Cayce Jamil
Investigates neglected social theory and primarily interested in applied sociology.
allmylinks.com/mutualsociology
- Georges Palante (1862–1925): French sociologist/philosopher who contrasted individualism to the “herd mentality”. Drawing on Nietzsche, Tarde, and Simmel, he dissected how social norms crush individual’s lives—alienation, ressentiment, and the tragedy of being an individual in mass society.
- Comte After Positivism (1996) is an important book in the revival of Auguste Comte that has taken place since the 1990s. One of the key arguments is that John Stuart Mill’s polemical & often misguided criticisms of Comte led to the neglect of Comte and laid down the framework for logical positivism.
- Andrea Caffi (1887–1955) was an obscure but influential figure. A participant in the 1905 Russian Revolution, wounded in WWI, imprisoned several times, and tortured by fascists in Italy, he led a fascinating life and wrote many works, which have been undergoing a revival in Italy.
- Happy Comte day! Today, the 19th of the month of Moses (according to the Positivist calendar), is the bday of Auguste Comte. Former secretary to Saint-Simon, founder of positivism & sociology, & self-proclaimed High Priest of Humanity, he shaped modernity in more ways than we tend to acknowledge.
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- Happy Proudhon day! Not only was he a pivotal influence on Socialism, Marxism, Anarchism, and Mutualism, but also Sociology, Philosophy, Federalism/Confederalism, and arguably even Economics and International Relations.
- Sometimes I can’t help but think that Marxism’s attempt to go beyond the “utopian socialisms” ironically resulted in the most utopian form of socialism around.
- Correct. There is actually very little of Saint-Simon’s, and French socialist thought more generally, that has been translated into English. With the exception of Comte’s work, the English world has never taken much interest, despite it all fundamentally shaping the way the world has developed.
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- Four years ago today, the wisest person I ever knew passed away. She never attended school, drove a car, or swam, but somehow turned out more in-tune with reality than anyone else I’ve encountered. I will forever be profoundly impacted by my limited time with her. Rest in peace Hajiya.
- I haven’t finished it yet but I’ve been surprised by how good this is. I just happened to stumble on it in an used bookstore. It’s really a collection of the writings of the German-American sociologist Werner Cahnman (1902-1980), who notably was a Jew who was in the concentration camps at one point.
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- I find the exiled Soviet sociologists, namely Sorokin, Timasheff, and Gurvitch, particularly alluring. While well-known in their day, all of them slid into neglect following their deaths and were overshadowed by Parsons, who none of them appreciated, probably because of how he outmaneuvered Sorokin.
- Review of Saint-Simon’s recently published Correspondence by @thomaslalevee.bsky.social. The work being reviewed was edited by Pierre Musso, who is probably the leading Saint-Simon scholar today. www.tandfonline.com/eprint/GT7XF...
- Durkheim’s biggest shortcoming imo is that he almost exclusively treats society as something external to the individual. For example, he argued that social facts exert a “pressure” onto individuals. He misses the internal aspects of society, namely how social facts can “fuse” to individuals.
- Henri de Saint-Simon turns 265 today.
- Here’s a good one and probably the best critique of sociological positivism around. Rather than theology and philosophy culminating in a sharply differentiated social science, Solovyov emphasized the holistic connection between them and how all three needed to be kept in dialogue.
- Reposted by Cayce JamilWe published the open access article 'Organized Callousness: Gaza and the Sociology of War' by Siniša Malešević and Lea David in our forum on Israel-Palestine on May 11. tinyurl.com/st55f868
- I used to know some people who argued that all social interaction ultimately sought to find a “smooth flow”. At the time, I bought the argument. Now, I’m convinced that this view loses sight of the contradictory nature of social life, namely that people often have conflicting social bonds.
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- Learned recently that both the Marxist theorists Henri Lefebvre and Maximilien Rubel completed their doctoral theses under Georges Gurvitch. It’s noteworthy to me since Gurvtich had such an unorthodox interpretation of Marx, essentially claiming that he was a Proudhonized Saint-Simonian.
