Franklin Henry Giddins, 1855-1931
Some Aspects of His Sociological Theory
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2198115 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Frank H Hankins (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1931 |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 349-367 |
| Publication date | 1931-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-9602 • E-ISSN: 1537-5390 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/215729 |
| OpenAlex | W2089949479 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
Of the four men who founded American sociology, Giddings most nearly based the inductive science on the newer statistical methods. Accepting Spencer's evolutionism unreservedly, he made social evolution a part of cosmic evolution, thus placing society within the realm of natural history. Social phenomena are due to three orders of stimuli-physical nature, human aggregation,and culture-with constant interaction between them. The function of social science is to disentagle the web of causal relations and to assign to these three their respective roles. He regarded all causal relations as basically mechanistic, but distinguished between machine-like reactions and those that are"ballistic." His determinism did not, however, lead him to deny volition as a true social cause. An important omission in Giddings' theory was his failure to analyze conscious motives. His "consciousness of kind" is too general and too passive in character to serve as universal motivation in society. Consciousness of kind is defined as "a state of consciousness in which any being recognizes another conscious being as of like kind with himself." It exists, therefore, among animals below man. Giddings seems to end by making the consciousness of kind the basis of gregariousness, although in his latest statement he denies it to animals. Consciousness of kind implies a consciousness of difference; but he does not seem to make sufficient place in his theory for compulsion, antagonism,and conflict. His most significant contribution of recent years dealt with pluralistic behavior. Sociology was becoming for him societal psychology. Consciousness of kind can only be known by entering the fields of psychology and social psychology in order to study the formation of attitudes, the likes and dislikes of the reacting individuals
Consciousness · Determinism · Epistemology · Generality · Realm · Social consciousness · Sociology · Volition (linguistics · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Law · Philosophy · Psychology
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,07 |
| Citation span | 1968 - 2017 (50) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |