- Pitirim Sorokin
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Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin (Russian: Питири́м Алекса́ндрович Соро́кин; January 21, 1889 – February 11, 1968) was a Russian-American sociologist born in Komi (Finno-Ugric region of Russia). Academic and political activist in Russia, he emigrated from Russia to the United States in 1923. He founded the Department of Sociology at Harvard University. He was a vocal opponent of Talcott Parsons' theories. Sorokin was an ardent opponent of communism, which he regarded as a "pest of man."[citation needed] He is best known for his contributions to the social cycle theory.
Contents
Biography
Supporting himself as artisan and clerk, he was able to study at the University of St. Petersburg and to teach sociology and law. Sorokin joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party and was imprisoned three times by the czarist regime of Russian Empire; during the Russian Revolution he was a member of Alexander Kerensky's Russian Provisional Government. After the October Revolution he engaged in anti-Communist activities, for which he was condemned to death by the victorious Communist government; the sentence was commuted to exile. He emigrated in 1923 to the United States and was naturalized in 1930. Sorokin was professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota (1924–30) and at Harvard University (1930–55), where he founded the Department of Sociology.
Works
Before his achievements as a professor in the United States he had his diary, Leaves of a Russian Diary, published in 1924 by E.P. Dutton & Co., giving his personal daily account and at times hourly account of the Russian Revolution which actually first started in February of 1917 where he was in the forefront of creating a provisionary government only to see it unravel and lose power to the Bolsheviks in October 1917. He published an addendum to the book in 1950 called The Thirty Years After published by The Beacon Press. It is a personal and brutishly honest account of the revolution and of his exile. His academic writings cover the breadth of sociology; his controversial theories of social process and of the historical typology of cultures are expounded in Social and Cultural Dynamics (4 vol., 1937–41; rev. and abridged ed. 1957) and many other works. He was also interested in social stratification, the history of sociological theory, and altruistic behavior.
Sorokin is author of books such as The crisis of our age and Power and morality, but his magnum opus is Social and Cultural Dynamics (1937–1941). His unorthodox theories contributed to the social cycle theory and inspired (or alienated) many sociologists.
In his Social and Cultural Dynamics he classified societies according to their 'cultural mentality', which can be ideational (reality is spiritual), sensate (reality is material), or idealistic (a synthesis of the two). He suggested that major civilizations evolve through these three in turn: ideational, idealistic, sensate. Each of these phases of cultural development not only seeks to describe the nature of reality, but also stipulates the nature of human needs and goals to be satisfied, the extent to which they should be satisfied, and the methods of satisfaction. Sorokin has interpreted the contemporary Western civilisation as a sensate civilisation dedicated to technological progress and prophesied its fall into decadence and the emergence of a new ideational or idealistic era.
In Fads and foibles, he criticizes Lewis Terman's Genetic Studies of Genius research, showing that his selected group of children with high IQs did about as well as a random group of children selected from similar family backgrounds would have done.[1]
Sorokin's papers are currently held by the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada where they are available for the public. In March 2009 the Sorokin Research Center was established at the facilities of Syktyvkar State University in the Republic of Komi for the purpose of research and publication of archive materials, mainly from the collection at the University of Saskatchewan. The first research project “Selected Correspondence of Pitirim Sorokin: Scientist from Komi on The Service of Humanity” (in Russian) has been drafted and will be in print in the Fall of 2009 in Russia.[2]
See also
Publications
- Social and Cultural Dynamics: A Study of Change in Major Systems of Art, Truth, Ethics, Law and Social Relationships (1957 (reprinted 1970) ed.). Boston: Extending Horizons Books, Porter Sargent Publishers. ISBN 0-87558-029-7.
- Sorokin, Pitirim Aleksandrovich (1954/2002). The Ways and Power of Love: Types, Factors, and Techniques of Moral Transformation. Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press (Original work published 1954). ISBN 1890151866. (with introduction by Stephen G. Post in 2002 edition) (552 pages)
- Fads and foibles in modern sociology and related sciences. Chicago, H. Regnery Co., 1956, OCoLC 609427839. Reprinted by Greenwood Publishing Group, 1976, ISBN 978-0-8371-8733-4.
- (with Lunden, W. A.), Power and morality: who shall guard the guardians? Boston, MA: Porter Sargent Publishers, 1959
- Teaming up: making the transition to a self-directed, team-based organization (1995). ISBN 978-0-0705-1646-5
- The crisis of our age, Chatam, NY: Oneworld Publications, Ltd, 1992
- "Society, Culture, and Personality: Their Structure and Dynamics, A System of General Sociology" , Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York & London, 1947 (723 double columned pages plus an 11 triple coumned page Index and a 7 triple columned page Index of Names)
On Sorokin
- Cuzzort, R. P. and King, E. W., Twentieth-Century social thought (5th ed.). New York, NY: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1995
- Gambescia, C., Invito alla lettura di Sorokin. Rome, Italy: Edizioni Settimo Sigillo, 2002
- Johnston, B.V (1995). Pitirim A. Sorokin an Intellectual Biography . Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.
- Nieli, Russell (2006). "Critic of the sensate culture: rediscovering the genius of Pitirim Sorokin". The Political Science Reviewer (Intercollegiate Studies Institute) 35: 264–379. ISSN 0091-3715. http://www.mmisi.org/pr/35_01/nieli.pdf.
References
- ^ Gladwell, Malcolm (2008). Outliers. New York. pp. 90. ISBN 978-0-316-03669-6. http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/104760101.
- ^ "Sorokin Research Center (Russia, Komi Republic, Syktyvkar)" (in Russian). Sorokin Research Center. http://www.pitirimsorokin.org. Retrieved 2009-09-11.
External links
- The Pitirim A. Sorokin Foundation (USA)
- The Pitirim A. Sorokin Foundation (in Russian)
- The Pitirim A. Sorokin Foundation in LiveJournal (in Russian)
- Community in LiveJournal (in Russian)
- American Sociological Association page
- Pitirim Sorokin Collection in Canada
- Culture in crisis: the visionary theories of Pitirim Sorokin
See also
- Komi Republic
- Sorokin Research Center
Categories:- 1889 births
- 1968 deaths
- People from the Komi Republic
- American sociologists
- American philosophers
- American anti-communists
- Russian sociologists
- Russian philosophers
- Russian anti-communists
- American people of Russian descent
- Social scientists
- Economic historians
- Systems scientists
- Complex systems scientists
- Revolution theorists
- Theories of history
- Harvard University faculty
- University of Minnesota
- Sociocultural evolution
- Cross-cultural studies
- Presidents of the American Sociological Association
- Soviet emigrants to the United States
- Komi people
- Socialist-Revolutionary Party members
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