ABSTRACT
It is a difficult task to summarize and compare Elias’s work with that of others. This is partly due to the originality and creativeness of Elias’s perspective which make it dissimilar from other perspectives. Part of the reason is also due to the fact that Elias does not take the strategy of building up his own work by evaluating the work of others. For Elias, the type of scientific concepts people have at present, and indeed the dominant mode of thinking in general, restrain people from achieving this target. Therefore the revision of our conceptual tools and modes of thinking becomes a vital task. Instead of separating the academic debate at issue from the political dispute about the priority between the individual and society, they tend to mix them up. In this way, the academic debate becomes highly emotionally and ideologically charged.
