Zusammenfassung
We all aware of the diversity of views in the study of Tönnies, contrasts which have lead some scholars to assert that research on Tönnies is full of ambiguity. However, if we attempt to understand each of these differing views within its context — its approach, or its ideal or cultural background — we will recognize that the differences between points of view correspond to differences in background. Indeed, we may even be able to establish some complementary relation between the various views and their respective backgrounds, (which we shall here refer to as the „viewbackground set“, or simply „scenario“). The establishment of such relationship by comparing differing views should therefore further our total understanding of Tönnies, as unsatisfactory as it might be at this stage.
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Literatur
In the present paper the statements on Arthur Mitzman’s approach are mainly drawn from his book „Sociology and Estrangement — Three Sociologists of Imperial Germany“ (1973). Rudolf Heberle (1975) reviewed Mitzman’s book in the American Journal of Sociology.
For another statement by the present writer on Eduard Georg Jacoby’s approach, see Shoji Kato (1985, p.156 -159).
For example Cornelius Bickel (1986, p. 333, fn. 65).
On Mitzman’s ‚Weltanschauung‘. It is well known that René König, in his comparison of the first and second edition of „Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft“, pointed out that „Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft“ contained Tönnies’ philosophy. Mitzman, in a sense, substitues ‚Weltanschauung‘ for ‚philosophy‘. Dewey critized the ambiguity of the German philosophical concept ‚Weltanschauung‘. Dewey used ‚world intuition‘ or ‚world outlook‘ as an English translation of ‚Weltanschauung‘ (John Dewey, 1942, p. 21). However, today, the term ‚world view‘ is effectively adopted in many anthropological studies. Although Mitzman himself does not define the term clearly, he uses his ‚Weltanschauung‘ as a kind of ‚world view‘ adopted in anthropological approaches. See Robert Redfield (1952); George M. Forster (1965); John W. Bennett (1966); John H. Kunkel (1970). John H. Kunkel (1970, p. 218 f.) writes: „A person‘s conception of the universe, his ideas about the ways of the world, and his assumptions concerning man’s position in both, are usually summarized as his ‚world view‘. The central component of any world view is a complex and not necessarily consistent set of principles in terms of which the universe is assumed to operate. World view thus includes many of man’s religious and philosophical belief, but is not necessarily synonymous with his religion or philosophy or congruent with empirical evidence.“
Cf. 3. On Tönnies’ opposition to German state theories in the Kaiserreich in his construction of „Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft“, see chapter III of the present paper.
Julien Freund, French sociologist studying German sociology, also briefly praises Tönnies’ view on Hobbes. See Julien Freund (1978).
The following statements — 1. -6. — on the ‚psychodynamic model of man‘ are based mainly upon John H. Kunkel (1970, p.18–19). For a critique of the model, see: Calvin S. Hall/Gardner L. Lindzey (1957); Ruth L. Munroe (1955); Benjamin B. Wolman (1960); John H. Kunkel (1970).
Such as: Erich Fromm (1941); Theodor W. Adorno (1950); Harald D. Laswell (1948); Everett E. Hagen (1962); David C. McClelland (1961).
For example, Mitzman uses ‚rationalization as a defence mechanism‘ to explain „Tönnies and Romanticism“. See Arthur Mitzman (1973, chapter VII).
This type embraces both Nietzsche’s Dionysos and Goethe’s Faust, and Dionysos and Faust are two sides of the same coin, according to Mitzman.
John Dewey (1942, p. 81–82) said: But it does seem to be true that the Germans, more readily than other people, can withdraw themselves from the exigencies and contingencies of life into a region of Innerlichkeit which at least seems boundless; and which can rarely by successfully uttered save through music, and a frail and tender poetry, sometimes domestic, sometimes lyric, but always full of mysterious charm. But technical ideas about means and instrument, can readily be externalized because the outer world is in truth their abiding home.“
According to John Dewey (1916, p. 261): „How largely German philosophy has sought refuge in an inner world, a world of consciousness; how largely it has made traits of this inner life a measure of reality! From the standpoint of one who is not a subject of Romanticism this means but one thing. The Romantic spirit has deliberately evaded the testing and shifting of emotion and ideas; it has declined to submit them for valuation to the test of hard and sober fact. It has avoided the test of attempted execution in action. To those who believe that human consciousness is a wild riot of imagination until human beings act upon it and thus bring it to the best of reality, Romanticism can mean only undisciplined imagination, immaturity of mind“.
On the „École des Annales“ (Annales d’histoire économique et sociale), see Traian Stoianovich (1977); Edgar Morin (1962); Marc Bloch (1928).
„Die Hauptbegriffe waren auch in fortwährender kritischer Beziehung auf die Theoreme Lorenz Steins, Iherings und Schäffles gedacht ...“ (Ferdinand Tönnies, 1926a, p.98).
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Kato, S. (1991). A Comparative Study of the Gemeinschaft Concept. In: Clausen, L., Schlüter, C. (eds) Hundert Jahre „Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft“. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-663-01367-9_30
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