ABSTRACT
This chapter rounds off my interpretation of the radical and far-reaching character of Elias’s work through an analysis of his enigmatic last book, The Symbol Theory (Elias 1991a). I will situate this work within the corpus of Elias’s writings and explain its congruence with the overall direction of his life’s work. Edited by the present author, this book was the last extended work to be completed for publication by Elias during his lifetime. Although oddly structured1 and sometimes repetitive, it is a piece of exploratory, synoptic theorizing on an imposing scale. It weaves evolutionary biology into a broader conception of human development as continuing and shaping the process of biological evolution on to another level. In his effort to understand the human condition as a whole, Elias, more than perhaps any other major twentieth-century sociologist, was prepared to bring sociology and biology closer together. He remarks that sociologists had a vested interest in distancing themselves from biology. As part of Elias’s conception of ‘The Great Evolution’ (Elias 1987a: 119ff.), The Symbol Theory is intended to provide a synthetic framework for all the sciences, including sociology. It is an ambitious aim, to say the least. As Goudsblom has rightly said: ‘In its attempt at a grand synthesis Symbol Theory moves way beyond sociology in any strict sense’ (1992b: 283).
