【作者简介】郑琰 北京大学社会学系

【文章来源】《社会》2024年第2期

【内容提要】作为“进步时代”美国早期社会学的代表人物，查尔斯·库利在学科史中的边缘位置和在思想史中的多重形象之间构成强烈对比。本文尝试用“首属群体”和“民主理想”串联起库利三部曲《人类本性和社会秩序》《社会组织》《社会过程》，以领会其社会思想背后的美国式家国情怀。库利的思想根植于美国深厚的公民宗教传统，个体自我的成长孕育于首属群体，通过同情、想象和交往的社会心理学机制，在学校教育的文化学习与群体生活中生长，在公共舆论构成的现代民主社会进一步扩展，并在国际社会的涌现中升华为成熟的爱国主义精神，最终达到迈向伟大生活的宗教性完满。这一思想图示为走出“进步时代”的退化危机、巩固和拓展美国的民主理想奠基了一个新的“人性论”基础。对库利社会思想的研究也为我们深入认识中国人的家国情怀提供了文明比较的思想视野。

【关 键 词】首属群体, 爱国主义, 民主理想, 公民宗教, 家国情怀

【全文链接】https://www.society.shu.edu.cn/CN/Y2024/V44/I2/151

From Primary Group to Democratic Ideal: Family and Country Feelings in Cooley’s Social Thoughts in the Progressive Era

Abstract: As a representative figure of early American sociology in the Progressive Era, Charles Cooley’s marginal position in the history of contemporary sociology and his multiple representations in the study of the history of thought have constituted a strong tension. This paper attempts to use primary group and democratic ideal to connect a trilogy of Cooley’s works, namely his Human Nature and Social Order， Social Organization， and Social Process， to understand the unique American family and country feelings outlined in Cooley’s social thoughts. Cooley defined the problems encountered by the social transformation of the United States in the Progressive Era as moral degeneration and proposed that a great life oriented towards the modern world should be emerged from the primary group as a social ideal to help Americans overcome the crises. To this end， Cooley developed a theoretical thinking on the self-growth of modern individuals and their interaction with society from the perspective of social psychology. Cooley believed that the individual self was conceived in the original primal group， and through social psychological mechanisms of sympathy， imagination， and communication， it could grow in the cultural learning and group life of school education， further develop in the modern democratic society composed of public opinions， and sublimate into a mature patriotic spirit in the emergence of the international community， and finally reach a religious perfection towards the Great Life. Cooley’s mental schema was deeply rooted in the rich civic religious tradition of the United States. Cooley reconstructed this tradition through the analysis of sociological psychology， and laid the foundation for a new theory of human nature and social organization to consolidate and expand America’s democratic ideals. Paying attention to Cooley’s social thoughts in the Chinese context provides us with a comparative civilization perspective to carry on the sociological tradition of problem consciousness of the period of the Republic of China and reexamine the Chinese people’s feelings about family and country.

Key words: primary group, patriotism democratic ideal, civic religious, family and country feelings