Sociology and Freedom

Author(s): Peter L. Berger

Source: The American Sociologist, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Feb., 1971), pp. 1-5
Published by: Springer
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27701700 .
Accessed: 21/10/2011 00:12

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Springer is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The American Sociologist.

http://www.jstor.org
 SOCIOLOGY AND FREEDOM
Peter L. Berger

Rutgers University

The American Sociologist 1971, Vol. 6 (February) : 1-5

Sociology, greatly to the surprise of most of its older in the treatment of the metaphysical afflictions of intel
practitioners, has acquired the reputation of a liberating lectuals. The latter image is a source of alarm not
only
discipline. Sociology courses are crowded with students to
university administrators and law enforcement officers,
in search of the intellectual tools with which to demolish but to orthodox
Marxists, who describe the new radical
the hypocritical world of their elders and fashion for sociologists in terms that could have been borrowed from
if not for at a new
themselves, society large, authenticity Spiro Agnew.
and a new freedom. Even more The comes from
astonishing expectations greatest dismay, naturally, sociologists.
are directed toward
sociology by students who adhere to Placid purveyors of Parsonian theory
are
suddenly
the radical left.For them, sociology is nothing less than confronted with demands to be "relevant" to the turbulent
the theoretical arm of that a and commitments of the young. Grad
revolutionary praxis, is, constantly shifting
liberating discipline in the literal sense of a radical trans uates of the Bureau of Applied Social Research, collectors
formation of the social order. It is sociology in this latter and producers of multiple correlations with impeccable
that has been associated with the remark of error, hear themselves denounced
understanding margins suddenly
able proportion of students of the field who are among as academic of the military-industrial
hirelings complex.
leading activists of the New Left, both in America and This confrontation between the old and the new so
in western the where there now are a gap if there ever was one,
Europe?to point ciology, yawning generation
firms in Germany and in France screening job applicants could be fully observed at the 1969 meetings of the
in order to bar those who have taken courses. American Association in San Francisco.
sociology Sociological
Even in this country, where is established more There were the various caucuses of radical leftists, black
sociology
firmly in academia, there are places where the field has militants, and (perhaps most frightening of all) liberated
taken on a slightly disreputable flavor. or
wanting-to-be liberated women sociologists, each group
All this is very recent indeed. Only
a few years ago most doing its thing in the antiseptic corridors of the San
outsiders, if they thought of a sociologist at all, thought Francisco Hilton. Amid this novel furor, the majority,
of him as a character, with an insatiable lust for almost went about its usual business of inter
dry furtively,
statistics who at best might dig up some data of use to viewing job candidates, drinking publishers' liquor, and
and at worst of one malevo in atrocious
policy makers (in the words reading papers English.
lent commentator) ten thousand dollars to should be an instrument for the existential
might spend Sociology
discover the local house of ill repute. It would have re liberation of the individual; it should be a weapon in the
a wild to conceive of this to liberate To anyone
quired imagination unexciting revolutionary struggle society.
type
as an
object of interest either for young seekers familiar with the history of the discipline, these notions
after salvation or for the FBI. It has happened all the are
startling, if not ironic. In the origins of
sociology,
same. among younger members of the pro there was indeed a of it?the
Especially quasi-religious conception
fession there are now serious to of Auguste Comte and his followers. Comte,
aspirants drastically conception
different images of the sociologist. There is the image however, envisaged sociology
as an
?mforevolutionary doc
of the sociologist as one of several guru types within trine, as the new church that was to restore order and
the culture, in close to the evangelists progress in the wake of the havoc caused by the French
youth proximity
of psychedelia, and other fashionable Revolution. With few exceptions, however, the Comtian
T-group mysticism,
gospels. There is also the image of the sociologist as a view of sociology
as Heilswissen (to use Max Scheler's
carrier of revolutionary doctrine and, potentially
at term) did not survive into the classic age of the discipline,
least, as a character throwing Molotov cocktails through the period roughly between 1890 and 1930. None of the
the windows of the faculty club (in either direction, de classic sociologists would have been able to make much
on circumstances). Both have sense of the current notion of as a vehicle of
pending images provoked sociology
as well as enthusiasm. The former is es liberation.
dismay image personal
for psychologists, who suddenly find As to understanding to be a doctrine of rev
pecially galling sociology
themselves in what so was a it is noteworthy that some of the great
challenged recently monopoly olutionary praxis,
est classic figures (such as Max Weber, Emile Durkheim
Paper delivered January 8, 1970, at the symposium "Freedom and Vilfredo Pareto) invested a good deal of effort in
and the Human Sciences," Loyola University, Chicago. The full
what considered to be refutations of Marxism. Most
of the symposium will be published Uni they
proceedings by Loyola
classic in Europe was a
versity. Permission granted by Loyola University for separate sociology counterrevolutionary
publication of this paper is gratefully acknowledged. and (at least implicitly) conservative doctrine. Early

