Between Literature and Science: The Rise of Sociology

by Wolf Lepenies, R. J. Hollingdale

Overview

The theme of this book is the conflict that arose in the early nineteenth century between the literary and scientific intellectuals of Europe, as they competed for recognition as the chief analysts of the new industrial society in which they lived. Sociology was conceived as the third major discipline, a hybrid of the scientific and literary traditions. The author chronicles the rise of the new discipline by discussing the lives and works of the most prominent thinkers of the time, in England, France, and Germany. The book presents a penetrating study of idealists grappling with reality when industrial society was in its infancy. Published with the support of the Exxon Education Foundation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521338103
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/16/1988
Series:	Ideas in Context , #10
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.91(w) x 9.02(h) x 1.02(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I. France: 1. The transformations of Auguste Comte: science and literature in early positivism; 2. Agathon and others: literature and sociology in France at the turn of the century; Part II. England: 3. Facts and culture of the feelings: John Stuart Mill; 4. The unwritten novel: Breatrice Webb; 5. The utopian novel as a substitute for sociology: H. G. Wells; 6. Concealed sociology: English literary criticism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; Part III. Germany: 7. Prologue: artisan and poet too: W. H. Riehl; 8. Hostility to science and faith in poetry as a German ideology; 9. A German speciality: poetry and literature in opposition; 10. Disciplines in competition: sociology and history; 11. Remoteness from society and hostility towards sociology in Stefan George's circle; 12. Stefan George, Georg Simmel, Max Weber; 13. Weberian motifs in the work of Thomas Mann; 14. The German spirit in peril: E. R. Curtius, Karl Mannheim and T. S. Eliot; 13. Epilogue: sociology in National Socialist Germany and afterwards; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Lepenies offers us an historical record. He does not evaluate the contributions of literature and sociology, or of literary sociology, to public exegesis. The book is a spectacular record of the internecine strife among exegetes. The author's international erudition is remarkable, control of materials masterly, his method careful and thorough, and his writing dramatic." Samuel Z. Klausner, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences

"This is an immensely learned and fascinating essay in intellectual history. Originally published in German in 1985, it has now been made available in a remarkably fluent translation." Fritz Ringer, Journal of Modern History

From the Publisher