Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T12:25:15.444Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Critical Naïveté?

Religion, Science and Action in the Parsons-Voegelin Correspondence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2013

Peter Brickey LeQuire  and
Daniel Silver
Peter Brickey LeQuire
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Samford University [pblequir@samford.edu].
Daniel Silver
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Toronto [dsilver@utsc.utoronto.ca].
Get access

Abstract

Between 1940 and 1944, sociologist Talcott Parsons and political scientist Eric Voegelin engaged in a vigorous correspondence, discussing the origins of totalitarianism and modern anti-Semitism, the legacy of Max Weber, patterns of secularization set in motion by the Protestant Reformation, the methodology and goals of social science, and more. This article introduces and explicates the surprisingly amicable and intellectually rich exchange between these two seemingly different thinkers. Although the letters hold obvious historical interest, their variegated topics are also closely thematically related, revealing an inner logic that we interpret as a theoretical search for “critical naïveté”. This logic, we argue, is relevant to contemporary discussions about the social, political, and scientific legacies of world-transcendent spiritual traditions.

Résumé

De 1940 à 1944, Talcott Parsons et Eric Voegelin, opposant au nazisme récemment émigré entretiennent une correspondance suivie que I'on peut classer sous cinq grandes entrées : Théorie de I'action et histoire des idées politiques, Formes de sécularisation, Méthodologie des sciences sociales, Legs de Max Weber, La transcendance des sciences sociales. Certaines lettres on déjà été publiées, mais I'ensemble ne I'avait pas été. II I'est désormais dans I'édition électronique de la revue. L'article ici proposé entend être une présentation et un guide pour éviter le piège d'anachronisme dans I'interprétation.

Zusammenfassung

Von 1940 bis 1944 führen Talcott Parsons und Eric Voegelin, ein kürzlich ausgewanderter Naziregimegegner, einen Briefwechsel, der in fünf große Abschnitte unterteilt werden kann: Handlungstheorie und politische Ideengeschichte, Säkularisationsformen, sozialwissenschaftliche Methodik, Webers Vermächtnis, Transzendenz der Sozialwissenschaften.

Auch wenn einige Briefe bereits veröffentlicht worden sind, gab es bis dato keine Gesamtausgabe. Sie liegt nun als elektronische Ausgabe der Zeitschrift vor. Der hier veröffentlichte Beitrag versteht sich als Einführung und Leitfaden, um eine Irreführung der Interpretation durch den Anachronismus zu verhindern.

