The Retreat of Sociologists into the Present

Abstract

Not much attention has been paid to the retreat of sociologists into the present. This retreat, their flight from the past, became the dominant trend in the development of sociology after the Second World War and, like this development itself, was essentially unplanned. The immediate present into which sociologists are retreating, however, constitutes just one small momentary phase within the vast stream of humanity’s development, which, coming from the past, debouches into the present and thrusts ahead toward possible futures. The human population has undergone an unplanned process of growth, in more than purely numerical terms and in spite of all fluctuations. In many cases economic and party establishments have moved ahead of them to the top of the power and status hierarchy. Scientific establishments as specialists for the production and transmission of basic knowledge, as the main providers of new means of orientation in their societies, have taken over functions formerly performed by priests.