Piritim Sorokin on Contractual, Altruistic and Familistic Relationships

Discussion

Richard Simpson:

"Sorokin feels that it is necessary to get at the root of things, to attack the "basic premise" of modern culture, not merely its products. The basic premise is the Sensate scheme of values, which must give way to an Idealistic or Ideational world-view if we are to avert catastrophe. Since the superstructure of such a sociocultural system is built upon its major premise, a rational change of the entire system in a desirable direction must concentrate first Upon this major premise.

We must transfer man's attention from the sensual, conscious, and subconscious levels to the superconscious and the Infinite Manifold: that true reality which can be comprehended only through the interplay of sense, reason, and intuition.

Our situation calls for increases of altruism and of familistic as opposed to contractual or compulsory social relationships. Altruistic actions are those that are performed not from any expectation of pleasure or utility, but because the actions are deemed worthy in themselves. Familistic relationships are those permeated by mutual love, devotion, and sacrifice. They are exemplified by the relationships between the members of a devoted family. In familistic relationships one finds the highest development of altruism. Sorokin suggests steps that might be taken toward increasing the prevalence of altruism in our society. He favors legislation "limiting the freedom of marriage and divorce; discrediting panderers in all their high-brow and low-brow forms; and depriving irresponsible parents of certain privileges, including the right to neglect and demoralize their children."8 He believes that the schools "must establish a carefully elaborated system for developing altruism in their pupils."

(https://www.suz.uzh.ch/dam/jcr:00000000-36d7-41d4-0000-000064b51e55/simpson_sorokin.pdf)