Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-x4r87 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T04:53:28.690Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

When Philosophy Met Social Psychology

An Interpretation of The Polish Peasant in Europe and America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2018

Michal Kaczmarczyk
Michal Kaczmarczyk*
Affiliation:
University of Gdansk, Faculty of Social Sciences [wnsmka@ug.edu.pl].
Get access

Abstract

The Polish Peasant in Europe and America is one of the foundational works of American and world sociology, famous for its innovative qualitative methodology. Its authors proposed new theoretical ideas, including a concept of social causality and a new theory of personality combining a biologistic concept of temperament with a culturalist concept of character. Interpreters of the book still disagree about the extent of each author’s actual contribution to the work and about its scientific status in light of modern sociological theories. This article claims that to understand the book one has to take into account the previous intellectual trajectories of both authors. As a theoretical dialogue between representatives of two contrary approaches, the work may serve as an alternative to the supposed theoretical “convergence” offered two decades later by Talcott Parsons.

Résumé

Reconnu pour sa méthodologie qualitative innovatrice, Le Paysan polonais en Europe et en Amérique, récit de vie d’un migrant est une œuvre fondamentale non seulement de la sociologie américaine, mais aussi mondiale. Ses deux auteurs proposent de nouvelles idées théoriques, en particulier le principe de causalité et la nouvelle théorie de la personnalité. Cette dernière combine deux concepts, à savoir : le tempérament biologique et la personnalité culturaliste. Les interprétations du livre ne sont pas toujours d’accord quant à la contribution réelle de chacun des deux auteurs au travail commun sur cette œuvre ainsi qu’à son importance pour des théories sociologiques contemporaines. Cet article montre que l’étude des chemins intellectuels précédents de William Thomas et de Florian Znaniecki est indispensable pour la comprehension de l’œuvre Le Paysan polonais en Europe et en Amérique, récit de vie d’un migrant. Étant un dialogue théorique entre ces deux auteurs représentant des concepts opposés, ce livre peut être considéré comme une alternative à la thèse de la convergence de Talcott Parsons apparue deux décennies plus tard.

Zusammenfassung

The Polish Peasant in Europe and America gehört zu den grundlegenden Werken der Soziologie Amerikas bzw. der Welt. Die neuen theoretischen Ideen der beiden Autoren vereinen sowohl ein Konzept sozialer Kausalität als auch eine neue Persönlichkeitstheorie, die ein biologistisches Temperamentskonzept mit einem kulturalistischen Charakterkonzept kombiniert. Die Rezensenten sind sich immer noch nicht über den jeweiligen Beitragsumfang eines jeden Autors einig. Auch über die wissenschaftliche Bedeutung im Rahmen der modernen soziologischen Theorien wird debattiert. Der vorliegende Aufsatz weist daraufhin, dass das Buch nur vor dem Hintergrund der intellektuellen Entwicklungen beider Autoren verstanden werden kann. Als theoretischer Dialog zwischen Vertretern zweier sich widersprechenden Ansätze könnte das Werk eine Alternative zu der zwei Jahrzehnte später erschienenen Konvergenzthese von Talcott Parsons darstellen.

Keywords

William Isaac ThomasFlorian ZnanieckiAttitudeValuePersonalityBehaviorismCulturalismWilliam Isaac ThomasFlorian ZnanieckiAttitudePersonnalitéPragmatismBéhaviorismeCulturalismeWilliam Isaac ThomasFlorian ZnanieckiEinstellungWertPersönlichkeitPragmatismusBehaviorismusKulturalismus
Type
Rethinking the Classics
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 59 , Issue 2 , August 2018 , pp. 257 - 299
Copyright
Copyright © A.E.S. 2018 

