Sorokin’s Amitology and Lewis’s Four Loves:Integrating Scientific and Artistic Imaginations

Human Arenas - Tập 3 - Trang 23-37 - 2019
Lawrence T. Nichols1
1West Virginia University, Morgantown, USA

Tóm tắt

Taking Mangone and Dolgov’s 2019 article on Pitirim Sorokin’s “altruistic creative love” as a point of departure, I argue that Sorokin’s scientific approach could be further developed by linking it with work expressing an esthetic, artistic perspective. To illustrate, I compare Sorokin’s treatment of love, altruism, and amitology with writings by British author Clive Staples (“C.S.”) Lewis, especially The Four Loves (1960). I also draw on selected autobiographical and biographical sources, in order to illumine the development of distinctive scientific and artistic sensibilities in the two writers. In contrast to Sorokin’s application of a scientific frame of reference, including abstract variables, measurement strategies, and causal analysis, Lewis offers a treatment grounded in personal experience that has affinities with “thick description” in the social sciences, as well as auto-ethnography and Kurt Wolff’s phenomenological method of “surrender and catch.” The scientific frame yields a more detached, external knowledge, whereas the artistic produces a more immediate, interior type of knowing. I conclude that combining scientific and artistic understandings of love would accomplish part of the ambitious program that Sorokin called Integralism, while also contributing to the project of creating a “positive” sociology that Mangone and Dolgov advocate.