February 1971 1
American sociology had a
strong reformist animus, but cial transformations of our time. Put differently, I sug
this was more
congenial to YMCA secretaries than to gest that there is in sociology a subversive impulse that
revolutionaries or of salvation. Even strives for expression of the intentions of indi
preachers spiritual regardless
this mild reformism became, at most, a
submerged motif vidual sociologists.
as "value-freedom" and technical became es human has that, most of the
proficiency Every society assumptions
tablished as binding norms within the profession. time, are neither
challenged
nor reflected upon. In other
I have no for the recent dramatic in every there are patterns of thought that
satisfying explanation words, society
in the conception of sociology. One can of most without as of the very
changes point, people accept question being
course, to certain intellectual sources?C. Wright Mills nature of things. Alfred Schutz called the sum of these
in this country, the so-called Frankfurt School in Ger "the which the
world-taken-for-granted," provides
many, and such as Henri and the basic for our
Marxists-turned-sociologists, parameters programs everyday
Lefebvre, in France. This, though, does not explain why lives. Robert and Helen Lynd, in their classic studies of
these individuals and their ideas have suddenly come to Middletown, pointed
to the same
phenomenon
with their
exert such a influence. I strongly that, as of "of course statements"?statements that
powerful suspect concept people
is often the case in the
history of ideas, there is a strong take for granted to such a degree that, if questioned about
of chance in the new affinity between
element sociology them, their answers with "of course." These
they preface
and political radicalism. In any case, I don't intend to de
socially established patterns of thought provide the in
vote myself here to speculation about the reasons for dividual with what we may call his basic reality kit (para
this slightly bizarre marriage (not the least reason being phrasing Erving Goffman), that is,with the cognitive and
that I doubt whether it will last long). Rather than to normative tools to build a coherent universe to live in.

explore historical causes, I wish to look at the theoretical It is difficult to see how social lifewould be possible with
at can so
question issue, to wit: In what sense, if at all, out this. But specific institutions and specific vested inter

ciology be called a liberating discipline? ests are also legitimated by such taken-for-granted pat
terns of Thus, a threat to the taken-for-granted
thought.

"The between and freedom quality of legitimating thought patterns can very quickly
relationship sociology become a threat to the institutions being legitimated and
is not as or as as the radicals
simple, cheerful, to the individuals who have a stake in the institutional
in the would have us believe."
profession status quo.
Sociology, willy-nilly and by its own intrinsic logic,
I shall approach the question by way of two seemingly keeps generating such threats. Simply by doing its cog
nitive job, sociology puts the institutional order and its
contradictory propositions: (1) sociology is subversive
under critical So
of established patterns of thought, and (2) sociology is legitimating thought patterns scrutiny.

