Abstract

Don Martindale defines Georges Gurvitch as a phenomenologist belonging to the branch of sociological formalism who was also influenced by sociometry. The company of Kant, Scheler, and Moreno is surely a strange sight to behold; it is clear why Martindale did not dare to add to the spectacle by introducing Gurvitch as a “dialectician.”

Dialektik und Sociologie is the culmination of a series of lectures held at the Sorbonne during 1960-61. The work is also an overall statement of Gurvitch's theoretical position. As a matter of fact, he explicitly expresses the hope that the book may remove “certain misunderstandings and false interpretations” as to where he stands. That it certainly does.