Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 14:02:07 -0500 (EST)
From: George Free <aw570-AT-freenet.toronto.on.ca>
Subject: book recommendation


	For anyone interested in Bourdieu's contribution to the study of
intellectual history, I would highly recommend Johan Heilbron's _The Rise
of Social Theory_ (translated from the Dutch by Sheila Gogol, and
published by U. of Minnesota Press, 1995).
	This is not a study of Bourdieu, but a history of the rise of
sociology that draws on Bourdieu's insights into cultural fields. (BTW,
another intellectual historian currently drawing on Bourdieu is Fritz
Ringer.)
	Heilbron's book might be more accurately entitled "The Rise of
Sociology in France." Though it does offer comparative analyses of
developments in Britain and elsewhere, it is mainly focused on that
country. As well, it is not a history of social "theory" in the
theoreticist sense that this term is usually employed today, but a history
of sociology as an empirical science of society.
	One of the novel features of Heilbron's study is that it is not a
disciplinary history, but focuses on the emergence of the concepts and
ideas that gave rise to social science. In other words, it is not a study
of the history of those who called themselves sociologists, that is, of
the profession of sociology, but of the fundamentals of its basic point of
view. (In this connection, it seems Heilbron is following up on arguments
made by Norbert Elias.)
	Heilbron's study thus identifies the origins of sociology in much
earlier period than is usually done. He begins by looking at the rise of a
secular concepts of society in the French and Scottish enlightenment. He
then traces developments in France, where the effort was made (e.g., with
Condorcet) to develop a scientific approach to the study of society.
	The center and perhaps most fascinating part of Heilbron's book is
his indepth study of Auguste Comte. Heilbron offers a new and, IMHO,
important interpretation of Comte that shows that his principal
contribution was an *historicized* view of science and a theory of the
*relative autonomy* of the sciences. Comte is seen by Heilbron as
establishing the foundations for the history of the sciences in France
(that is, of the tradition of Bachelard, Canguilhem and Foucault) and of
sociology as a science independent of biology (with Durkheim).
	Aside from providing these important insights, Heilbron's book is
especially noteworthy for its combination of intellectual *and* social
history. Like no other study in the history of ideas that I have
encountered, he shows how sociology arose out of the social experience of
specific groups of intellectuals.
	This is a work of great scholarship and insight. It is necessary
reading for anyone interested in the history of the social sciences. 

		George Free		aw570-AT-torfree.net
		Toronto, Ontario
		Canada

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