Florian Znaniecki

Florian Znaniecki
Born	(1882-01-15)15 January 1882 Świątniki,Congress Poland
Died	23 March 1958(1958-03-23)(aged 76) Champaign, Illinois
Nationality	Polish, American
Alma mater	Jagiellonian University(Kraków)
Known for	Contributions tologology The Polish Peasant in Europe and America humanistic coefficient culturalism
Children	Helena Znaniecki Lopata
Scientific career
Fields	Sociology
Institutions	Adam Mickiewicz University(Poznań),Columbia University,University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Florian Witold Znaniecki(15 January 1882 – 23 March 1958) was a Polish and Americanphilosopherandsociologistwho taught and wrote inPolandand in theUnited States.Over the course of his work, he shifted his focus from philosophy to sociology. He remains a major figure in the history of Polish and American sociology; the founder of Polish academic sociology, and of an entireschool of thoughtin sociology.

He won international renown asco-author,withWilliam I. Thomas,of the study,The Polish Peasant in Europe and America(1918–1920), which is considered the foundation of modernempirical sociology.He also made major contributions tosociological theory,introducing terms such as "humanistic coefficient"and"culturalism".

In Poland, he established the first Polish department of sociology atAdam Mickiewicz University,where he worked from 1920 to 1939.

His career in the US began at theUniversity of Chicago(1917 to 1919) and continued atColumbia University(1932 to 1934 and 1939 to 1940) and at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign(1942 to 1950).

He was the 44th President of theAmerican Sociological Association(for the year 1954).

Life

Childhood and education

Florian Znaniecki was born on 15 January 1882 atŚwiątniki,Congress Poland,a statecontrolledby theRussian Empireto Leon Znaniecki and Amelia, née Holtz.He received early schooling from tutors, then attended secondary schools atWarsawandCzęstochowa.While in secondary school, he was a member of anunderground study group,specializing in history, literature and philosophy.His secondary-school grades were average at best, and he had to repeat a year of school; this was largely due to his extracurricular interest inPolish-languagestudy, which was banned under theRussifiedschool program.As a youth, he wrote some poetry, including adrama,Cheops(1903).A poem of his,"Do Prometeusza"( "To Prometheus" ), was included in a 1900 anthology; however, neither he in later life, nor literary critics, judged his poetry outstanding.

He entered theImperial University of Warsawin 1902, but was soon expelled after taking part in protests against the Russian administration's curtailment of student rights.Threatened withconscriptioninto theImperial Russian Army,he chose to emigrate,and in early 1904 he left Warsaw forSwitzerland.

During that period, he was briefly an editor at a French-language literary magazine,Nice Illustrée(late 1904 – early 1905);faked his own death; briefly served in theFrench Foreign LegioninAlgeria;and worked at aflea market,on a farm, in a traveling circus,and as a librarian at thePolish MuseuminRapperswil,Switzerland.

In Switzerland, he soon resumed his university studies, first at theUniversity of Geneva(1905–1907), then at theUniversity of Zurich(1907–1908), eventually transferring to theSorbonneinParis,France(1908–1909), where he attended lectures by sociologistÉmile Durkheim.In 1909, after the death of his supervisorFrédéric Rauh,he returned to Poland, where in 1910 he obtained hisPhDdegree atJagiellonian University,inKraków,under a new supervisor,Maurycy Straszewski.

Early Polish career

That year he also joined thePolish Psychological Society,in which he would be highly active over the next few years, becoming its vice president in 1913–1914.Much of his early academic work at that time could be classified asphilosophy.In 1909, aged 27, he published his first academic paper,Etyka filozoficzna i nauka o wartościach moralnych( "Philosophical Ethics and the Science of Moral Values" );a year later, he publishedZagadnienie wartości w filozofii(The Question of Values in Philosophy), based on his doctoral dissertation,and a paper,Myśl i rzeczywistosc( "Mind and Reality" ).In 1912, he published a new book,Humanizm i Poznanie(Humanism and Knowledge), and a paper,Elementy rzeczywistości praktycznej( "Elements of Practical Reality" ).A year later, he published an annotated translation ofHenri Bergson'sCreative Evolutionand a paper,Znaczenie rozwoju świata i człowieka( "The Meaning of World and Human Development" ).The year 1914 saw the publication of his papers,Formy i zasady twórczości moralnej( "Forms and Principles of Moral Creativity" )andZasada względności jako podstawa filozofii( "The Principle of Relativity as a Foundation of Philosophy" ).His works, published in Polish, were well received by the Polish scholarly community andintelligentsia.

