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| Pitirim Sorokin |
Pitirim Sorokin was one of the main sociologists of the 20th century, perhaps the best. One of his masterpieces is titled Social and Cultural Dynamics, where he makes an analysis of the history of civilizations parallel to that carried out independently by the philosopher Oswald Spengler, the historian Arnold J. Toynbee and the anthropologist A.L. Kroeber. In one of the 42 chapters of this work, Sorokin distinguishes seven systems of truth and knowledge, which can be grouped into three large groups:
1. Ideational systems: they are based on the truth of faith. The principle of truth is God, who provides truth through revelation, divine inspiration, mystical experience, and so forth. In this group, Sorokin classifies three systems of truth and knowledge:
a. Fideism: It denies that knowledge can be obtained
through empirical or rational means: the only source of knowledge would be the
will to believe.
b. Mysticism: It asserts that empirical and rational
knowledge are valid, but shallow, because they cannot penetrate to the final
reality or absolute truth.
c. Religious rationalism: It states that
reason plays an important role as a source of knowledge, but is subordinated to
faith. If both are opposed, reason is invalid or heretical.
2. Idealistic systems:
d. Idealistic rationalism: It assigns the
main role to reason, as a source of knowledge. Empirical data also play an important
role, as do the truths of faith. These three sources are integrated in a
harmonious and coherent way, where the importance of faith is allowed.
3. Sensitive systems:
e. Empiricism: Sensory perception is considered the
only source of knowledge.
f.
Criticism or agnosticism: It
occupies an intermediate position between the two previous systems. It asserts that
only the empirical world is accessible to our knowledge, while transcendent
reality, if it exists, is inaccessible and we don’t need to consider it.
To these six systems, we should add
another one, which does not fit with any of the three groups:
g. Skepticism: It denies the existence of a valid
source of knowledge.
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| Arnold J. Toynbee |
Some 19th century thinkers (such as Karl
Marx or Herbert Spencer) said that there has been a progressive evolution from
religious to philosophical, and to scientific conceptions. Sorokin collected
data on the thinkers, philosophers, and scientists of the Greco-Roman and
Western civilizations over a period of 2500 years, classified them according to
the six systems mentioned, and got the distribution of this figure:
From his analysis the following can be deduced:
- Marxist
or Spencerian historical evolution
does not exist.
- Fideism had its great era between the 3rd
centuries b.C.e. and the first C.e., and resurfaced again in the 11th
century and the 15th century.
- The
golden age of mysticism was
the 1st to 7th centuries, although its influence has been important from
the 9th century to the present day.
- Rationalism (here Sorokin treats together
both versions of this system) has remained at a fairly high level during
the 2500 years and reached its maximum expansion in the 6th century BC,
the 8th century and the 13th century. In recent centuries it has suffered
some setback.
- Empiricism had a great era in the six
centuries before Christ, disappeared during the Early Middle Ages,
recovered again during the Late Middle Ages, and has experienced enormous
expansion during the last four centuries.
- Agnosticism only appears in history from
the 18th century onwards. It is a minority system.
- Finally,
skepticism had its great period
in the five centuries before the Christian era, although it re-emerged
from the 18th century onwards.
Sorokin's conclusion is that history does
not show a linear change, but rather a series of fluctuations: Greek thought
began with an ideational phase,
went through an idealistic phase,
and ended with a mixed Greco-Roman idealistic-sensitive
phase. Next came a new triumph of faith-based (ideational)
systems that spread throughout the Early Middle Ages. In the Late Middle Ages, we
had a new idealistic era, which
coincided with the resurrection of sensitive
systems, which grew enormously from the 16th to the 20th centuries.
We perceive, therefore, an oscillation
between ideational, idealistic and sensitive systems, which could give way,
within a short time, to a new ideational epoch, contrary to the idea of many
current thinkers, who tend to believe that the triumph of the sensitive system
will be permanent. The current rise of skepticism, which is not included in
Sorokin's data, could be an indication in this regard.
Thematic Thread on Science and History: Previous Next
Manuel Alfonseca
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