Dimitrie Gusti
Encyclopedia
Dimitrie Gusti was a Romania
n sociologist
, ethnologist
, historian, and voluntarist
philosopher
; a professor at the University of Iaşi and the University of Bucharest
, he served as Romania's Minister of Education in 1932-1933. Gusti was elected a member of the Romanian Academy
in 1919, and was its President between 1944 and 1946.
He was a prominent member of the Peasants' Party
, and later of the National Peasants' Party
into which the former had merged.
, he began studying Letters at the University of Iaşi before moving on to the Universität unter den Linden
and the University of Leipzig
, where he studied and completed a doctorate
in Philosophy (1904). In 1905, he began the study of Sociology, Law, and Political economy
at the Universität unter den Linden.
Gusti was appointed to the Department of Ancient History, Ethics
and Sociology of the University of Iaşi in 1910, and was one of the main contributors to the creation of a new Romanian school of sociology. He moved to Bucharest
in 1920, and began work as a professor at the University of Bucharest
, in the Department of Sociology, Ethics, Politics and Aesthetics
of the latter's Faculty of Letters and Philosophy. His lectures became a center of interest inside the academic community, and he attracted students with diverse backgrounds and political convictions (the far right
Mircea Vulcănescu
, the communist
Miron Constantinescu
, the Austromarxist
Henri H. Stahl
, and the left-wing artist Lena Constante
).
Creator of the Bucharest School of Sociology and several Institutes, he also led, between 1925 and 1948, the intense research of Romanian villages and the publishing of its results as detailed monographs (a work in which he was notably assisted by Gheorghe Vlădescu-Răcoasa and Stahl). In 1936, together with Stahl and Victor Ion Popa
, Gusti created the Village Museum
in Bucharest.
He left the National Peasants' Party after 1938, disagreeing with its decision to oppose the authoritarian
regime of King
Carol II
, and collaborated with the newly-created National Renaissance Front
. Consequently, he was threatened by the rise of the fascist
Iron Guard
(with the late 1940 establishment of the National Legionary State
); following the Legionary Rebellion
and the Guard's defeat, he sent a congratulatory telegram to Conducător
Ion Antonescu
.
After the start of the Soviet occupation
upon the end of World War II
, Gusti was approached by the Romanian Communist Party
with offers of collaboration. He was invited to attend official ceremonies inside the Soviet Union
, and was a member of the Romanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union.
He died in Bucharest, and was buried at Bellu
cemetery.
A creator of the sociological monographic method (as still used by his Bucharest School), Gusti favored and theoretised first-hand intensive observation of social units and phenomena, as well as interdisciplinarity
, with the research work being carried out through intensive collaboration within the field of social sciences
, but also with doctors, agronomists
, schoolteachers, etc.
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n sociologist
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
, ethnologist
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
, historian, and voluntarist
Voluntarism
Voluntarism is a descriptive term for a school of thought that regards the will as superior to the intellect and to emotion. This description has been applied to various points of view, from different cultural eras, in the areas of metaphysics, psychology, sociology, and theology.The term...
philosopher
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
; a professor at the University of Iaşi and the University of Bucharest
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...
, he served as Romania's Minister of Education in 1932-1933. Gusti was elected a member of the Romanian Academy
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 acting members who are elected for life....
in 1919, and was its President between 1944 and 1946.
He was a prominent member of the Peasants' Party
Peasants' Party (Romania)
The Peasants' Party was a political party in post-World War I Romania that espoused a left-wing ideology partly connected with Agrarianism and Populism, and aimed to represent the interests of the Romanian peasantry. Through many of its leaders, the party was connected with Romanian populism , a...
, and later of the National Peasants' Party
National Peasants' Party
The National Peasants' Party was a Romanian political party, formed in 1926 through the fusion of the Romanian National Party from Transylvania and the Peasants' Party . It was in power between 1928 and 1933, with brief interruptions...
into which the former had merged.
Biography
Born in IaşiIasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
, he began studying Letters at the University of Iaşi before moving on to the Universität unter den Linden
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...
and the University of Leipzig
University of Leipzig
The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...
, where he studied and completed a doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
in Philosophy (1904). In 1905, he began the study of Sociology, Law, and Political economy
Political economy
Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...
at the Universität unter den Linden.
Gusti was appointed to the Department of Ancient History, Ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
and Sociology of the University of Iaşi in 1910, and was one of the main contributors to the creation of a new Romanian school of sociology. He moved to Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
in 1920, and began work as a professor at the University of Bucharest
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...
, in the Department of Sociology, Ethics, Politics and Aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
of the latter's Faculty of Letters and Philosophy. His lectures became a center of interest inside the academic community, and he attracted students with diverse backgrounds and political convictions (the far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
Mircea Vulcănescu
Mircea Vulcanescu
Mircea Vulcănescu was a prominent Romanian philosopher, economist, ethics teacher and sociologist.-Biography:He studied philosophy and law at the University of Bucharest, graduating in 1925...
, the communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
Miron Constantinescu
Miron Constantinescu
Miron Constantinescu was a Romanian communist politician, a leading member of the Romanian Communist Party , as well as a Marxist sociologist, historian, academic, and journalist...
, the Austromarxist
Austromarxism
Austromarxism was a Marxist theoretical current, led by Victor Adler, Otto Bauer, Karl Renner and Max Adler, members of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria during the late decades of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the First Austrian Republic...
Henri H. Stahl
Henri H. Stahl
Henri H. Stahl was a Romanian Marxist cultural anthropologist, ethnographer, sociologist, and social historian.-Biography:...
