The Social Philosophers: Community and Conflict in Western Thought

Western ideas of moral authority, freedom, consensus, and personality emerge from humankind’s search for community

In this provocative, classic, absorbing work of social and intellectual history, Robert Nisbet advances the idea that Western social philosophy arose during the disintegration of the ancient Greek and Roman communities, and has been preoccupied ever since with the problem of community lost and community to be gained. He further contends that Western ideas of moral authority, freedom, consensus, and personality take on their distinctive character when viewed through the lens of humankind’s search for community.

Much of the book’s originality lies in its organization. Nisbet distinguishes six major types of community in Western life and thought: military, political, religious, revolutionary, ecological, and plural. Each of these is presented as a continuing current in Western history and as a vital context to the central ideas of social philosophy. From Plato and Aristotle down to such modern thinkers as Marx, Tocqueville, Weber, Kropotkin, and Fanon, we are able to see the dominant ideas and perspectives of Western thought as responses to conflicts and crises--above all, to those affecting humankind’s quest for community. Written by one of America’s best-known historical sociologists, and with a new foreword by Luke Sheahan, The Social Philosophers will be of interest to the student as well as the general reader.

Robert Nisbet (Author)
Robert Nisbet served on the faculty at the University of California, and was professor of history and sociology at the University of Arizona. He was also a visiting professor at Columbia University, Princeton, Bologna, and Smith College. A former Guggenheim fellow, recipient of the Italian Award of Merit, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was the author of many books, among them The Quest for Community, Social Change and History, The Present Age: Progress and Anarchy in Modern America, and The Making of Modern Society. He died in 1996 at the age of 82.

Luke C. Sheahan (Author)
Luke C. Sheahan is assistant professor of political science at Duquesne University. He is the author of Why Associations Matter: The Case for First Amendment Pluralism.