The Spectrum of Social Time

American sociologists know Georges Gurvitch as one of the editors of Twentieth Century Sociology and as the author of the Sociology of Law. His fame in France is confirmed by a long list of publications beginning in 1932 with Idee du droit social and Le temps present et ['idee du droit social, followed by Experience juridique et philosophie pluraliste du droit (1936), La morale theorique et la science des maurs (1937, third edition 1961), Essais de sociologie (1938), and after the second World War by La vocation actuelle de la sociologie (1950, third edition in two volumes 1963), Les determinismes sociaux et la liberte humaine (1955, second edition 1963), Traite de sociologie in two volumes (directed by him and to which he made important contributions in 1958, second edition 1963), and finally Socio­ [ogie et diaiectique (1962). In addition a number of courses presented at the Sorbonne have been published in mimeographed form, such as the lectures on the sociological theories of Saint-Simon, Comte, Proudhon and on The social class concept from Marx till today (1954, second edition 1960). Translations of these books have appeared in German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Serbian and Japanese. Georges Gurvitch is recognized as one of the major figures in con­ temporary sociology.