Ziya Gökalp'in Sosyoloji Mirası Üstüne

It is a difficult subject matter to describe and to define the contours of the sociological heritage of Ziya Gokalp. We tried to realize this in this text. Ziya Gokalp and his contemporary, Mehmet Sabahattin Bey, altough they were the founder sociologists of two alternative tendencies had a lot of common aspects at the beginning. Beside the paralelisms that can be seen in their social lives and political struggles, it is possible to find some Common aspects in their sociological activities. It is a well known issue that they both give references on French sociological texts. But the most important point is the common title of a general inference from their sociological mentalities. We can easily say that, both Ziya GiJkalp and Mehmet Sabahattin Bey, are principally the sociologists of a problemed empire. Besides finding solutions for the problems of the empire, they were in search for remedy to the problems confronted by Turkish society. And the common frame that would unite them was to give a place to Turkish society in existing relations. After the belief that this place was found, Sabahattin Bey didn't write another word. But Ziya Gokalp, although not debating on this place, knew that the problem oj Turkish society's place in the world would would come again to agenda in an unknown future. It is the real aspect that must be underlined in Ziya Gokalp' s sociological heritage.