Due to his past political activism, he was unable to secure a post at a major university.From 1912 to 1914, he lectured at a novel women's institution of higher education, theAdvanced Pedagogical Courses for Women.During his studies, he had worked at several European institutions dealing with Polish immigrants; he would build on his experiences by becoming involved with the Warsaw-basedSociety for the Welfare of Émigrés(Towarzystwo Opieki nad Wychodźcami), where he worked in 1910–1914.By 1911, he was the Society's director and (1911–1912) editor of its journal,Wychodźca Polski(The Polish Émigré).Znaniecki became an expert on Polish migration, in 1914 authoring for the government a 500-page report,Wychodźtwo Sezonowe(Seasonal Migration).

Work with Thomas

Volume I (1918) ofThe Polish Peasant in Europe and America,Zaniecki's most famous work written during his first U.S. stay

A year earlier, in 1913, Znaniecki had metWilliam I. Thomas,an American sociologist who had come to Poland in connection with his research onPolish immigrants in the United States.Thomas and Znaniecki had begun to collaborate, and soon Thomas invited Znaniecki to come toChicagoto continue work with him in the United States.In July 1914, just on the eve ofWorld War I,Znaniecki left Poland to work with Thomas as aresearch assistant.From 1917 to 1919, Znaniecki alsolecturedin sociology at theUniversity of Chicago.

Their work culminated in co-authoring ofThe Polish Peasant in Europe and America(1918–1920),considered a sociology classic.It was his collaboration with Thomas that marked the transition in Znaniecki's career from philosopher to sociologist.Znaniecki stayed with Thomas in Chicago until mid-1919, when he moved to New York, following Thomas, who had lost his job at Chicago due to aspurious scandal.

That year Znaniecki published a new book, still mostly philosophical rather than sociological,Cultural Reality.Published in English, it was a synthesis of his philosophical thought.In New York, Thomas and Znaniecki carried on research for theCarnegie Corporationon the process of immigrantAmericanization.Znaniecki contributed to Thomas' book,Old World Traits Transplanted,and published an anonymous solicited article on that topic in the February 1920Atlantic Monthly.

Founding Polish sociology

Florian Znaniecki plaque,Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

Poland had regained independence in 1918,following World War I.In 1919, Znaniecki contacted the newly foundedMinistry of Religious Affairs and Public Education,offering to return to Poland if the Ministry could help him secure a chair at a Polish university.He proposed creating a novel Institute of Sociology, but bureaucracy and communication delays resulted in that idea being shelved, and he was offered a philosophy professorship at the newly organizedAdam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.

In 1920, Znaniecki returned to the newly establishedSecond Polish Republic,where at Poznań University he soon became Poland's first chair in sociology.He accomplished this by renaming the department, originally "Third Philosophical Department", to "Department of Sociology and Cultural Philosophy", doing the same for his chair, and establishing a Sociological Seminary.That same year he also founded thePolish Institute of Sociology(Polski Instytut Socjologiczny), the fifth-oldest sociological institute in Europe.

In 1927, his department was officially renamed to "department of sociology", and in 1930, the department gained authorization to issue degrees in sociology.Also in 1930, the Polish Institute of Sociology began publishing the first Polish sociological journal,Przegląd Socjologiczny(The Sociological Review), with Znaniecki its chief editor from 1930 to 1939.That year, the Institute organized Poland's first academic sociologists' conference.Due to his role as founder of so many of its building blocks, Znaniecki is considered as one of the fathers ofsociology in Poland.

Later U.S. career

Keeping in touch with American sociologists, Znaniecki lectured as avisiting professoratColumbia UniversityinNew York Cityin 1932–34 and during the summer of 1939.That summer ended the Polish stage of his career, as theinvasion of Polandand the start of World War II prevented his return to Poland.He was already aboard a ship bound for Poland when his travel was cut short in theUnited Kingdom.He still briefly considered returning to Poland, where his wife and daughter remained; however, faced with theoccupation,he returned to the United States in 1940.His wife and daughter, after briefly being imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, joined him.

With help from American colleagues, Znaniecki obtained an extension of his appointment at Columbia University through mid-1940.He then moved to theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaignand in 1942, obtained American citizenship, allowing him to transition from a visiting to a regular professorship.He taught at the University of Illinois until his retirement, deciding not to return to the communistPolish People's Republic,established in theaftermath of World War II,despite the offer of a chair atPoznań University.In 1950, he retired, becoming aprofessor emeritus.

He was 44th President of theAmerican Sociological Association(for 1954).His presidential address, "Basic Problems of Contemporary Sociology," was delivered on September 8, 1954 at the Association's annual meeting and was later published in theAmerican Sociological Review.

