Philosophical Problems in Helmut Schelsky's Anthropological Sociology

The thesis is devoted to a research of anthropological ideas of an outstanding sociologist from West Germany Helmut Schelsky (1912 – 1984). It pursues a goal to reconstruct Schelsky’s sociology from the viewpoint of its genealogy with the attempt to detect urgency and novelty. Two subjects are mainly set forth and analyzed. The first one is an anthropological conception of institutions which reveals the laws of interaction between human needs and institutions in a dynamic perspective determining stability or unstability of this or that institution. The second one is Schelsky’s complex of ideas on the «new man» of technical civilization who in the process of creating of the new world finds himself being reconstructed. In the thesis the central Schelsky’s thought represented in his works as a leitmotif is pointed out and traced – the main threat to institutional stability comes from the permanent reflection, growing subjectiveness of individuals. Also the evolution in Schelsky’s mood from optimism to pessimism is outlined, which reflected in transformation of his political position from moderate liberalism in the direction of neoconservatism.