eBook

War in social thought

Knöbl, Wolfgang, Joas, Hans

2012,2013

Overview

This book, the first of its kind, provides a sweeping critical history of social theories about war and peace from Hobbes to the present. Distinguished social theorists Hans Joas and Wolfgang Knöbl present both a broad intellectual history and an original argument as they trace the development of thinking about war over more than 350 years--from the premodern era to the period of German idealism and the Scottish and French enlightenments, and then from the birth of sociology in the nineteenth century through the twentieth century. While focusing on social thought, the book draws on many disciplines, including philosophy, anthropology, and political science. Joas and Knöbl demonstrate the profound difficulties most social thinkers--including liberals, socialists, and those intellectuals who could be regarded as the first sociologists--had in coming to terms with the phenomenon of war, the most obvious form of large-scale social violence. With only a few exceptions, these thinkers, who believed deeply in social progress, were unable to account for war because they regarded it as marginal or archaic, and on the verge of disappearing. This overly optimistic picture of the modern world persisted in social theory even in the twentieth century, as most sociologists and social theorists either ignored war and violence in their theoretical work or tried to explain it away. The failure of the social sciences and especially sociology to understand war, Joas and Knöbl argue, must be seen as one of the greatest weaknesses of disciplines that claim to give a convincing diagnosis of our times.

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Subject: 19th century / 20th century / Age of Enlightenment / Anti-imperialism / Capitalism / Carl von Clausewitz / Civil society / Civilization / Classical liberalism / Colonialism / Conscription / Criticism / Decolonization / Democratic peace theory / Democratization / Dichotomy / Fall of the Western Roman Empire / Foreign policy / Free trade / Friedrich List / Historical materialism / Historical sociology / History / HISTORY / Military / General / History of philosophy / Hobbes, Thomas / HPC / Ideology / Imperialism / Individualism / Industrial society / Intellectual / International law / International relations / JFFE / JHB / John Stuart Mill / League of Nations / Liberalism / Marxism / Mercantilism / Militarism / Military / Military organization / Military sociology / Modernity / Modernization theory / Montesquieu / Nation state / On War / Perpetual peace / Philosopher / Philosophers / Philosophy / PHILOSOPHY / General / Political culture / Political economy / Political philosophy / Political science / Political sociology / Politics / Power politics / Raymond Aron / Reductionism / Skepticism / Social Darwinism / Social philosophy / SOCIAL SCIENCE / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Violence in Society / Social theory / Sociology / Sociology -- History -- 19th century / Sociology -- History -- 20th century / State (polity) / State formation / State of nature / Talcott Parsons / Thomas Hobbes / Total war / Totalitarianism / Violence In Society / War / War and society / Warfare / Werner Sombart / Western world / World government / Writing / Émile Durkheim
• ISBN: 9780691150840, 0691150842, 9781400844746, 1400844746