Social cycle

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The social cycle theory is one of the oldest theories in sociology . In contrast to social evolutionism , which regards the evolution of society and the history of mankind as progress in a new, unique direction, this theory states that events and stages of development in society and history are repeated in cycles and therefore there can be no social progress .

This interpretation of history first emerged in the 19th century in the “historiosophy” (a branch of historiography ) and was soon taken up in sociology.

The Russian philosopher Nikolai Danilewski (1822–1885) played an important role. In his work Rossiia I Europa (1895) he distinguished several smaller civilizations (Egyptians, Chinese, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Teutons, Slavs). He wrote that every civilization has a life cycle and that at the end of the 19th century the Roman-Germanic civilization was in decline as the Slavic civilization approached its golden age . A similar theory was presented by Oswald Spengler , who in Der Untergang des Abendlandes (1918) also expected that Western civilization was about to collapse.

The first cycle theory in sociology was published by the Italian sociologist and economist Vilfredo Pareto in his work Trattato di Sociologia Generale (1916). At the center of his theory was an elitist class of society, which he divided into clever “foxes” and wild “lions”. In this society, power always changes from the “foxes” to the “lions” and vice versa.

Pitirim Sorokin classified the societies in Social and Cultural Dynamics (1937, 1943) according to their "cultural mentality" in 1. "ideational" (strictly morally oriented towards spiritual, otherworldly sources of truth), 3. "sensat" (oriented towards the sensual here and there) as a source of truth [striving for happiness, empiricism]) or 2. "idealistic" (a synthesis of both), whereby the different types of society follow each other as numbered and the third phase appears as decadence. He interpreted the contemporary West as a so-called "sensate" civilization, which is dedicated to economic-technological progress, and prophesied its decline and the emergence of a new idealistic or idealistic era.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ s. Archived copy ( memento of the original from July 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.imprint.co.uk

Web links

  • Korotayev A. , Malkov A., Khaltourina D. Introduction to Social Macrodynamics: Secular Cycles and Millennial Trends. Moscow: URSS, 2006 [1] .
  • Korotayev A. & Khaltourina D. Introduction to Social Macrodynamics: Secular Cycles and Millennial Trends in Africa. Moscow: URSS, 2006 [2] .
  • Turchin, P. (2003) Historical Dynamics: Why States Rise and Fall . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press [3] .