Japanese Family and Society by Phil Barker Teruhito Sako Suzanne K Steinmetz

Author:Phil Barker, Teruhito Sako, Suzanne K Steinmetz [Phil Barker, Teruhito Sako, Suzanne K Steinmetz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Social Work, Cultural Studies, Ethnic Studies
ISBN: 9781136776236
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2007-10-17T04:00:00+00:00

SOCIOLOGICAL IDEAS IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE

All the current historical studies agree23 that the later western European scholars were influenced by the ancient Greek philosophical perspective,24 Roman legislative perspective, and Jewish religious belief. But here we will concentrate on Greek influence. Judaism gave birth to Christianity, and Christianity has been the most influential system of thought among western European people. But it is only slightly connected with the development of sociological thought. It did not develop to the degree necessary to understand and resolve the practical problems.

From the beginning to the end of the medieval era, Christianity was based on the church fathers’teachings and scholastic philosophy. Thomas Aquinas was an exception. He absorbed and developed the Aristotelian system, arguing that humans are not only political beings but also social beings.25 But this argument was based on the belief that God’s rule, and not the king’s rule, is absolute. He thought that humans need God to rule society. The king’s rule can be justified only when it promotes social happiness among humans. Only God and his representatives know the ultimate implication of this happiness. So kings must obey God and the Pope; the states must obey the churches. Many scholars agreed with this teaching. This was called the theory of divine right of kings.26

Two opponents threatened this theocratic teaching. Arabian thinkers like Averroes, also known as Ibn Rushd (ca 1179–1180), argued that from the moral point of view every religion has the same functions, and from the logical point of view all religions are false (see Ibn Khaldun, 1896; Ibn Tofayl, 1782). Averroes used a comparative method for studying religions, rejected all miracles, and tried to resist the Catholic orthodoxy and the Pope’s secular power. Averroes’s theory gained enthusiastic support from many kings and nobles in western Europe. Marshilius of Padova (1328) further elaborated Averroes’s theory and adapted it to the practical problem of that time. Marshilius argued that the Pope’s intervention, Plenitude Potestates [perfect power or perfect rule], in the kingdoms is unjustifiable. Christ prohibited it. The right to make laws [Universitas Civium or civil world] resides in each state. Subjects of each kingdom enact their own codes.

The medieval intellectual world, as described above, was in severe turmoil. It may be said that the medieval era did not have social problems but it did have political problems (Stein, 1897, p. 257). The public philosophy had been developed in ancient Greece and Rome, but it seemed that the savage people of Gaul failed to absorb it. [Gaul (Gallia) is the name of the area under the Roman Empire that is roughly France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany today. Eds.] In the medieval era, only the most superior people, like kings and nobles, observed social consciousness. So they concentrated on the power relations of kings, nobles, and priests. Medieval people were not aware of the need for sociology.

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