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A Genealogical History of SocietyIntroduction

A Genealogical History of Society: Introduction [The concept of society as objective entity has played a prominent role in modern times. Emerging in the 1820s, it has deeply influenced people’s thought, identity, and behaviour and the way many scholars have explained human action and institutions. During this time, the existence of society has been taken for granted. A careful analysis of the genesis and formation process of the concept makes it clear, however, that it is not the representation of an objective entity that really exists, but rather a historically contingent way of conceiving of human beings and their intercourse. The new concept did not merely emerge from the observation of reality but was formulated to make sense of and cope with the unintended consequences of the liberal political regime. The liberal failure to establish the promised harmonic and stable political order triggered a critical reaction against the concept of the individual and the assumption that human institutions and relations can be intentionally created and managed. As a result, theoretical individualism was replaced by the opposite assumption that the human world is an autonomous and self-regulated entity that causally determines human action. This genealogical, and not representational, nature of the concept of society forces us to radically rethink the theoretical and epistemological foundations of the social sciences.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A Genealogical History of SocietyIntroduction

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Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2018
ISBN
978-3-319-70436-4
Pages
1 –11
DOI
10.1007/978-3-319-70437-1_1
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[The concept of society as objective entity has played a prominent role in modern times. Emerging in the 1820s, it has deeply influenced people’s thought, identity, and behaviour and the way many scholars have explained human action and institutions. During this time, the existence of society has been taken for granted. A careful analysis of the genesis and formation process of the concept makes it clear, however, that it is not the representation of an objective entity that really exists, but rather a historically contingent way of conceiving of human beings and their intercourse. The new concept did not merely emerge from the observation of reality but was formulated to make sense of and cope with the unintended consequences of the liberal political regime. The liberal failure to establish the promised harmonic and stable political order triggered a critical reaction against the concept of the individual and the assumption that human institutions and relations can be intentionally created and managed. As a result, theoretical individualism was replaced by the opposite assumption that the human world is an autonomous and self-regulated entity that causally determines human action. This genealogical, and not representational, nature of the concept of society forces us to radically rethink the theoretical and epistemological foundations of the social sciences.]

Published: Oct 28, 2017

Keywords: Concept of society; Historical genealogy; Social theory; Societalism; Societalist paradigm; Human action; Individualism; Social sciences; Comte; Marx; Organicism

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