Description - Survival and Sociology by Kurt H. Wolff
Kurt Wolff seeks to answer a large question: what are the justifications and tasks of sociology at a time when humankind and its planet are in jeopardy? Since his youth in Germany, where he was a student ofthelate, great Karl Mannheim, the author has oriented much of his work to the sociology of sociology.Survival and Sociology takes into account that this age, for the first time in history, extends to society what was only in the province of nature and god - the ability to destroy as well as create life. That being the case, the concern of sociology must shift from everyday issues to ideas and policies aimed at averting human extinction.The act of "surrendering" to our novel condition may give us a clue. In any case, it re-establishes our continuity with such founding figures as Max Weber. Max Scheler. Alfred Schutz, Emile Durkheim. Georg Simmel, and Mannheim himself.As a result. Wolffs work can be seen as both innovative and continuing a grand tradition of analysis. The answers given are very much in terms of specific American conditions, but also provide the sort of theoretical scaffolding that underwrites current East-West negotiations on practical issues relating to arms negotiations and peace settlements. It is thus a work that should have wide appeal to students of the history of ideas, sociologists of knowledge, and people interested in the philosophical foundations of war and peace.
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