Social cycle theory
The theory of the social cycle is one of the oldest theories in sociology. In contrast to the social evolutionism, which views the evolution of society and human history as progress in a new and unique direction, this theory suggests that repeated events and stages of development of society and history in cycles and it may therefore be no social progress.
This interpretation of history emerged in the 19th century, first in the " historiosophy " ( a branch of historiography ) and was included in the sociology soon.
An important role was played by the Russian philosopher Nikolai Danilevsky (1822-1885), who in his work Rossiia I Europe (1895 ) distinguished several smaller civilizations ( Egyptians, Chinese, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Germans, Slavs ). He wrote that every civilization possess a life cycle and that the Roman- Germanic civilization located at the end of the 19th century in decline, while the Slavic civilization was nearing its golden age. A similar theory presented Oswald Spengler, in The Decline of the West (1918 ) also expected that Western civilization would collapse.
The first cycle theory in sociology published by the Italian sociologist and economist Vilfredo Pareto in his work Trattato di Sociologia Generale ( 1916). Central to his theory was an elite stratum of society, he hurried to one smart " foxes " and wild " lion ". In this society, the power always moves from the " foxes " to the " lion " and vice versa.
Pitirim Sorokin classified the companies in Social and Cultural Dynamics (1937, 1943) according to their ' cultural mentality " in 1 " ideational " ( strictly morally focused on spiritual, transcendent truth sources), 3 " sensat " ( aligned with the This side - Sensual as a source of truth [ pursuit of happiness, empiricism ] ) or 2 " idealistic " ( a synthesis of the two), the different types of societies follow as numbered cyclically each other and the third phase appears as decadence. He pointed to the contemporary West as sog.e " sensate " civilization, dedicated to the economic and technological progress and prophesied its decline and the emergence of a new ideational or idealistic era.