Sociology at present is a heterogeneous aggregate of topics, related to each other by more
or less common techniques, by a community of key words and conceptions, by a widely held
aggregate of major interpre tative ideas and schemes. It is held together, too, by a more or
less common tradition? a heterogeneous one in which certain currents stand out? linked to
common monuments or classical figures and works. The tradition lives in a self-image which
links those now calling themselves sociologists with a sequence of authors running back …

O NE of the most deeply established traditions of liberal thought in East and West asserts
that tradition is antagonistic toward liberty. Protestantism denied the validity of accumulated
tradition in favor of the primacy of the revelation contained in Scripture. The process of
emancipation of the mind from external determination went on, when revelation as well was
rejected, to the point where the genuine source of valid knowledge and experience was
found to reside in the powers of the individual spirit. Rationalistic liberalism, which ascribed …