Keywords

ParsonsVoegelinReligionTheory of actionAnti-SemitismTranscendenceAxial ageParsonsVoegelinReligionThéorie de I'actionAntisémitismeTranscendancePériode axialeParsonsVoegelinReligionHandlungstheorieAntisemitismusTranszendenzAxial Age
Type
Research Articles
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , August 2013 , pp. 265 - 293
Copyright
Copyright © A.E.S. 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arendt, Hannah, 1953. “A Reply”, Review of Politics 15 (1): 76-84.Google Scholar
Armstrong, Karen, 2006. The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions (New York, Alfred A. Knopf).Google Scholar
Black, Antony, 2008. “The ‘Axial Age’: What Was It and What Does It Signify?”, Review of Politics, 70: 23-39.Google Scholar
Bortolini, Matteo, trans. 2000. “Eric Voegelin – Talcott Parsons Lettere 1940-1944”, in Morandi, Emmanuelle, ed., La società accaduta: Tracce di una “nuova” scienza sociale in Eric Voegelin (Milan, Angeli: 129-172).Google Scholar
Boy, John and Torpey, John, 2013. “Inventing the axial age: the origins and uses of a historical concept”, Theory and Society, 42 (1): 241-259.Google Scholar
Buxton, William and Rehorick, David, 2001. “The Place of Max Weber in the Post-Structure Writings of Talcott Parsons”, in Treviño, Javier, Talcott Parsons Today: His Theory and Legacy in Contemporary Sociology (Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield: 29-59).Google Scholar
Camic, Charles, 1989. “Structure after 50 years: The Anatomy of a Charter”, American Journal of Sociology, 95 (1): 38-107.Google Scholar
Dalferth, Ingolf U., 2012. “The Idea of an Axial Age: A Phenomenological Reconsideration.” Neue Zeitschrift Für Systematische Theologie Und Religionsphilosophie 54 (2): 127-146. doi:10.1515/nzsth-2012-0001.Google Scholar
Gerhardt, Uta, ed., 1993. Talcott Parsons on National Socialism (New York, Walter de Gruyter).Google Scholar
Gerhardt, Uta, 2002. Talcott Parsons, An Intellectual Biography (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Gouldner, Alvin W., 1971. The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology (London, Heinemann Educational Books).Google Scholar
Grathoff, Richard, ed., 1978. The Theory of Social Action: The Correspondence of Alfred Schutz and Talcott Parsons (Bloomington, Indiana University Press).Google Scholar
Green, William A., 1992. “Periodization in European and World History”, Journal of World History, 3 (1): 13-53.Google Scholar
Hughes, Glenn, 1993. Mystery and Myth in the Philosophy of Eric Voegelin (Columbia, University of Missouri Press).Google Scholar
Jaspers, Karl, 1949. Vom Ursprung und Ziel der Geschichte (Zurich, Artemis-Verlag).Google Scholar
Jaspers, Karl, 1953. On the Origin and Goal of History, trans. Bullock, M. (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul).Google Scholar
Joas, Hans, 2012. “The Axial Age as Religious Discourse”, in Bellah, Robert N. and Joas, Hans, eds., The Axial Age and its Consequences (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
Kayser, Christine, 1961. Calvinism and German Politics, Ph.D. diss. Harvard University.Google Scholar
LeQuire, Peter Brickey, 2010. “Politics and the Axial Age Debate”, paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
LeQuire, Peter Brickey, 2011. “Political Theology in Eric Voegelin’s Philosophy of History”, Ph.D. diss. University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Levine, Donald, 1980. Simmel and Parsons: Two Approaches to the Study of Society (New York, Arno).Google Scholar
Loy, David R., 2012. “Beyond Transcendence? A Buddhist Perspective on the Axial Age”in Wexler, Philip and Garb, Jonathan, eds., After Spirituality: Studies in Mystical Traditions (New York, Peter Lang: 155-172).Google Scholar
Parsons, Talcott, 1966. Societies: Evolutionary and Comparative Perspectives (Englewood-Cliffs, Prentice-Hall).Google Scholar
Parsons, Talcott, 1978. Action Theory and the Human Condition (New York, The Free Press).Google Scholar
Parsons, Talcott, 2011. Actor, Situation, and Normative Pattern: An Essay in the Theory of Social Action, in Lidz, Victor and Staubmann, Helmut, eds. (New Brunswick/ London: Transaction Press).Google Scholar
Rehorick, David and Buxton, William, 1988. “Recasting the Parsons-Schutz Dialogue: The Hidden Participation of Eric Voegelin” in Embree, Lester, ed., Worldly Phenomenology: The Continuing Influence of Alfred Schutz on North American Human Science (Washington, D.C., University Press of America: 151-169).Google Scholar
Schütz, Alfred and Voegelin, Eric, 2004. Eine Freundschaft, die ein Leben ausgehalten hat, edited by Gerhard, Wagner and Weiss, Gilbert (Constance, UVK Verlagsgesellschaft).Google Scholar
Schütz, Alfred and Voegelin, Eric, 2011. A Friendship That Lasted a Lifetime: The Correspondence Between Alfred Schütz and Eric Voegelin, edited by Wagner, Gerhard and Weiss, Gilbert, trans. Petropulos, W. (Columbia, University of Missouri Press).Google Scholar
Voegelin, Eric, 1989-2009. The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin, edited by Sandoz, Ellis, 34 vols (Columbia, University of Missouri Press).Google Scholar
Weber, Max, 1947. The Theory of Social and Economic Organization, in Parsons, Talcott, ed., trans. Henderson, A. M. and Parsons, T. (New York, Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Yang, Young-Jin, 1986. “Durkheim and Weber: Two Approaches to the Study of Religion and Society”, Ph.D diss. University of Chicago.Google Scholar