Hungarian Heritage Review, 1989 (18. évfolyam, 1-9. szám)
1989-02-01 / 2. szám
Special Features'OfThe-Montfi HUNGARIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO WORLD CIVILIZATION-by-DR. FRANCIS S. WAGNER SOCIOLOGY The disciplines of both sociology and economics in Central Europe grew primarily out of the historical sciences. Prior to the last quarter of the nineteenth century social and economic history appeared only within the framework of political history and not even a separate chapter was devoted to social and economicphenomena. Around the turn of the past century, due to the influence of Hegel, Comte and Marx, historical materialism as well as positivism came to the force of historicalresearchand simultaneously triggered the socioeconomic interpretation of history. Sociologists and economists invented new systems of periodization in history and analyzed the typical instead of the individual phenomena in human evolution. This new trend advocated that only one social class be regarded as the real and only history-making factor. This monistic standpoint was in total conflict for instance with the views of earlier Gergely Berzeviczy (1763-1822) and other contemporary social and economic philosophers. Gergely Berzeviczy, one of the best economists and social philosophers of his age, refuted the monistic stance and evi - denced a high esteem for the functions of the middle class by declaring that: the tier état is that noteworthy and outstanding class of the society which resides in cities and whose characteristic way of life is urbanism. Historical materialism was the driving force of the intellectuals who belonged to the following two institutions during the first two decades of the twentieth century: the Galilei Kör (Galilei Circle), representing a rather small percentage of Budapest University students and professors, and the Huszadik Század (Twentieth Century), the official journal of the Sociological Society which under the editorship of Oszkár Jászi coordinated the activities of many radical thinkers of the Habsburg, Monarchy. Representing this latter group, Ervin Szabó (1877-1918) analyzed the country’s Uprising of the 1848- 1849 from a point of view of Marxist sociology in his Társadalmi és pártharcok a 48-49, nagy forradalomban (Vienna, 1921). Péter Ágoston (1874-1925) also belonged to the leadership of the Huszadik Század and emphasized the role of economic factors in describing and evaluating the functions that the owners of large landed estates fulfilled in the nation’s past (A magyar világi nagybirtok története. Budapest, 1913). The best known Hungarian sociologist up to now has been Karl (Károly) Mannheim (1893-1947). Mannheim who spent his youth in Hungary and experienced the revolution and counter-revolution in his native land, went to Germany in 1919 then in 1933 fled Germany and spent the remainder of his career in Great Britain teaching sociology at the London School of Economics. He devoted his entire career to the development of a sociology of knowledge, which branch of (continued next page) FEBRUARY 1989 HUNGARIAN HERITAGE REVIEW 15