conservative in its implications for the institutional order. ciology has a built-in debunking effect. It shows up the
are that un
fallaciousness of socially established interpretations of
I suggest that both propositions correct, and
this entails also the reality by demonstrating that the facts do not gibe with
derstanding grasping relationship
the "official" view or, even more relativizing
between and at least on the level of simply by
sociology freedom,
the latter, that is, by showing that it is only one of several
politics. (I should add here that the epistemological
of how an science can or cannot deal possible views of society. That is already dangerous
problem empirical
with man's freedom is clearly outside the scope of this enough and would provide sufficientgrounds for sociolo
to become what the Prussian authorities used to call
gists
paper. )
polizeibekannt?of interest to the cognitive if not to the
Sociology is subversive of established patterns of
actual let me add, every society has its cog
of course, is a favorite notion of police?and,
thought. This, today
nitive policemen who administer the "official" definitions
those who would marry sociology to radical politics. A
of But at least in certain situations, is
few years most would have been shocked reality. sociology,
ago sociologists
more subversive. It unmasks vested interests and
or honestly bewildered by the proposition. Then, it was directly
makes visible the manner in which the latter are served
those with a vested interest in established patterns of
social fictions. At least in certain then, so
situations,
thought who (if the inelegant simile may be forgiven)
by

smelled the rat before those who put it there. I recall a ciology can be political dynamite.
A favorite term of the New Left in Europe and Latin
remark made to me in 1956 by a barber in the southern
town where I had just started my first teaching job. After America is derived from the vocabulary of psychoanaly
in German, concientizaci?n in
I told him what I was teaching, he paused (more pensively se?Bewusstmachung
best translated as to con
than hostilely) and remarked, "Oh, I know about so Spanish?perhaps "bringing

You're the guys who wrote all those footnotes

sciousness." This is the process of social critique by which
ciologists.
the mystifications of "false consciousness" are demolished
in the Supreme Court decision on getting the colored into
and the way is for the demystified consciousness
the schools." He was of course, in an extended sense, prepared
right,
for I shall return
if not literally. I wonder how many of the sociologists necessary revolutionary praxis. shortly
to the first
who busily gathered all those data on the place of the to the question of revolutionary praxis. As

Negro inAmerica (some of them Southerners living quite aspect of the term, the subversive effects of critical social

comfortably in a segregated society) imagined that they

on consciousness, it must be admitted that it
analysis
were the for one of the great so
pertains
to
sociology in a very basic way. Anyone who
providing legitimations

2The American Sociologist

pursues the sociological perspective to its logical conse tinuity, and of triviality. Each of these flies in the face
quences will find himself undergoing a transformation of of some of the fondest beliefs of the contemporary left.
his consciousness of society. At least potentially, this makes After a recent lecture of mine on a
sociological theory,
him unsafe in the eyes of the of law and order. student remarked to me, "You sure have a
guardians perceptive
It also produces unsafety, sometimes with catastrophic hangup on order, don't you?" I conceded the description,
effects, for his own peace of mind. but I added that my "hangup" was not arbitrary or in
"Bringing to consciousness," in this sense, does indeed advertent. Behind it is the conviction that sociology leads
have a liberating quality. But the freedom to which it to the understanding that order is the primary imperative
leads, quite apart from its possible political effects, can of social life. There is the additional conviction (which
be a rather terrible thing. It is the freedom of ecstasy, in I cannot develop here) that this fact is rooted in the
the literal sense
of ek-stasis?stepping or outside fundamental constitution of man, that is, that not
standing only
the routine ways and assumptions of everyday life?and
sociology but philosophical anthropology must lead to
this, let us recall, also includes standing apart from rou a on order."
"hangup
tine comforts and routine Thus, if there is a in essence, is the of order upon
security. Society, imposition
relationship between "bringing to consciousness" and the flux of human experience. Most people will first think
the ecstasy of there is also a be here of what American call "social con
liberation, relationship sociologists
tween that ecstasy and the of desperation. trol"?the of coercive power upon deviant
possibility imposition
Toward the end of his lifeMax Weber was asked by a individuals or
groups?and, of course, it is in this sense
friend to whom he had been explaining the very pessi that radicals will understand, and disagree with, my
mistic conclusions of his sociological analysis, "But, if "hangup
on order." Coercion and external controls, how

you think this way, why do you continue doing sociol ever, are only incidental aspects of society's imposition of

ogy?" Weber's reply is one of themost chilling statements order. Beginning with language, every social institution,
I know in the history of western thought: "Because I no matter how "nonrepressive"
or "consensual," is an

want to know how much I can stand." Alfred Seidel, a imposition of order. If this is understood, it will be clear
student of Weber's who was also greatly influenced by that social life abhors disorder as nature abhors a vacuum.