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

Abbott, Andrew and Egloff, Rainer, 2008. “The Polish Peasant in Oberlin and Chicago. The Intellectual Trajectory of W. I. Thomas”, American Sociologist, 39: 217-258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumer, Herbert, 1939. An Appraisal of Thomas and Znaniecki’s The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (New York, Social Science Research Council).Google Scholar
Caradec, Vincent, 1999. “Review of: Thomas (William Isaac), Znaniecki (Florian Witold)—Le paysan polonais en Europe et en Amérique. Récit de vie d’un migrant (Chicago 1919)”, Revue française de sociologie, 40 (4): 765-767.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dulczewski, Zygmunt, 1984. Florian Znaniecki. Zycie i dzieto (Poznan, Wydawnictwo Poznanskie).Google Scholar
Faris, Ellsworth, 1951. “Review of: Social Behavior and Personality: Contributions of William Isaac Thomas to Theory and Social Research”, American Sociological Review, 16 (6): 875-877.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guth, Suzie and Schrecker, Cherry, 2002. From the Rules of Sociological Method to The Polish Peasant. A Comparative View of Two Foundational Texts, Journal of Classical Sociology, 2 (3): 281-298.Google Scholar
Haerle, Rudolf K., 1991. “William Isaac Thomas and the Helen Culver Fund for Race Psychology: The Beginnings of Scientific Sociology at the University of Chicago, 1910-1913”, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 27 (1): 22-33.3.0.CO;2-9>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huebner, Daniel R., 2014. Becoming Mead. The Social Process of Academic Knowledge (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janowitz, Morris, 1966. Introduction, in Thomas, William Isaac, On Social Organization and Social Personality Selected Papers (Chicago, Chicago University Press: vii-viii).Google Scholar
Lindenberg, Siegwart, 1992. “The Method of Decreasing Abstraction”, in Coleman, James Samuel and Fararo, Thomas J., eds, Rational Choice Theory. Advocacy and Critique (Newbury Park, Sage: 3-19).Google Scholar
Mackie, John L., 1980. The Cement of the Universe: A Study of Causation (Oxford, Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mead, George Herbert, 1932. The Philosophy of the Present (Open Court, La Salle).Google Scholar
Orbach, Harold, 1993. “Znaniecki’s Contributions to The Polish Peasant”, in Gubert, Renzo and Tomasi, Luigi, eds, The Contributions of Florian Znaniecki to Sociological Theory (Rome, Franco Angeli: 142-157).Google Scholar
Parsons, Talcott, 1949. The Structure of Social Action. A Study in Social Theory with Special Reference to a Group of Recent European Writers (New York, Free Press).Google Scholar
Raz, Joseph, 1975. Practical Reason and Norms (Oxford, Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Ross, Dorothy, 1991. The Origins of American Social Science (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Small, Albion, 1906. “The Relation between Sociology and Other Sciences”, American Journal of Sociology, 12: 11-31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanley, Liz, 2010. “To the letter: Thomas and Znaniecki’s The Polish Peasant and writing a life, sociologically”, Life Writing, 8: 139-151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, Evan A., 1992. “The Collaboration of William Isaac Thomas and Florian Witold Znaniecki: A Significant Event in the History of Polish and American Cultural Connections”, Polish American Studies, 49 (1): 67-75.Google Scholar
Thomas, William Isaac, 1898. “The Relation of Sex to Primitive Social Control”, American Journal of Sociology, 3: 754-776.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, William Isaac, 1899. “The Psychology of Modesty and Clothing”, American Journal of Sociology, 5: 246-262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, William Isaac, 1901. “The Gaming Instinct”, American Journal of Sociology, 6: 750-763.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, William Isaac, 1904a. “The Sexual Element in Sensibility”, American Journal of Sociology, 11: 61-67.Google Scholar
