Robert Nisbet Critical Essay | Critical Review by Paul W. Kurtz

Critical Review by Paul W. Kurtz

SOURCE: A review of The Quest for Community: A Study in the Ethics of Freedom and Order, in The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. L, No. 25, December 3, 1953, pp. 788-92.

In the following review of Quest for Community, Kurtz argues that Nisbet's work is part of a useful trend in social science toward examining people as part of social units or communities rather than as isolated individuals.

Even a perfunctory acquaintance with recent social and political science will reveal that the basic theoretical concepts have been gradually undergoing revision. Theories of society or the state based upon the “psychic,” biological, or instinctive properties of the individual are generally discredited. A new perspective is emerging in which the “social unit” is replacing the “autonomous individual” as the focal point of study.

[The Quest for Community], written by a sociologist, staunchly defends this institutional viewpoint. The author devotes considerable space to...
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