Freud,
came to an even more
pessimistic conclusion in This has the directly political implication that, except for
his little book appropriately entitled Bewusstsein als rare and invariably brief periods, the forces of order are
as Doom. Seidel concluded than those of disorder and, further, there
Verhaengnis?Consciousness always stronger
that the combined critical consciousness of sociology and are fairly narrow limits to the toleration of disorder in
was not subversive but
psychoanalysis only politically any human society.
inimical to life itself.Whatever other motives there may
have Seidel's as a young man in the 1920s,
been, suicide,
was an existential ratification of this view of the "bring "The 'meaninglessness9 of so much of social life,
currently decried as the source of so-called
to consciousness" of sociology.
ing
is not to suggest that sociologists, to be 'alienation,' is in fact a necessary condition for
My purpose
consistent, should all commit suicide. I have a somewhat both individual and collective sanity."
more benign view of the existential possibilities of socio
consciousness. Rather, I want to point out that
logical The left,by and large, understands that all social order
the relationship between sociology and freedom is not as
is precarious. It generally fails to understand that just be
or as cheerful, as the radicals in the
simple, profession cause societies will react with almost
of this precariousness
would have us believe. Yes, there is a liberating quality to fundamental or
instinctive violence any long-lasting
to the discipline of sociology. Yes, there are situations revolution"
threat to their order. The idea of "permanent
where sociological understanding can be liberating in a revolution
is an anthropologically absurd fantasy. Indeed,
own values) morally
political and (at least in terms of my ary movements can be successful only if they succeed,
sense?as in the service that can ren
significant sociology and succeed fairly rapidly, in establishing new structures
der to the liberation of American blacks from racial
of order within which people can settle down with some
oppression. But for individual sociologists, the discipline semblance of social and psychic safety. Mao Tse Tung's
can to consciousness of the world that are
bring aspects cultural revolution can serve as a textbook of
example
a freedom that, in the extreme
profoundly disturbing and the grotesque failure in store for any revolutionary praxis
evokes terrors.
instance, truly Kierkegaardian that fails to grasp this point.
the in*
Sociology is conservative in its implications for The imperative of continuity is closely related to, but
stitutional order. This second proposition, put differently, not identical
with, the imperative of order. I suppose that,
means that sociology, far from leading inevitably to
finally, it is rooted in the simple fact that people have
latter in most
revolutionary praxis, actually inhibits the children. If one has children, one feels a necessity to ex
cases. Put once more, fomenters of revolution the to them and to relate the to the
differently plain past present
is
past. If one loves one's children (and I take it that this
have as reason to be of as
good suspicious sociology
have. This can be made the case with most who have them), one will
policemen point economically by people
three in my socio want to project into the future whatever one
way of imperatives which, opinion, good things
can show to be in has in one's own life?and there are very few
logical understanding present every possessed
the of order, of con even the most who have pos
human community: imperatives people, among oppressed,