He died on March 23, 1958 inChampaign, Illinois.The cause of death wasarteriosclerosis.His funeral took place on March 26, and he was buried at Roselawn Champaign Cemetery.

Family

In 1906, Znaniecki married a fellow Polish student at theUniversity of Geneva,Emilia Szwejkowska.They had a son, poet and writerJuliusz Znaniecki,born in 1908.Emilia died in 1915.

The next year, Znaniecki married Eileen Markley (1886–1976).They had one daughter, sociologistHelena Znaniecki Lopata,born in 1925.

Importance

Polish sociologist and historian of ideasJerzy Szackiwrites that Znaniecki's major contributions include: the founding of sociology in Poland; his work inempirical sociology;and his work insociological theory.Szacki notes that Znaniecki sought to bridge a number of gaps: between empirical sociology and more theoretical approaches; between objectivity and subjectivity; between humanistic and naturalistic methodologies and viewpoints; and between American and European intellectual traditions.

Szacki writes that, while Znaniecki's theoretical contributions were subsequently pushed into the background byTalcott Parsons' "functionalism",Znaniecki offered the most ambitious sociological theory known to America before Parsons.

Znaniecki's most famous work remainsThe Polish Peasant in Europe and America(1918–1920), co-authored withWilliam I. Thomas.His other major works includeWstęp do socjologii(An Introduction to Sociology, 1922),The Method of Sociology(1934),Social Actions(1936),The Social Role of the Man of Knowledge(1940) andCultural Sciences(1952).

Themes

Empirical sociology

Znaniecki's contributions to empirical sociology began after, and were influenced by, his collaboration withWilliam I. Thomas.The Polish Peasant in Europe and America(1918–1920), a five-volume work which he wrote with Thomas, is considered a classic ofempiricalsociology.It is a study ofPolish immigrantsto America, based on personal documents.The work became a landmark study ofAmericanization— of how new immigrants to the United States "become Americans".

This work represents Znaniecki's most valued contribution to empirical sociology. Most of his other works focused on theory, the only other notable exception beingMiasto w świadomości jego obywateli(The City in the Consciousness of its Citizens, 1931).

Sociology: theory and definition

A key element of Znaniecki's sociological theory is his view of sociology in particular, and of thesocial sciencesin general, as a scientific field uniquely different from thenatural sciences.Znaniecki defines sociology as a study ofsocial actions.His recommendedmethodologywasanalytic induction:analysis of typicalcase studies,andgeneralizationfrom them.

Znaniecki's theories form a major part of sociology'saction theory,and his work is a major part of the foundation ofhumanistic sociology.Another term connected with Znaniecki's theories is "systematic sociology" ("socjologia systematyczna").He sought to create a grand sociological theory, one that would bridge the gap between empirical sociology and more theoretical approaches.

Znaniecki criticized the widespread definition of sociology as the study ofsociety.In Znaniecki's culturalist perspective, sociology is a study ofculture(though it is notthestudy of culture, as Znaniecki recognized that other social sciences also study culture).His definition of sociology has been described as that of "a cultural science whose function is to study systems of social interaction based upon patterns of values and norms of behaviour, through the use of thehumanistic coefficient",or more simply," the investigation of organized, interdependent interaction among human beings. "The part of the culture that sociology focused on was that ofsocial relationor interaction.

Znaniecki saw culture as a field separate from nature, but also from individuals' perceptions.The essence of culture issocially constructedobjects.He was one of the first sociologists to begin analyzing personal documents such asletters,autobiographies,diaries,and the like.He considered the analysis of such documents an important part of thehumanistic-coefficientmethod.

Znaniecki saw sociology as an objective, inductive and generalizing science.According to Szacki, Znaniecki viewed sociology as anomotheticscience that should be able to use a methodology similar to that of the natural sciences(however, Znaniecki's daughterHelena Znaniecki Lopata,in her introduction toSocial Relations and Social Roles,contradicts Szacki, writing that, for Znaniecki, sociology was a science "whose subject matter calls for a method different from that of the natural sciences."). In 1934 he formulated the principle ofanalytic induction,designed to identify universal propositions and causal laws.He contrasted it withenumerative research,which provided mere correlations and could not account for exceptions in statistical relationships.He was also critical of thestatistical method,which he did not see as very useful.

In addition to the science of sociology, Znaniecki was also deeply interested in the larger field of thesociology of science.He analyzed thesocial rolesof scientists, and the concept of aschool of thought.

