Khrenov, N. A. Between the Linear Principle and the Cyclic Principle: Art History From the Point of View of Pitirim Sorokin’s Social Dynamics. Article 2.

Abstract: The article touches upon one of the most topical issues in the methodology of art history. The absolute priority given in the history research to the linear principle which genesis goes back to the age of Enlightenment has made art historians to pay more attention to certain periods while leaving other periods without adequate interpretations. In the latter case art is perceived as declining and not demonstrating complete or definite artwork as it seemed. This is the reason why those periods in art history were rarely studied. The example is the perception of the Western or Byzantine medieval art. As the science that was formed in the age of Enlightenment, esthetics took the exclusive Renaissance art as the starting point in the art development. Based on that approach, all artistic values were interpreted disregarding the type of culture they represented. In his first article the author described how Pitirim Sorokin destroyed stereotypes of the academic community and applied the cyclic principle to all historical periods as an alternative to the linear principle. In the second article the author shows how the absolute priority given to the linear principle in art history created an abundance of insoluble questions and how the cyclic principle applied by Pitirim Sorokin to art history help to solve these questions. The present article focuses on the constructability of the cyclic principle used by Pitirim Sorokin. It is also very important that Pitirim Sorokin talked not only about methodology but also about application of that methodology to all periods of art history. Pitirim Sorokin shows how the three types of culture have been constantly taking turns thought the history: sensate culture, ideational culture and integrated or synthesized culture. Development of each artistic style is shown within the framework of a particular cultural environment. Therefore, art history appears to be closely connected with cultural history. Thus, Pitirim Sorokin’s concept of social dynamics offers a very useful methodological approach to researchers. Despite the fact that Pitirim Sorokin introduced his ideas in the middle of the last century, nevertheless, his ideas were left unnoticed by both Russian and Western scientists and sociologists for quite a long time. It was partly due to the fact that social studies and history have always had quite uneasy elations. Sociologists very rarely referred to history but Pitirim Sorokin eliminated that prejudice. The intensive development of cultural research in modern Russian makes researchers be more interested in Pitirim Sorokin’s theory of social dynamics because his theory combined both the historical and cultural approaches. Pitirim Sorokin’s theory is one of the brightest examples of the interaction between different branches of modern science. The author of the present article very well shows how useful such inter-disciplinary interaction may be for art history researches.

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