Thomas, William Isaac, 1904b. “The Psychology of Race-Prejudice”, American Journal of Sociology, 9: 593-611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, William Isaac, 1905. “The Province of Social Psychology”, American Journal of Sociology, 11: 445-455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, William Isaac, 1907. “The Significance of the Orient for the Occident”, American Journal of Sociology, 13: 729-755.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, William Isaac, 1909a. “Standpoint for the Interpretation of Savage Society”, American Journal of Sociology, 15: 145-163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, William Isaac, 1909b. Source Book For Social Origins (Chicago, University of Chicago).Google Scholar
Thomas, William Isaac, 1927. “The Configurations of Personality”, in The Unconscious: A Symposium (New York, Alfred A. Knopf: 143-177).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, William Isaac, 1923. The Unadjusted Girl (Boston, Little Brown and Company).Google Scholar
Thomas, William Isaac, 1939. “Comment by William Isaac Thomas”, in Blumer, Herbert, ed., Critique of research in the Social Aciences: An Appraisal of Thomas and Znaniecki’s “The Polish Peasant in Europe and America” (New York, Social Science Research Council).Google Scholar
Thomas, William Isaac, 1973. “’Life History’, in Paul J. Baker, The Life Histories of William Isaac Thomas and Robert Park”, American Journal of Sociology, 79 (2): 246-250.Google Scholar
Thomas, William Isaac and Znaniecki, Florian Witold, 1927. The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, vol. I/II (New York, Alfred A. Knopf).Google Scholar
Wiley, Norbert, 2007. “Znaniecki’s Key Insight: The Merger of Pragmatism and Neo-Kantianism”, Polish Sociological Review, 158 (2): 133-143.Google Scholar
Zaretsky, Eli, 1984. “Introduction”, in Thomas, William Isaac and Znaniecki, Florian Witold, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (Urbana and Chicago, Illinois University Press).Google Scholar
Znaniecka-Łopata, Helena, 2001. “Florian Witold Znaniecki: A Sociologist of Two Worlds”, in Mucha, Janusz, Kaesler, Dirk and Wincławski, Włodziemirz, eds, Mirrors and Windows. Essays in the History of Sociology (Toruń, Wydawnictwo UMK: 199-207).Google Scholar
Znaniecki, Florian Witold, 1911a. “Statystyka wychodźstwa”, Wychodźca polski, 1-2: 14-16.Google Scholar
Znaniecki, Florian Witold, 1911b. “Wychodźstwo a położenie ludności wiejskiej zarobkującej w Królestwie Polskim”, Wychodźca Polski, 3: 9-16.Google Scholar
Znaniecki, Florian Witold, 1912. Humanizm i poznanie (Warszawa, Wydawnictwo Przeglądu Filozoficznego).Google Scholar
Znaniecki, Florian Witold, 1939. Comment by Florian Znaniecki, in Blumer, Herbert, ed., Critique of research in the Social Aciences: An Appraisal of Thomas and Znaniecki’s The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (New York, Social Science Research Council).Google Scholar
Znaniecki, Florian Witold, 1987 [1909]. “Etyka filozoficzna i nauka o wartościach moralnych”, in Znaniecki, Florian Witold, Pisma filozoficzne, vol. I (Warszawa, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe).Google Scholar
Znaniecki, Florian Witold, 1987 [1911]. “Myśl i rzeczywistość”, in Znaniecki, Florian Witold, Pisma filozoficzne, vol. I (Warszawa, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe: 39-76).Google Scholar
Znaniecki, Florian Witold, 1987 [1912]. “Elementy rzeczywistości praktycznej”, in Znaniecki, Florian Witold, Pisma filozoficzne, vol. I (Warszawa, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe: 77-112).Google Scholar
Znaniecki, Florian Witold, 1987 [1913]. “Znaczenie rozwoju świata i człowieka”, in Znaniecki, Florian Witold, Pisma filozoficzne, vol. I (Warszawa, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe: 120-214).Google Scholar
Znaniecki, Florian Witold, 1987 [1914]. “Formy i zasady twórczości moralnej”, in Znaniecki, Florian Witold, Pisma filozoficzne, vol. I (Warszawa, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe: 215-257).Google Scholar