Some Classic Essays
On this page we are making available the texts of some essays which, although well known in a subterranean way among members of the figurational research network, have either not previously been published in English or are difficult to obtain.
Godfried van Benthem van den Bergh, 'Attribution of blame as the past and present means of orientation: the social sciences as a potential improvement'
First published in Dutch as 'De schuldvraag als oriëntatiemittel', in De Gids, 141: 9-10 (1978), pp. 638-60, and reprinted in Godfried van Benthem van den Bergh, De staat van geweld en andere essays (Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1980), pp. 7-46. A shortened version was published in English as 'The improvement of human means of orientation: toward synthesis in the social sciences', in Raymond Apthorpe and Andras Krahl (eds), Development Studies: Critique and Renewal (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986), pp. 109-35. The present text is derived from the typescript of the author's own English translation, 1977. It has in the past been cited under the title 'Attribution of blame as a means of orientation in the social sciences'; the author has given it a new and more accurate title for its publication on the website.
First published in the Amsterdams Sociologisch Tijdschrift 4: 3 (1977), pp. 327-49.
The influence of Sir Karl Popper's philosophy was once very strong within British sociology, including among members of the Department of Sociology at the University of Leicester who were opposed to Elias's developmental perspective. Dunning's article was published several years before Elias's own essay 'On the creed of a nominalist: observations on Popper's Logic of Scientific Discovery'; see Elias, Essays I: On the Sociology of Knowledge and the Sciences (Dublin: UCD Press, 2009 [Collected Works, vol. 14]), pp. 161-90.
Johan Goudsblom, 'The Paradox of Pacification'
Not previously published in this form. In Dutch, the substance of the argument appeared in the chapter 'De monopolisering van georganiseerd geweld', in Goudsblom's book Stof waar honger uit ontstond: Over evolutie en sociale processen (Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 2001), pp. 94-111.
Robert van Krieken, 'Occidental self-understanding and the Elias–Duerr dispute: "thick" versus "thin" conceptions of human subjectivity and civilisation', Modern Greek Studies 13 (2005), pp. 273–81.
One of Elias's principal critics has been the anthropologist Hans-Peter Duerr. In this paper, first published in Modern Greek Studies despite its lack of apparent connection with modern Greece, Robert van Krieken makes an importnat contribution to the Elias–Dueer controversy. He examines and assesses the argumenmts against seeing the modern, civilised habitus as radically different from that of previous historical epochs and 'non-Western' cultures. In particular, he views the dispute as being between 'thick' and 'thin' conceptions of human habitus and subjectivity.
Other essays of this type will be added in due course.