, 453
Television advertising, 425
Territorial-state groups, 413
Testing mechanisms, and a society's fate,
129
"Testomania" and "testocracy" in psy-
chology, 182-183
Tests: item analysis, 220; paired com-
parison, 220; social system, 220
Themes of the dialogue, 366-368
Thesis-antithesis and "complementary
principle," 403
Thesis, antithesis, synthesis, 277
Thinkers, integral cognition of, 385
Theories: changing, 398; fluctuation in
domination of, 429; their nature, 314-
315; vulnerability of, 442
Theory: function of, 133; limitations of
a, 314-315; role of in research, 315-
316
Thought, influenced by group aflBliations,
348
Three stages, Sorokin's, 479
Tigris-Euphrates irrigation system, 429
Times Literary Supplement (London),
277, 278, 280, 281
Total reahty: conception of, 378; in-
tegral vievi^ of, 378-379
Totalitarian trends in United States, 466
Toynbee's Hellenic, Chinese, and Jewish
"models," 435
Transformation, by overcoming conflicts,
303
Transitional cultural periods and wars,
459
Translations of Sorokin's works, 9
Trendless fluctuation in stratification,
452-453
Tri-pronged cognition in great discov-
eries, 493
"Triple epistemic correlation," 64, 384,
396
Truman-Churchill meeting at Fulton,
Mo., 468
Truth: integral system of illustrated,
391-392; sensate, ideational, and in-
tegral systems of, 50, 380
Tsarist government, 18, 21, 34
Tsarist Russia, 270
Turkey, x, 270
Two-party system in United States, 465
Typological method, 208
Ugro-Finnish peoples, 4, 16
"Ultimate reality," 55 flF., 107, 372
"Unconscious," 381
Uncreative "smart alecks," as leaders,
473
UNESCO, v, vii, 325, 330
United Kingdom, 294, 296; National
Commission for UNESCO, v
United States, vii, ix, 9, 12, 231, 286;
Children's Bureau, 237; blunders of
Russia and, 468-469; convergence of
Russia and, 404, 463; Department of
Health, Education, and Welfare, 237;
Department of State, ix; future of,
153; Sorokin's prognosis on Russia
and, 467
Unities, causal-meaningful, 411
Universe and not samples, used by So-
rokin, 443
University of' Illinois, 9
University of Minnesota, 9, 189, 190,
333, 474
University of St. Petersburg,
8, 23, 26,
29
University of Wisconsin, 9
Unverified beliefs, value of some, 402
Upanishads, 373
Upward mobility, in United States and
Russia, 236
Urban-rural differences, 198-200
Ursymbol, 108, 109, 110
Utilitarianism, 171
"Utopian or nightmarish" society, Carls-
son's, 454
Value judgment, 63
Value orientation, historians', 284
Values, 62-63; inferior and superior, 406-
407; relative and absolute, 435, 459
Vanderbilt University, ix
Variable, cultural factor as independent,
483-486
Venereal disease trends in United States,
156
Vertically mobile, characteristics of, 129
Vertical social mobility, 197; and anomie,
129; and lowered fertihty, 129; and
talent, 129; generality of, 215; index
of, 215; intensiveness of, 215
Vice, spasmodic drives against, 157
Volkelt Criterion, First and Second, 100
War,, 265-273; and cultural "blossom-
ing," 458; and cultural transition, 269;
and law of polarization, 272; causes
of, 271, 313; definition and quantifica-
Subject Index 527
tion of, 265-267; impact of, 272-273;
factors underlying, 458; fluctuation of,
266; measiu-ing magnitude of, 209-
211; problems of 454 ff.; Production
Board, viii; theory of causation of,
267-272
Wars, 206; and declining sensate culture,
"^270;
459; diflBculties in study of, 441-
442; occurrence of, 458-459; predicted
by Sorokin in 1920's, 459; produced
by incompatibilities, 405
Washington, D. C, 69
Weltanschauung, 14, 22, 24, 26, 28, 29,
88
Western culture, 48, 74, 77, 78, 80, 83,
88, 121, 417, 459
Western society, 78, 95, 103, 104, 118,
125, 126, 364; mobility in, 136
Westminster College, Fulton, Mo., 468
Wisconsin, University of, 189
Winchester, Massachusetts, 189
Words vs. deeds, 357
World as self-developing matter, 377
World War, I, 270; II, 95, 225, 280
Yang and Lee, experiment at Columbia
by, 365
Yarensk, Russia, 6
Yin and Yang of Chinese historians, 84,
86
Yoga, as technique in personality trans-
formation, 177
Yoga Sutra of Pantajali, 303
Yoga system, application of more dif-
ficult than monastic principles, 179
Yogas, Sorokin's understanding of, 302
Youth movements. Communist, 239
Zemstvo, Russian "county" elective au-
thorities, 18
Zemstvo schools, in Russia, 240
Zen Buddhist thinkers, 373
Zhukov, demotion of, 230
Znamensky chants, 16
Zuni, 480
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