Robert Musil – novelist, psychologist, sociologist : Contributions to classical sociology and the analysis of modernity

Summary, in Swedish

The writings of the Austrian novelist and essayist Robert Musil provide sociology with vital problems and reflections. Indeed, Musil, not least in the novel The Man without qualities, introduces discussions that extend conventional and recurrent understanding of modernity – sociology’s general object of analysis. The paper focuses on three major sets of questions in Musil’s work: 1) the shapelessness of man, 2) the relation between reason and sentiments, and 3) functional stupidity (the functionalisation of the mind to collective demands of the party, the race and the nation). The paper discusses Musil’s arguments by relating them to central propositions in classical sociology, notably Simmel, Weber, Kracauer, Plessner. Classical sociology, in turn, is defined as a sub-discourse of classical modern reflection. An overall purpose of the paper is to present Musil’s reflections on modernity as essential to social science in general and sociology in particular.

• Författare: Bo Isenberg
• Avdelning/ar: Sociologi
• Publiceringsår: 2019-03-22
• Språk: Engelska
• Fulltext: - 73 kB; Download statistics
• Dokumenttyp: Konferensbidrag
• Ämne: Social Work
• Nyckelord: Musil; classical sociology; modernity; contingency; shapelessness of man; functional stupidity; reason and sentiments
• Conference name: BALTIC CONNECTIONS: Conference in Social Science History
• Conference date: 2019-03-21 - 2019-03-23
• Conference place: Helsinki, Finland
• Aktiv: Published