Four social systems

According to Znaniecki, sociology can be divided into the study of four dynamic social systems: social action theory, social relation theory, social actors theory, and social groups theory.Znaniecki saw social actions as the foundation of a society, as they give rise to more complex social relations, and he saw this theory as the foundation of all the others.UnlikeMax Weber,he did not believe that everything can be reduced to social actions; he was also quite skeptical of any insights coming from the science ofpsychology,which he held in low esteem.

The four major forms of cooperative interaction, or four social systems, in growing complexity, were:

• social actions(inPolish,"czyny społeczne"or"czynności społeczne"): the most basic type of social fact;
• social relations(in Polish,"stosunki społeczne"): these require at least two persons and a mutual obligation; the study of social relations is the study of norms regulating social actions;
• social personalities (in Polish,"osoby społeczne"or"osobowości społeczne"): the combined picture that emerges from a number of differentsocial rolesthat an individual has;
• social group (in Polish,"grupa społeczna"): any group which is recognized by some as a separate entity;Znaniecki saw a society as a group of groups, but denied it primacy as an area that the sociologist should focus on (while at the same time recognizing that most sociologists differed on this).

The four-category division described above appeared in his 1934 book,The Method of Sociology.By 1958 he had reformulated the division, and was speaking instead of social relations, social roles, social groups, and societies.

Sociology of culture

Znaniecki coined the term "humanistic coefficient"for a method ofsocial researchby way ofdata analysisthat emphasizes participants' perceptions of the experience being analyzed.The humanistic coefficient sees allsocial factsas being created by social actors and as being understandable only from their perspective.Thus the sociologist ought to study reality by trying to understand how others see the world, not (objectively) as an independent observer; in other words, the scientist needs to understand the subject's world.While some have criticized this approach as being too close tosubjectivism,Znaniecki himself saw it as anti-subjectivist; he observed that social facts such as cultural systems can exist even if no one perceives their existence.He was also skeptical of any value coming from personal, subjective observations, arguing that such observations have value only if they can be objectively described.He argued that the difference between the natural and social sciences lies not in the difference between objective and subjective experiences, but in the subject being studied: for Znaniecki, the natural sciences studied things, and the social sciences studied cultural values.

Znaniecki characterized the world as being caught within two contrary modes of reflection;idealismandrealism.He proposed a third way, which he called "culturalism".His culturalism was one of the founding ideas of modernantipositivistandantinaturalistsociology.The term "culturalism" was introduced into English in his book,Cultural Reality(1919), and was translated into Polish as"kulturalizm";previously Znaniecki had discussed the concept in Polish as "humanism" ("humanizm").

Elżbieta Hałas has insisted on a gradual evolution of Znaniecki's sociology of culture fromCultural RealitytoCultural Sciences,his most reviewed book, which was published more than thirty years later, in 1952. By that time, Znaniecki saw the cultural order as "axionormative", a universal concept encompassing “relationships among all kind of human actions” and the corresponding values. Hałas noted that this approach put him at odds with what was the dominant approach of the sociology of culture in the 1950s, whose most authoritative exponents were Americans who regarded Znaniecki's approach as typically European and hardly applicable to the analysis of culture in the United States.

Other themes

Znaniecki's work also touched on many other areas of sociology, such asintergroup conflict,urban sociology,andrural sociology.

Works

Znaniecki's first academic works, of the 1910s, were more philosophical than sociological in nature; beginning in the 1920s, his works were primarily sociological.HisCultural Reality(1919) was a synthesis of his philosophical thought,but the simultaneous publication of his much more popularThe Polish Peasant in Europe and America(1918–1920) associated his name in academic circles primarily with sociology rather than with philosophy.His early works focused on analysis of culture and strongly criticized the principles ofsociological naturalism.Szacki notes a puzzling gap in Znaniecki's research: while he was well-read in, and engaged with, most previous and current theories, he largely ignored the works of some notable sociologists of his time such asMax Weber,Vilfredo ParetoandTalcott Parsons.On the other hand, his works engaged closely with those ofWilliam I. Thomas,Georg Simmel,Robert E. Park,andÉmile Durkheim.

HisThe Method of Sociologyfirst introduced his concept of divisions within subfields of sociology.His most notable works included two books published in the same year (1952):Modern Nationalities,andCultural Sciences.The former is an analysis of the evolution of national-culture societies, and the latter presents a theoretical study of the relation between sociology and other sciences.Znaniecki never finished hismagnum opus,Systematic Sociology,which would eventually be collected and published posthumously in its unfinished but final form asSocial Relations and Social Roles: The Unfinished Systematic Sociology(1965).

List of works

Roughly half of Znaniecki's published works are in English; the rest are in Polish.

