Description
This is the second of Raymond Aron’s classic two-volume survey of the sociological tradition – arguably the definitive work of its kind. Aron explores the work of three figures who profoundly shaped sociology as it entered the 20th century: ??mile Durkheim, who continued Auguste Comte’s quest for a science of society and a scientific validation of morality; Vilfredo Pareto, the Italian ‘neo-Machiavellian’ who emphasised the oligarchic or elitist character of all societies; and the German sociologist Max Weber, who reflected critically on the prospects for human freedom in an age marked by bureaucratisation and rationalisation.