Sociology and the Ruling Class

The 7th World Congress of Sociology in Varna, Bulgaria, in 1970 revealed a rapprochement between Eastern & Western sociology. Similar theoretical & methodological problems were singled out for scrutiny by scholars from both blocs. Soviet political sociologist F. Burlatskii is interested in incorporating into Marxism the systems theory, the political-cultural approach, the Fastonian systems theory of politics, & Parsonian functionalism. Polish sociologist A. Zdrawomyslow considers the emergence of a Marxist functionalism as a great theoretical advance. Sociology as a science is independent of the ideological orientation of society; it would be produced in this historical age of high technology by any ruling class. T. Kuhn's paradigmatic approach is criticized because it is incapable of distinguishing the production of knowledge "from within a scientific problematic from the production of knowledge from within a social perspective." Social theory is not a scientific phenomeonon, as it claims to be, but a class product. The reason why Eastern & Western ruling classes, in spite of ideological differences, tend toward similar sociological notions is that sociology is a ruling class phenomenon in a technological society. S. Karganovic.