Original scientific paper
Prussian General Staff and the Emergence of Sociology
Ozren Žunec
; Odsjek za sociologiju, Filozofski fakultet, Sveučilište u Zagrebu
Abstract
Sociology has dealt with the war phenomenon only in passing. In this paper we have tried to show that the first attempts at explaining war used sociological criteria as their starting point. Driven by a practical wish to explain the French military victories and the Allied forces’ defeats in the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars, Prussian generals Gerhard von Scharnhorst (1755-1813) and Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) arrived at a radically different understanding that the changes in the warfare were caused primarily by social changes. In his analyses, Scharnhorst implied a certain social theory of functional interaction between particular segments of the social system in order to show the dependence of the organization of the armed forces and warfare on other social institutions, values and practices. Scharnhorst’s and Clausewitz's works can he regarded as the emergence of sociology be fore it was developed as a science by Auguste Comte.
Keywords
Scharnhorst; Clausewitz; social theory; history of sociology; sociology of war
Hrčak ID:
154549
URI
Publication date:
30.6.1996.
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