3
February 1971
 sessed nothing good at all. Conversely, if one loves one's ness. Fortunately, it is anthropologically unrealizable,
parents (the current crisis" the endless "discussion" that goes on in radical
"generation notwithstanding, though
I am inclined to think that this, too, is something of an groups gives
a certain approximation of the horror that

anthropological constant), one will not finally want to its realization would signify. It is one of the mercies
disparage everything that constituted the parents' world? of human nature that, finally, all participants and all
not if one comes to have children of one's own, discussants must fall asleep.
especially
who not ask what will become of them but from where I have tried to explicate the conservative bent of soci
only
they
come. Children are our
hostages to history. Conse ology by pointing to some basic imperatives of social life
quently,
to be a
parent means (however dimly
and on that should make the sociologist skeptical of notions of
whatever level of intellectual sophistication) to have a violent change and hesitant to commit himself to revolu
stake in the of the social order. As a result, I think that similar conclusions can be ar
continuity tionary praxis.
there are limits not only to social disorder but to social rived at, by way of sociological or historical empirical
discontinuity. Enthusiasts for violent change (most of analysis, for the actual processes of revolution. If all this
I have noticed, don't have children) fail to rec adds up to a conservative it should be
whom, propensity, empha
this. Successful revolutionaries find out about the sized that the conservatism in is of a
ognize question peculiar
limits of disorder, to their as must kind. It is not a conservatism based on the conviction
usually dismay, they
settle down to govern the over which have that the institutions of the status quo are sacred, inex
society they
gained control. The of the Soviet regime or inevitable. The aforemen
experiences orably right, empirically
with the institutions of the family and of religion are in tioned subversive impulse of sociology precludes this type
structive in this of conservatism. it is a conservatism based on
regard. Rather,
about the status quo in society as well as about
skepticism
various programs for new social orders. It is, if you wish,

"The sociologist has no doctrine of redemption the conservatism of the pessimist. The seeming contradic

to bring into the political arena." tion between our

two about the subversive
propositions
ness and the conservatism of sociology thus resolves itself
into a but by no means irrational stance:
paradoxical
the stance a man who thinks but acts care
The imperative of triviality is also, I suspect, rooted in
of daringly

some basic facts of the human the fully.This, of course, is exactly the kind ofman whom our
condition?namely,
facts that man's attention is limited and that man young revolutionaries will call a fink. So be it. It is prob
span
can tolerate a limited amount of excitement. ably one of the unavoidable blindnesses of youth to fail
only Perhaps
to see that in society may, for some, be
the physiological foundation of this is the need for sleep. acting carefully
the result of wanting to preserve their little apple
Be this as it may, social life would be psychologically simple
but for others, motivated it may
intolerable if each of its moments required from us full carts, quite differently,
reflect a carefully concern to avoid sense
deliberate and emotional in thought-through
attention, decision, high
less pain and to protect the good things of ordinary life.
volvement. I would thus give the status of a sociological
There is some in the fact that a
axiom to this proposition: Triviality is one of the funda irony, though, generation
that has made a culture hero out of Albert Camus should
mental requirements of social life. It is sociologically, an
extol his Rebel at the expense of his hymns of praise to
thropologically, and perhaps even biologically necessary the of ordinary men on sun-drenched
that a goodly portion of social life take place in a state of ordinary pleasures
beaches.
dim awareness or for this reason
semisleep. Precisely
the institutional order the individual's ac Sociology, therefore, is a liberating discipline in a very
"programs"
specific way. There can be no doubt about its liberating
tivity. Put simply, society protects our sanity by pre effects on consciousness. At least
a number of choices?not choices of potentially, sociology
empting large only
action but choices of thought. If we understand this (the may be a prelude to liberation not only of thought but of
action. At the same time, however, up
understanding has been worked out systematically, by the
sociology points
the social limits of freedom?the very limits that, in turn,
way, in the theory of institutions by the contemporary
German sociologist Arnold Gehlen), we shall see that provide the social space for any empirically viable expres
sion of freedom. This is not It
there are limits not only to disorder and discontinuity but perspective, alas, simple.

