Book Review: Irving M. Zeitlin, Ideology and the Development of Sociological Theory

Irving M. Zeitlin, Ideology and the Development of Sociological Theory(6th Ed.)

Tugrul Keskin

In this article, I will review Irving M. Zeitlin’s work of Sociological Theory. Zeitlin is a sociologist from University of Toronto. His book, Ideology and the Development of Sociological Theory, has been published 7 times. His approach is clearly unique and unlike that of other Sociological theory text books in American universities. The book has a much stronger social theory approach, than the more limited perspectives based just on theory. This book reminds us of the European viewpoint of Sociological theory; therefore Zeitlin uses the term “Enlightenment” as the starting point of his approach to social theory, because he refers to Enlightenment as “the intellectual movement that developed within the hundred-year span beginning with English Revolution and culminating with the French Revolution.” Enlightenment is a departure point in the origin of sociological theory. Many Sociologists agree with Zetlin’s view.

Zeitlin intends to explain Sociological Theory from the Marxist perspective and he sees Sociological theory as a combination of both Political and Social Theory. He did not have clear definition of social theory as its own field of inquiry in an independent sense; and does not distinguish between sociological ad political theories. Zeitlin attempted to combine Enlightenment with the Marxian legacy in the context of Social theory. At the time of the Enlightenment, Europe was under the influence and largely the control of religious fanatics in Europe, and Zeitlin traces Sociological theory from the philosophical foundation provided by the Enlightenment. According to him, sociology is science of critique. He makes reference often to British and French social thinkers, and hence, began his book with theoretical points from Montesquieu, Rousseau and Saint Simon.

During the last decade, there have been many publications on Sociological theory, and most of them have their own unique perspective. Each scholar who works and writes on Sociological theory tries to put his or her own ideological background and perspective into his or her writings. Zeitlin’s methodology is also different than the methodology contained in other social theory textbooks, specifically his historical methodology.

The book contains four main Chapters, and each of them supports and expands further on his approach to social theory. Marxist theory is the central argument and starting point of the book, and most of the social theorists that are referenced are either Marxist or socialist thinkers. Zeitlin uses Marxist theory to construct his sociological ideas. There are four different categories of sociological theory; Enlightenment, Post-Revolutionary Thought, The Marxian Watershed, and The Debate with Marx’s Ghost.

One of the most important points of this book is that Zeitlin gave great attention in his work to the thoughts of women social theorists, unlike most other writers. It is not common in the social theory literature to find such as attention to women theorists and social thinkers and in many cases women are not referred to at all.

In the first Chapter, he refers to Mary Wollstonecraft as “a true child of the Enlightenment.” Mary Wollstonecraft’s work is also important in the context of women rights in the 17th century so it is significant that he takes the work into account, within its historical context.

The other central figures in his book include Saint Simon, the utopian French Socialist and social thinker. Zeitlin views Marx’s theory as originating from the influence of Simon’s work. Thinkers and philosophers in Zeitlin’s book, such as Montesquieu, Rousseau, Saint Simon, Alexis de Tocqueville, Pareto and Mosca are more related with political theory than with sociological theory but are given strong preference in Zeitlin’s theoretical framework. As we have mentioned before, he does not have clear definition of sociological theory, therefore combines the works of both political and social theorists. Another key thinker made reference to in Zetlin’s book is Saint Simon. If we compare Zetlin’s work with that of other social theory textbooks, we would not be able to see much influence from Saint Simon’s theories in their work. However, Zeitlin provided an entire chapter on Simon’s ideas, and the part his work played in influencing Enlightenment thinkers in the 19th century.

For Zeitlin, the philosophy of intellectual movements is one ideological foundation of Marxism. Enlightenment created an environment that resulted in a change in the social structure of Europe. There was a revolution in human thought, which at the time was the most important factor that contributed towards moving forward in human history and the development of intellectual thought.

In Zeitlin’s view, the reaction against Enlightenment, particularly in reference to the revolution is a conservative and non-progressive event in history. These conservative thinkers that were against the revolution, sought to discontinue the secularization process in Europe. According to Zeitlin, secularization was an inevitable event of ‘bridge’ in human history which worked towards the collective good. In c7, Zeitlin provides historical details of the secularization process in Europe. He perceives the process as an escape from the darkness of religious authorities. In the same Chapter, Zeitlin concludes that there are two different types of philosophy and sociology; the conservative and the revolutionist types or strains. He categorizes Burke, Hegel, Bonald and Maistre as conservative thinkers.

In Chapter 8, Zeitlin introduces both Saint Simon and Comte as official founders of sociology. In most of the book, he distinguishes between conservative and progressive social thinkers. Zeitlin obviously shows that he takes the side of the Marxist view, and regards this as the progressive strain of social thought. From the beginning of the book to the end, he provides a Marxist perspective, and then throughout tries to find support for these view from many different social thinkers.

According to Zeitlin, Alexis de Tocqueville is “one of the most important social and political theorists of the nineteenth century,” because Tocqueville emphasizes two important revolutions and he wrote of them as critical factors of social transformation. The first one is a democratic revolution and the other an industrial revolution.

Zeitlin argues that John Stuart Mill, English philosopher, was greatly influenced by Harriet Taylor who was “one of the major figures who shaped the thinking of the later Victorian era.” According to Zeitlin, in Chapter 12, John Stuart Mill’s concern was the relationship of government to liberty.

In Chapter 13, Zeitlin talks about Marx and his philosophical orientation and in Chapter 14, continues on to have a discussion about Marx’s relation with Hegel and Feuerbach, and the way that both thinkers influenced Marxist theory. Zeitlin states that Marx’s dialectic method is different than the Hegelian one, however, in that he did not clearly define the Marxian dialectic. Zeitlin also highlights the importance of historical sociology in Marx’s work. Another important thinker/philosopher and businessman in Zeitlin’s book, Frederick Engels has a whole Chapter devoted to the discussion of his theories. It is unlikely to have a whole chapter dedicated to Engels in any other sociological theory book.

In the last main chapter, The Debate with Marx’s Ghost, Zeitlin covers Weber, Pareto, Mosca, Durkheim and Karl Manheim. Mosca and Pareto, both Italian sociologists and political scientists, are rather more political theorists than sociologists. Zeitlin introduces them as “the New Machiavellians.” It seems to be that theories of Mosca and Pareto are more state-related than society-related; therefore it is not often that we find both theorists discussed in sociological theory textbooks.

Zeitlin always uses Marxian theory as the center argument of the book. He compares other theorists with Marx, and critiques them using the Marxist methodology and perspective. The book is historically very well organized, in the way that it contains different social thinkers and sociologists starting from the early 17th century to the early 20th century. The last sociologist he mentions in the book is Karl Manheim. He analyses Karl Manheim’s famous work, Ideology and Utopia, and links Manheim’s work with Marx. Zeitlin stresses that in Manheim’s sociology of knowledge “Manheim considered political, legal, philosophical, religious, and other ideas in their relationship with economic and social changes.”
Zeitlin’s Approach

His approach to sociological theory is based on Marxist view and Marxist theory is always present at the core of the book. Consequently, he accomplished his goal. To me, Zeitlin’s book is more history of social theory book rather than just a sociological theory textbook.

In short, Zeitlin’s stated goal was to explain sociological theory as an evolutionary idea with a historical process and trajectory that begun with the Enlightenment. Irving Zeitlin certainly achieved his goal, because his methodology shows us that the intellectual foundation of sociological theory follows the historical process of evolution.