The genesis of Western European sociological thought in the works of G. V. Plekhanov

Abstract

The article presents the results of the analysis by G. V. Plekhanov of the genesis of Western European sociological thought based on the consideration of the social ideas of the French materialists of the 18th century, the rudiments in their philosophical systems of the historical approach to the study of society and understanding the causes of social inequality and injustice as well as overcoming them. The sources and content of the philosophical and historical theories of the French historians of the Restoration period are revealed, those who recognized the struggle of classes as the cornerstone of the social, political and mental development of European society, including the interpretation of the concept of “social environment” as a set of economic relations of classes, which was a contribution to the history of sociology. The analysis of the sociological views of utopian socialists and representatives of German classical philosophy is conducted. It was revealed that a significant contribution to the development of the theory of society were the ideas of social progress and the creation of a new social science that served the cause of social organization, developed by the utopian socialists, as well as the statement that the future of society is decided in the sphere of social and economic relations, and not political and legal ones. It is emphasized that Hegel’s application of dialectics to the analysis of social changes meant undoubted progress in the development of sociological thought, which consisted in the advancement of the idea of the regularity of the social process. The methodological basis of the author’s study of the problem of the genesis of Western European sociological thought in the works of G. V. Plekhanov is made up of dialectical-materialistic and comparative-historical methods, as well as the method of textological analysis and historical-philosophical reconstruction.