ABSTRACT

The Belgian sociologist Guillaume De Greef wholeheartedly shared the sympathy felt by many of the Russian sociologists for the working class. Under the influence of the ideas of the French Enlightenment, of Saint-Simon, and in particular of Proudhon, he actually joined early working-class movement and envisaged a future in which all men would voluntarily associate in their trade union and professional organizations; For him sociology was synonymous with scientific socialism-but a socialism that stemmed primarily from Proudhon and from Kropotkin's anarchism rather than from Marx. He regarded sociology as 'the general philosophy of the specialized social sciences'-in which he included economics, genetics, aesthetics, mass psychology, ethics, law, and politics. The necessary reform would have to begin on the economic field, and the progress obtained there would then gradually extend to all other fields-the family, art and science-and finally establish a new outlook. Morals would be those of free individual's conscious of their responsibility one to the other, and acting accordingly.