Georges gurvitch and the dialectic of sociological knowledge

This is a translation of the “Preface” and “Introduction” to Georges Gurvitch'sDialectique et Sociologie, published in Paris by Flammarion in 1962. It appears here for the first time in English. The translator's remarks place Georges Gurvitch's dialectical method in an historical and theoretical context, and criticize some of the major assumptions of Gurvitch's position. I am grateful to the Librairie Ernest Flammarion for its kind permission to reproduce these pages. I wish to thank Ian and Evelyn Daix-Jones and Nathalie Babel Brown for their help in rendering Gurvitch's thought into English. The work is copyright Flammarian Publishers.