to the of "significant events." We shall then requires intellectual effort and is not easily harnessed to
frequency
take more rituals," forms,"
political passions. I contend that the effort is worth it and
seriously "meaningless "empty
or "mere rec
that it will serve well precisely those political purposes
routines" in social life?simply through
that come from a concern for men rather than for
ognizing that were social life in its entirety to be charged
living
abstract doctrines of liberation.
with profound meaning, we would all go out of our minds.
The of so much of social cur So much for sociology as a discipline. What about the
"meaninglessness" life,
a
rently decried
as the source of so-called "alienation," is sociologist? A good case can be made that there is
in fact a necessary condition for both individual and crisis of freedom in the world today. What is to be the
collective sanity. The currently fashionable left ideal of place of the sociologist in this crisis?
full participation in the sense that everybody will partici While the place of sociology and the place of the soci
pate in every decision affecting his life,would, if realized, ologist
are not identical, they
are interrelated. Perhaps
constitute a
nightmare comparable to unending sleepless the easiest way to explain the difference is in terms of
4The American Sociologist
 so-called "value-freedom," that Weberian term that has It is clear, beyond that, that the sociologist in the employ
become a sort of middle-echelon devil in the conceptual of politically relevant organizations
cannot disclaim po
hell of the sociological left.The discipline of sociology, I litical responsibility for his work?a point that has been
insist as
emphatically
as I can, must be value-free?how impressed on us very forcefully by the debate that fol
ever difficult thismay be in some situations. The moment lowed the revelations about Project Camelot.
the discipline ceases to be value-free in principle, it ceases Because of these considerations, I emphasize my be
to be a science and becomes nothing but ideology, prop lief in the political partisanship of sociologists and con
and a part of the instrumentarium of political cede that at times this may be fierce.
aganda, partisanship quite
the soci it comes to the view of
manipulation. The practitioner of the discipline, For example, when Pentagon's

ologist?a living human being,?must

not be value-free. Latin America, my own political reactions tend to be of
The moment he is, he betrays his humanity and (in an considerable ferociousness. It is equally important
to

that can be called "false con that the has no doctrine of

operation simultaneously stress, however, sociologist
arena. What he has
redemption to bring into the political
sciousness" and "bad transforms himself into a
faith")

ghostly embodiment of abstract science. These two state to contribute is the critical intelligence that is, or should

ments about value-freedom are made, of

course, in dis be, the foundation of his discipline. This is a political as
crete frames of reference. The statement about the well as a methodological mandate. There are of pas
plenty
value-freedom of is a methodological one; the sions available, and the sociologist may well participate
sociology
statement about the value-freedom of the sociologist is in some of them. His distinctive contribution to politics

ethical. But it is to conclude these should be his of crit

perhaps appropriate consistent, unswerving application
observations with a little homily. ical intelligence?to the status quo, yes, and to any chal
We may return here to the two images of the sociologist of the status when a
lengers quo. Indeed, sociologist joins
that were up earlier?that of the sociologist a movement I have indicated
conjured revolutionary (an option
as the antiseptically neutral technician and that of the I would not normally prescribe), his most important
I think
sociologist as the fiercely committed partisan. political contribution to it will be his ongoing critique
that the sociological left has been very largely right, it.Put tomost ofmy
of differently,my principal objection
ethically speaking, in its denunciations of the former type radicalized colleagues is not that they are engaged in the
(even if it has been unfair in individual instances). In business of "bringing to consciousness" but that are
they
an age in which not only freedom but the very survival
not doing enough of it.
of man is in there is something obscene about
jeopardy,
To whom will such a conception of the sociologist's
the scientist who claims that he is not responsible for a
role not to those who want
the uses to which his science is put. This is not to deny in appeal? Evidently simply
career in any kind of establishment?and not to those who
any way the right of individuals to live the theoretical life as Messianic It is all too clear that
see themselves figures.
or to abstain from This right, how
political engagement.
both such are in American
ever, can be exercised more types strongly represented
acceptably by Byzantinolo
I have and not least
is too much
gists than by most sociologists. Sociology sociology today. found, however,
are who
linked to the agonizing dilemmas of our time to permit among my students, that there others?those

inter are still to commit themselves to rea

most of its practitioners to pursue their theoretical willing militantly
ests in detachment from the struggles of their fellow-men. son. And reason has its own seductiveness.

5
February 1971