, and the left-wing artist Lena Constante
Lena Constante
Lena Constante was a Romanian artist, essayist and memoirist, known for her work in stage design and tapestry. A family friend of Communist Party politician Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu, she was arrested by the Communist regime following the conflict between Pătrăşcanu and Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej...
).
Creator of the Bucharest School of Sociology and several Institutes, he also led, between 1925 and 1948, the intense research of Romanian villages and the publishing of its results as detailed monographs (a work in which he was notably assisted by Gheorghe Vlădescu-Răcoasa and Stahl). In 1936, together with Stahl and Victor Ion Popa
Victor Ion Popa
Victor Ion Popa , in Moldavia, Romania – March 30, 1946 in Bucharest) was a Romanian dramatist.He went to primary school in the village of Călmăţui where his father was a teacher. At Iaşi he finished his first five years of junior high/high school and his last two years of high school at the...
, Gusti created the Village Museum
Village Museum
The Village Museum is an open-air ethnographic museum located in the Herăstrău Park , showcasing traditional Romanian village life. The museum extends to over 100,000 m2, and contains 272 authentic peasant farms and houses from all over Romania.It was created in 1936 by Dimitrie Gusti, Victor Ion...
in Bucharest.
He left the National Peasants' Party after 1938, disagreeing with its decision to oppose the authoritarian
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...
regime of King
King of Romania
King of the Romanians , rather than King of Romania , was the official title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when Romania was proclaimed a republic....
Carol II
Carol II of Romania
Carol II reigned as King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until 6 September 1940. Eldest son of Ferdinand, King of Romania, and his wife, Queen Marie, a daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria...
, and collaborated with the newly-created National Renaissance Front
National Renaissance Front
The National Renaissance Front was a fascist Romanian political party created by King Carol II in 1938 as the single monopoly party of government following his decision to ban all other political parties and suspend the 1923 Constitution, and the passing of the 1938 Constitution of Romania...
. Consequently, he was threatened by the rise of the fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
Iron Guard
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...
(with the late 1940 establishment of the National Legionary State
National Legionary State
The National Legionary State was the Romanian government from September 6, 1940 to January 23, 1941. It was a single-party regime dictatorship dominated by the overtly fascist Iron Guard in uneasy conjunction with the head of government and Conducător Ion Antonescu, the leader of the Romanian...
); following the Legionary Rebellion
Legionnaires' Rebellion and Bucharest Pogrom
The Legionnaires' rebellion and the Bucharest pogrom occurred in Bucharest, Romania, between 21 and 23 January 1941.As the privileges of the Iron Guard were being cut off by Conducător Ion Antonescu, members of the Iron Guard, also known as the Legionnaires, revolted...
and the Guard's defeat, he sent a congratulatory telegram to Conducător
Conducator
Conducător was the title used officially in two instances by Romanian politicians, and earlier by Carol II.-History:...
Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu
Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...
.
After the start of the Soviet occupation
Soviet occupation of Romania
The Soviet occupation of Romania refers to the period from 1944 to August 1958, during which the Soviet Union maintained a significant military presence in Romania...
upon the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Gusti was approached by the Romanian Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
with offers of collaboration. He was invited to attend official ceremonies inside the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, and was a member of the Romanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union.
He died in Bucharest, and was buried at Bellu
Bellu
Bellu is the most famous cemetery in Bucharest, Romania.It is located on a plot of land donated to the local administration by Baron Barbu Bellu...
cemetery.
Theory
Gusti defined his view on society as dependent on a set of principles:- Society is composed of "social units", as groups of humans linked by a voluntary organizing activity and interconnected spiritually.
- The essence of life is "social will".
- "Social will" is expressed in economicsEconomicsEconomics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
and spiritualitySpiritualitySpirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
, both of which are regulated by law and politics. - "Social will" is conditioned by factors which are included in four fundamental and parallel categories: cosmicalCosmologyCosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
, biologicalLifeLife is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased , or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate...
, psychologicalSelf (psychology)The psychology of self is the study of either the cognitive and affective representation of one's identity or the subject of experience. The earliest formulation of the self in modern psychology derived from the distinction between the self as I, the subjective knower, and the self as Me, the...
, and historical. - The changes engineered by the factors are known as "social processes".
- The premeses of development one can observe in present society, and thus can predict with some accuracy, are known as "social trends".
A creator of the sociological monographic method (as still used by his Bucharest School), Gusti favored and theoretised first-hand intensive observation of social units and phenomena, as well as interdisciplinarity
Interdisciplinarity
Interdisciplinarity involves the combining of two or more academic fields into one single discipline. An interdisciplinary field crosses traditional boundaries between academic disciplines or schools of thought, as new needs and professions have emerged....
, with the research work being carried out through intensive collaboration within the field of social sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
, but also with doctors, agronomists
Agronomy
Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants for food, fuel, feed, fiber, and reclamation. Agronomy encompasses work in the areas of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and soil science. Agronomy is the application of a combination of sciences like biology,...
, schoolteachers, etc.
Main works
- Egoismus und Altruismus, 1904
- Die soziologischen Betrehungen in der neuen Ethik, 1908
- Cosmologia elenă, 1929
- Sociologia militans, (vol. 1, 1935; vols. 2-3, 1946)
- Enciclopedia României, vols. I-IV, Bucharest, 1938, 1943
- Cunoaştere şi acţiune în serviciul naţiunii, (2 vols., 1939)
- Problema sociologiei, 1940
- La science de la réalité sociale, 1941