抄録
The purpose of this article is to contribute several interpretations and themes which have not figured prominently in the past studies of history of sociology in Japan before the War. The problematical focus is placed on the fundamentally important theoretical content of the pre-war sociology-in the more technical sense of the term “theretical”. Nor does this article include any systematic consideration of every social theories on and contributions to the philosophy and methodology of sociological science.
It is perhaps particularly important in this connection to emphasize two points. The first of these is that our sociological interest in the pre-war conflict between the Emperoristic fascism and the mass democracy including the Marxistic and liberalistic movements that were suppressed by the Public Peace Regulation (named “Chian Ijiho”). Secondly, with respect to “Sociology of War” which has been almost wholly neglected by sociologists in Japan. Democratic social theories had been suppressed under the pressure of the ultra-nationalistic extremism. Empirically the relations between wars and sociology are clearly of the highest complexity and involve much interpenetration.
Two of them refer to the plan of this article that selects from various theories those which best illustrate the contribution the sociologist made to make the scientific sociology as a specific social science. The task of today sociologist is to classify the sociological requisites of democracy in Japan. In the pre-war period, the Japanese sociologists couldn't discuss these points thoroughly under the pressure of military fascism and the nationalistic intellectual heritage imposed on them. This problem leads us to a severe investigation of the nature of trends of sociological sciences in the pre-war Japan. In order to make same important consideration to this task, this article attempts to relate Takata Yasuma (1883-1972) and his work to the main currents of the intellectual history of his time named “the Taisho Democracy.”
