Social Philosophers: Community And Conflict in Western Thought

by Robert A. Nisbet

Examines the concept of community in relation to politics, religion, and revolution as viewed by major Western social philosophers

Genres: Philosophy, Sociology, History

Paperback

First published February 1, 1983

About the author

American sociologist, professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Vice-Chancellor at the University of California, Riverside and as the Albert Schweitzer Professor at Columbia University.
After serving in the US Army during World War II, when he was stationed on Saipan in the Pacific theatre, Nisbet founded the Department of Sociology at Berkeley, and was briefly Chairman. Nisbet left an embroiled Berkeley in 1953 to become a dean at the University of California, Riverside, and later a Vice-Chancellor. Nisbet remained in the University of California system until 1972, when he left for the University of Arizona at Tucson. Soon thereafter, he was appointed to the prestigious Albert Schweitzer Chair at Columbia.
On retiring from Columbia in 1978, Nisbet continued his scholarly work for eight years at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington D.C. In 1988, President Reagan asked him to deliver the Jefferson Lecture in Humanities, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Nisbet's first important work, The Quest for Community (New York: Oxford University Press, 1969) contended that modern social science's individualism denied an important human drive toward community as it left people without the aid of their fellows in combating the centralizing power of the national state.
Nisbet is seen as follower of Emile Durkheim in the understanding of modern sociocultural systems and their drift. Often identified with the political right, Nisbet began his career as a political liberal but later confessed a conversion to a kind of philosophical Conservatism

Reviews

[Punky Brewster · Rating 2 out of 5]

Of course all those social philosophers were really writing about the quest for community. Duh.. but for the "anarchists" this guy loves so much, identity comes before that - the same "anarchists" promoting the merchant classes who waged "revolutions" and murdered our world's monarchs in order to claim power for their people alone. If you want to tackle community, start with identity. It's the basis of their "cultural studies" only they are allowed to write. Those who are denied identity are denied community.

[Daniel Clemence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Society and philosophy is a rather useful and interesting intersection. The Social Philosophers is a book that attempts to overlap the different philosophers into different schools of thought that the writer Robert Nisbet calls Communities. Each of these communities has a unique contribution to the philosophical underpinnings of Western civilization and each of these communities can be outlined by their differences in tenets which gives an overview to the community's thought and perspective.

Nisbet attempts to outline and give overview to many different thinkers within different communities. Machiavelli, Grotius, Clausewitz and Marx are part of "the Military Community"; Plato, Hobbes, Bodin, Machiavelli and Rousseau are part of "the Political Community", Augustine, Erasmus, Luther and Calvin are part of "the Religious Community"; Lenin, Sorel, Fanon, Marx are part of "the Revolutionary Community"; St Benedict, St Francis of Assisi, Thomas More, Adam Smith are part of "the Ecological Community" and Aristotle, Burke, Hegel and Tocqueville are part of "the Pluralistic Community".

Each community is unique based on its views of the world; the Military Vommunity is defined by its need for military strategy and defence; the Political Community is defined by development in constitution and laws; Religious Community by religion and piety; Revolutionary Community by transforming society; Ecological Community by balance with nature and the Pluralistic Community by balancing different perspectives.

The book had a rather odd assessment and outlining of differences in outlooks between philosophers and theorists. The military community tenets are just plan weird. According to Robert Nisbet, the military community is both secular, communist and individualistic. These are asinine explanation of military within a society. Much of these community elements in The Social Philosophers are defined with few citations.

I also find that the book does a poor way of defining how communities are fundamentally different from one another. For example, Marx is both part of the Military Community and Revolutionary Community, but it is clear that Marx was mostly known for his political theories rather than military theories. The Social Philosophers fails to explain why the Ecological Community philosophers of St Francis or St Benedict were somehow any different from the Religious Community. The community definitions seems arbitrary and bias. I felt the Revolutionary Community for example gave the impression that any political revolutions were bound towards authoritarianism.

The book was an attempt to outline differences in political theory within the Western world. Overall, I would say it is average political theory book but one which I wouldn't overly recommend. 3 stars.

[Katarina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book belonged to my mother, and that's especially why I am keen on it. I used it to prepare studies for J.J. Rousseau. Chapters: The Military Community, The Political Community, The Religious Community, The Revolutionary Community, The Ecological Community, The Plural Community give essence of the work of different authors from Plato to Weber. It gives an overview of the development of western philosophy. Must read again!

[Darin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good comprehensive book about focusing on communal theories from the history of social philosophers. It separates the social philosophers into categories of political, religious, ecological, and revolutionary. This book is apprently based on a larger book that Nisbet wrote on the subject. I assume the larger volume delves deeper in the subjects and is a smoother read.

[Dayo Adewoye · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting survey of western political and religious thought.