Florian Znaniecki - Achievements

Achievements

Florian Znaniecki characterized the world as caught within two contrary modes of reflection; these were idealism and realism. Znaniecki proposed a third way, which he labeled culturalism (Polish kulturalizm). Znaniecki's culturalism is one of the ideas that founded modern sociological views of antipositivism.

His focus and subsequent impact lay mainly in the realms of sociology, philosophy, and secondarily psychology. According to the culturalist perspective, sociology should deal with the effects of culture, as sociology is a study of human meaning, and subsequently dualistic with a locus of empirical reality. Znaniecki responds to demands for objective reality as a focus, those that would use Cartesian arguments of fancy, and those with pre-postmodern malaise, in this way: "Therefore, whether we agree that the individual can contribute to the evolution of the objective world or not, whether we treat the objective realities or thoughts which the individual reaches as creations or mere reconstructions, as new objectively or new only for him, we must take the other, active side of the experiencing individual, the creative personality into account."

In 1934 he formulated the principle of analytic induction, designed to identify universal propositions and causal laws. He contrasted it with enumerative research, which provided mere correlations and could not account for exceptions in statistical relationships.(Taylor & Bogdan 1998)

Znaniecki proposed that social phenomena (Polish czynności społeczne) should be treated as active or as potential subjects of one's actions (humanist principle (Polish współczynnik humanistyczny). According to this principle, the individual's experiences and ideas are of utmost importance and the sociologist should study reality as a social actor (subjectively), not as an independent observer (objectively). As one of the first sociologists, he started analyzing personal documents like letters, autobiographies, diaries and similar items. Znaniecki's term "social phenomena" is broader then Max Weber's social actions.

According to Znaniecki, sociology should analyze social relations, which are composed of values. Their basic element is that of human beings. He recognized four types of social relations:

• social acts (Polish czyny społeczne) - the most simple, like greeting or pleading, each composed of elements like: people, tools, subjects, methods, results
• social relations (Polish stosunki społeczne)- need at least two people and a platform, like privilege or obligation
• social group (Polish grupy społeczne)- any group which some people recognize as a separate entity
• social personalities (Polish osobowości społeczne)- which are created under influence of social movements

Znaniecki also defined four types of character and personality:

• the humorous man (Polish człowiek zabawy)- develops among those who have much time, treats work as fun
• the working man (Polish człowiek pracy)- develops among the working class social class, treats work as a life necessity
• the well-behaved man (Polish człowiek dobrze wychowany)- develops among the intelligentsia social class
• the deviant man (Polish człowiek zboczeniec (dewiant))- easily distinguishable from the others, not always in a negative perspective (he can be a genius or a criminal)

The Polish Peasant in Europe and America 1918-1920 is considered to be a classic study of immigrants and their families based on personal documents, and is the foundation of modern empirical sociology and humanist sociology.