唯名论与唯实论之争:社会学内部的对立与动力——有关经典社会学发展的一项考察

Nominalism vs. Realism: Conflict and Drive Innate to Sociology

在西方社会学160多年的发展中,一直存在着社会唯实论和社会唯名论两种对立倾向:前者认为,社会是由个体组成的,但是社会一旦形成,作为一个整体它具有先前的个体所不具备的突生性质;后者则认为,个体是最为重要的实体,而社会不过是一个虚幻的存在物,其基本的性质是由个体的性质所决定的。在经典社会学时代,这样一种对立的普遍存在,既造成了社会学家之间的巨大鸿沟,又成为推动社会学发展的内在动力。而这种对立和动力至今仍存在于宏观社会学和微观社会学的分歧之中。

In the over 160 years of western sociology, two conflicting trends have existed; social nominalism and social realism. The former believes that a society is made up of individuals , but once it is formed, the society as a whole acquires sudden growth features unseen in individuals ; the latter believes that the individual is the most significant entity whereas the society is merely an illusory existence, whose nature is determined by that of the individual. In the era of classical sociology, the prevalent existence of such a conflict not only creates a huge gap a-mong sociologists but also becomes the drive for sociological development. This conflict and drive still exists in the differences between macro-sociology and micro-sociology.