Stanislaw Ossowski - Class Structure in the Social Consciousness

The International Library of Sociology

CLASS STRUCTURE IN THE SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS

The International Library of Sociology

RACE, CLASS AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE
In 21 Volumes

CLASS STRUCTURE IN THE SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS

by

STANISLAW OSSOWSKI

Translated from the Polish by

SHEILA PATTERSON

First published in Great Britain, 1963 by
Routledge

Reprinted in 1998, 1999, 2001 by
Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Transferred to Digital Printing 2007

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

1963 Stanislaw Ossowski

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Class Structure in the Social Consciousness

ISBN 0-415-17618-2

Class, Race and Social Structure: 21 Volumes

ISBN 0-415-17826-6

The International Library of Sociology: 274 Volumes

ISBN 0-415-17838-X

Publishers Note

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent

PREFACE

Nearly five years have passed since this book was originally published in the Polish language. Its appearance in print was in a certain sense linked with the events of October 1956 in Poland, for these made it possible to publish the work on which I had been engaged for several years without hope of publication. The book went to press in the post-October period of enthusiasm and hope, and this emotional climate was reflected in its final touches.

Since 1957 a number of sociological enquiries have been carried out in Poland; they include enquiries into social attitudes towards the problems of egalitarianism, the relationship to socialism in various social milieux in our country and the ways in which socialism is conceived. The speed of social change in the world means that we often look back at events that happened only a few years before from a historical perspective. None the less it seems to me that the events of the intervening period have produced nothing that would necessitate any changes in the contents of this book, the subject matter of which consists of problems that are not confined to a single country, system or period.

The book of course reflects in various respects the conditions prevailing in the country in which it was written. Sometimes this affects the manner in which problems are presented. At other times it may emerge in certain reflexions or allusions or in the citing of instances which are of particular importance for the situation that prevailed in Poland before October 1956. For instance, the reference in the introduction to the coincidence between the entirely independent views of Prus and Engels, which an English-speaking reader may regard as unessential, was in reaction to the view propagated in Eastern Europe about the absolute contrast between the Marxist classics and positivistic bourgeois thought.

For a considerable period Poland has lain at a crossroads of various trends of thought. She possesses old-established sociological traditions linked with the names of Joachim Lelewel (17861861), Ludwik Gumplowicz (18381909), Ludwik Krzywicki (18591941), Edward Abramowski (18691918), Stefan Czarnowski (18791937), and Florian Znaniecki (18821958). At the turn of this Century some Polish sociologists (including Krzywicki, Abramowski and Kelles-Krauz) were not only academic sociologists but revolutionary thinkers who participated in the revolutionary movement. The first Polish translations of Marxs works appeared as early as the 1860s. The Polish Sociological Institute, which was founded by Znaniecki in 1921, carried on underground academic work all through the Nazi occupation of 19391944. After the Second World War Poland was an area in which the sociological concepts of Western Europe and the United States clashed with the Marxist method of interpreting phenomena according to the line laid down by the Party. This clash between differing ways of thinking stimulated the raising of some special questions which are discussed in various chapters of this book, and encouraged the search for problems of world-wide importance, despite the view expressed in official circles about the distinctness of the social problems found in the so-called Western World and those of the socialist countries.

The English translation of this study is a break-through of the language barrier to a wider readership. It is particularly important to me because of the subject-matter of this book.

The translation was not an easy task, mainly because of the difficulties arising out of the different connotations of the Polish conceptual apparatus and of the English one. I should like to express my deep gratitude to Mrs. Sheila Patterson for her work, performed with such care and competence. I should also like to record my sincerest thanks to Dr. Zbigniew Jordan for his cooperation with Mrs. Patterson in checking the draft translation and for his valuable advice on a number of points for the final English version of this work.