Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Sociology of Radical Commitment: Kurt H. Wolff's Existential Turn

Sociology of Radical Commitment: Kurt H. Wolff's Existential Turn

Psathas, George
Backhaus, Gary

Paperback

PhilosophyGeneral SociologyJapanese History

ISBN10: 0739119443
ISBN13: 9780739119440
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: Jan 1 2007
Pages: 280
Weight: 0.78
Height: 0.59 Width: 5.86 Depth: 8.93
Language: English
This edited volume presents the life and thought of Kurt H. Wolff, a Jewish refugee from Darmstadt, a student of Karl Mannheim, practitioner of the sociology of knowledge, translator of the classic works of Simmel, Durkheim, and Mannheim, and creator of the radical existential sociology of surrender-and-catch, through multiple modalities. Two interviews provide an autobiographical portrait. Testimonies by close family members, friends, and colleagues allow the reader a more intimate insight into his subjectivity. Excerpts from a travelogue journal kept by his spouse, Carla E. Wolff provide an understanding of how the Wolff's interpreted their situation and times. Several chapters devoted to explicating Wolff's place in the sociological tradition, especially in light of his work in the sociology of knowledge. Several chapters exhibit creative work in the further development of his thought, especially concerning his surrender-and-catch. The thrust of the book is to explicate Wolff's relation to the tradition and to the orientation to which he belongs while at the same time to exhibit how he develops a sociology of radical commitment. This commitment can demand great existential risk in the quest to uncover the universal in the unique-the creation of new meaning (the catch) though the surrender. Wolff's hope is to find possibilities for humankind that lead us out of the crises, to which traditional scientia has been disappointingly ineffective.

Also in

Philosophy

View All