Sociology as a «Strong Science»: Leon Petrazhitsky’s Unfinished Project

Abstract

Author reviews the Warsaw period works by Leon Petrazycki and his logical and methodological studies in order to reconstruct his project of sociology based on them. In his intention, sociology should have become the common foundation of the whole set of social sciences (theory of law and morality, political economy, etc.). However, according to Petrazycki, sociology does not yet exist as a «strict science», and he considers contemporary sociological concepts as exhibits of the «Scientific Pathology Museum». The author denies traditional identification between Petrazycki’s sociological project and the empirical tradition in sociology. Petrazycki constructs sociology as theoretical science and uses following methodological tools: 1) the principle of adequacy of the theory, 2) the theorem on n + 1 theories; 3) the doctrine of positions (atomic elements of judgments) as the basis for classifying sciences. In Petrazycki’s interpretation, the subject of sociology is evolutionary processes of behavior motivation. Sociology of Petrazycki, known from the summaries of his disciples, does not fully correspond to his own logical and methodological criteria: it is reduced to the theory of genesis and evolution of ethical (moral and legal) motivation. At the same time, he considers sociology of law to be a superfluous discipline. Probably, this incompleteness of the sociology project is a reason why Petrazycki has refused to publish the finished manuscript on sociology. Finally, author discusses how Pitirim Sorokin had used some logical and methodological ideas of Petrazycki to develop his own system of sociology.