Tài liệu tham khảo

Abbott, A. (2007). Against narrative: A preface to lyrical sociology. Sociological Theory, 25(1), 67–99. Burawoy, M. (2005). For public sociology. American Sociological Review, 70(1), 4–28. Carpenter, H. (1997). The inklings: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and their friends. New York: Harper Collins. Celarent, B. (2017). Varieties of sociological imagination. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Cipriani, R. (2017). Sociological knowledge of the other: Wolff’s “‘surrender and catch” methodology. The American Sociologist, 48(1), 67–85. Ellis, C., Adams, T., & Bochner, A. (2011). Autoethnography: An overview. Historical Social Research, 36(4), 273–290. Geertz, C. (1973). Thick description: Toward an interpretative theory of culture. In C. Geertz (Ed.), The interpretation of culture: Selected essays (pp. 3–30). New York: Basic Books. Green, R. L. (1974). C. S. Lewis: A biography. New York: Harcourt, Brace. Hooper, W. (2015). The inklings. In R. White (Ed.), C. S. Lewis and his circle. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Jacobs, A. (2005). The Narnian: The life and imagination of C. S. Lewis. New York: Harper. Jeffries, V. (2005). Pitirim a. Sorokin’s integralism and public sociology. The American Sociologist, 36(3–4), 66–87. Johnston, B. V. (1995). Pitirim A. Sorokin: An intellectual biography. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. Johnston, B. V. (2017 [1991]). Integralism, altruism and social emancipation: A Sorokinian model of prosocial behavior and social organization. In C. Rhodes (Ed.), Renewal: The inclusion of Integralism and moral values into the social sciences (pp. 43–57). Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books. Krotov, P. (2005). Pitirim Sorokin’s autobiography as a reflection of his altruistic transformation. Sociology, 1. Lewis, C. S. (1936). The allegory of love. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Lewis, C. S. (1940). The problem of pain. London: Centenary Press. Lewis, C. S. (1942). A preface to Paradise Lost. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lewis, C. S. (1945). That hideous strength. London: Bodley Head. Lewis, C. S. (1947). Miracles. London: Collins/Fontana. Lewis, C. S. (1952). Mere Christianity. London: Geoffrey Bles. Lewis, C. S. (1954). English literature in the sixteenth century: Excluding drama. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lewis, C. S. (1955). Surprised by joy: The shape of my early life. London: Geoffrey Bles. Lewis, C. S. (1956). Till we have faces. London: Geoffrey Bles. Lewis, C. S. (1960). The four loves. New York: Harcourt, Brace. Lewis, C. S. (1961). A grief observed. London: Faber and Faber. Lewis, C. S. (1991). All my roads before me: The diary of C. S. Lewis, 1922–1927. London: Harper Collins. Mangone, E., & Dolgov, A. (2019). Sorokin’s “altruistic creative love”: Genesis, methodological issues and applied aspects. Human Arenas, 1–17. McGrath, A. (2013). C. S. Lewis: Eccentric genius, reluctant prophet. Colorado Springs: Tyndale. Misztal, B. A. (2016). Sociological imagination and literary intuition. Comparative Sociology, 15(3), 300–323. Nichols, L. T. (1999). Science, politics and moral activism: Sorokin’s integralism reconsidered. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 35(2), 139–155. Nichols, L. T. (2006). The diversity of Sorokin’s Integralism: Eastern, western, Christian and non-Christian variants. In E. Del Pozo Avino (Ed.), Integralism, altruism and reconstruction: Essays in honor of Pitirm A. Sorokin (pp. 59–69). Valencia, Spain: University of Valencia Publications. Nichols, L. T. (2017). Integralism and positive psychology: A comparison of Sorokin and Seligman. In C. Rhodes (Ed.), Renewal: The inclusion of Integralism and moral values into the social sciences (pp. 59–73). Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books. Nichols, L. T. (2018). Pitirim Sorokin’s ‘long journey’ to altruism: Integrating science, spirituality and service. Nasledie, 1(12), 125–143. Nygren, A. (1953). Agape and Eros. Philadelphia: Westminster Press. Rusu, M. S. (2018). Theorizing love in sociological thought: Classical contributions to a sociology of love. Journal of Classical Sociology, 18(1), 3–20. Ryle, G. (1949). The concept of mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Sikes, P. (Ed.). (2013). Autoethnography. 4 volumes. London: Sage. Smith, C. (2014). The sacred project of American sociology. Oxford: New York. Sorokin, P. A. (1920). A system of sociology. 2 volumes. Petrograd: Kolos. Sorokin, P. A. (1924). Leaves from a Russian diary. New York: Dutton. Sorokin, P. A. (1925). The sociology of revolution. Philadelphia: Lippincott. Sorokin, P. A. (1927). Social mobility. New York: Dutton. Sorokin, P. A. (1937-1941). Social and cultural dynamics. Vols. I-III. New York: American Book Co. Sorokin, P. A. (1941). The crisis of our age. Boston: Beacon Press. Sorokin, P. A. (1942). Man and society in calamity. New York: Dutton. Sorokin, P. A. (1947). Society, culture and personality. New York: Harper. Sorokin, P. A. (1948). The reconstruction of humanity. Boston: Beacon Press. Sorokin, P. A. (1950a). Altruistic love: A study of American “good neighbors” and Christian saints. Boston: Beacon Press. Sorokin, P. A. (Ed.). (1950b). Explorations in altruistic love and behavior: A symposium. Boston: Beacon Press. Sorokin, P. A. (Ed.). (1954a). Forms and techniques of altruistic love and spiritual growth: A symposium. Boston: Beacon Press. Sorokin, P. A. (1954b). The ways and power of love. Boston: Beacon Press. Sorokin, P. A. (1956). Integralism is my faith. In S. G. Cole (Ed.), This is my faith (pp. 212–227). New York: Harper. Sorokin, P. A. (1958). Integralism is my philosophy. In W. Burnet (Ed.), This is my philosophy (pp. 180–189). London: Allen and Unwin. Sorokin, P. A. (1963a). A long journey. New Haven: College and University Press. Sorokin, P. A. (1963b). Sociology of my mental life. In P. Allen (Ed.), Pitirim a. Sorokin in review (pp. 300–325). Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Sorokin, P. A. (1975 [1922]). Hunger as a factor in human affairs. Trans. E. P. Sorokin. Gainesville: University of Florida Press. Sorokin, P. A., Zimmerman, C. C., & Galpin, C. J. (Eds.). (1930-1932). A systematic sourcebook in rural sociology. New York: Harper. Tolkien, J. R. R. (1937). The hobbit, or there and back again. London: Allen and Unwin. Tolkien, J. R. R. (1968). The lord of the rings. One volume edition. London: Unwin. Weinstein, J. (2000). Creative altruism: Restoring Sorokin’s applied sociology. Journal of Applied Sociology, 17(1), 86–117. White, R. (2015). C. S. Lewis and his circle. New York: Oxford.