In English:

Books

• — (March 1915). "The Principle of Relativity and Philosophical Absolutism".The Philosophical Review.24(2): 150–64.OCLC8866729491.
• ——;Thomas, William Isaac(1918).The Polish Peasant in Europe and America; Monograph of an Immigrant Group.Vol. 1–5. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr.OCLC836885922.
• — (1919).Cultural Reality.Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr.OCLC760620.
• — (1925).The Laws of Social Psychology.Chicago; Poznań printed: University Press.OCLC504734676.
• — (1931)."Group Crises Produced by Voluntary Undertakings".In Young, Kimball (ed.).Social Attitudes.New York: H. Holt and Co. pp. 265–290.
• — (1934).The Method of Sociology.New York: Rinehart & Company.OCLC630583357.
• — (1936).Social Actions.New York: Farrar & Rinehart.OCLC247403190.
• — (1940).The Social Role of the Man of Knowledge.New York: Columbia University Press.doi:10.1037/14902-000.
• — (1952).Cultural Sciences, Their Origin and Development.Urbana: University of Illinois Press.OCLC165463.
• — (1952).Modern Nationalities: A Sociological Study.Urbana: University of Illinois Press.OCLC504434617.
• — (1965).Social Relations and Social Roles: The Unfinished Systematic Sociology.San Francisco, CA: Chandler Publishing.OCLC750525343.
• — (1969). Bierstedt, Robert (ed.).On Humanistic Sociology: Selected Papers.Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr.ISBN978-0-226-98842-9.
• — (1994).The Social Role of the University Student.Sociological monographs. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Nakom.ISBN978-83-85060-70-3.

Articles

• — (1932).The Analysis of Social Processes.Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting. Vol. 26. Publications of the American Sociological Society: Papers and Proceedings. pp. 37–43.OCLC836884574.
• — (1948)."William I. Thomas as a Collaborator".Sociology and Social Research.32:765–767.

In Polish:

• Zagadnienie wartości w filozofii(The Question of Value in Philosophy), Warsaw, 1910.
• Humanizm i poznanie(Humanism and Knowledge), Warsaw, 1912.
• Upadek cywilizacji zachodniej: Szkic z pogranicza filozofii kultury i socjologii(The Decline of Western Civilization: A Sketch from the Interface of Cultural Philosophy and Sociology), Poznań, 1921.
• Wstęp do socjologii(An Introduction to Sociology), Poznań, 1922.
• — (1982) [1923]. "Przedmiot i zadania nauki o wiedzy (in Polish)" [The Subject Matter and Tasks of the Science of Knowledge]. In Walentynowicz, Bohdan (ed.).Polish Contributions to the Science of Science.Translated byKasparek, Christopher.Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Company. pp. 1–81.ISBN83-01-03607-9.Znaniecki proposes the founding of a new empirically based science which would study science itself, and which he terms "the science of knowledge"; Znaniecki's proposed meta-science has since been called by various other names, including "the science of science", "the sociology of science", and "logology".
• Socjologia wychowania(The Sociology of Education), Warsaw (vol. I: 1928; vol. II: 1930).
• Miasto w świadomości jego obywateli(The City in the Consciousness of Its Citizens), Poznań, 1931.
• Ludzie teraźniejsi a cywilizacja przyszłości(Contemporary People and the Civilization of the Future), Lwów, 1934.

See also

• History of philosophy in Poland § 20th century
• List of Polish people § Social sciences
• Logology (science) § Origins
• Sociology in Poland

Further reading

• Gella, Aleksander (Summer 1986). "Review of Florian Znaniecki: Zycie i Dzielo., by Zygmunt Dulczewski".Slavic Review.45(2): 374–375.doi:10.2307/2499246.JSTOR2499246.
• Hałas, Elżbieta(February 2001)."The Humanistic Approach of Florian Znaniecki".Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.Archived fromthe originalon 4 June 2008.
• Lopata, Helena Znaniecki(July 1976)."Florian Znaniecki: Creative evolution of a sociologist".Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences.12(3): 203–215.doi:10.1002/1520-6696(197607)12:3<203::AID-JHBS2300120302>3.0.CO;2-I.

External links

• Bio from American Sociological Association
• Guide to the Florian Znaniecki Papers 1906-1989at the University of Chicago
• Polish Philosophy Page: Florian Znanieckiat theWayback Machine(archived December 12, 2007)
• William Thomas and Florian Znaniecki.The Polish Peasant in Europe and America,2 vol 1920; famous classiccomplete 5 vol text online(public domain)
• Photos of Znaniecki (of unknown copyright status) are available at:[1],[2],[3]