Establishing the study of altruism and social solidarity as a recognized field of specialization within sociology would make a major contribution to the discipline and to society at large. In the broadest sense this field focuses on those aspects of personality, society, and culture that benefit the lives of individuals and ennoble social life. This field would directly address the systematic study of these positive phenomena in interpersonal, intergroup, and international relations. Understanding how social relations of varied types can be made more positive in this manner is a most vital task in this historical era.Sociologists have devoted considerable attention to the study of dysfunctional phenomena, such as criminal behavior, racism, sexism, violent ethnic conflicts, and other forms of oppression that threaten societies and deprive individuals of security or their basic rights. In contrast, the discipline has tended to give more limited attention to positive forms of social behavior and organization, such as the study of altruism. The current Guide to Graduate Departments of Sociology (2006) indicates there is no graduate degree-granting university that lists a special program in the study of altruism.It is the discipline of psychology that established altruism as a scientific field within social psychology. Recent years have seen major contributions to this field by evolutionary biology on the one hand, and religious studies on the other. Contributions by sociologists appear limited to writings by particular individuals. A review of recent research from a sociological perspective is provided by Piliavin and Charng (1990).This article advances a proposal of foundational ideas for sociology to become a full partner with other disciplines in the development of this vital but understudied scientific field. Sociology has a body of theory and research, particularly in the areas of socialization, organizations, stratification, institutions, and culture that can be integrated with the existing state of the field and its greater emphasis on individual and psychological factors and levels of analysis. This article is intended to demonstrate that there is a substantial body of Vincent Jeffries is professor of Sociology at California State University, Northridge. Barry V. Johnston has recently retired from a professorship in sociology at

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Integralism is simultaneously an epistemology, psychology, sociology of change and theory of history. As used here it provides the theoretical underpinnings of Sorokin's general sociology and later works on altruism and social reconstruction. This paper explores the evolution of the concept from Social and Cultural Dynamics through his later works on the crisis of modernity, and the studies of social reconstruction at the Harvard Research Center in Creative Altruism. The results of this evolving chain of analysis was an integrated conceptual statement on the nature of humanness, knowledge, conflict resolution, altruism, and prosocial forms of human organization. Sorokin's model along with selected themes from the writings of John Paul II sharpens their shared insights into the resolution of social problems. The Sorokinian oeuvre is remarkably wide and complex. Don Martindale (1972, 5) has noted that by January 1963 Sorokin had published thirty-five books, over four-hundred articles and essays and there were more than forty-two translations of his volumes. This exceeded the published work of Talcott Parsons and C. Wright Mills, and as far as these things can be ascertained made Sorokin the most productive and translated sociologist ever. Underlying a substantial portion of this massive and diverse body of work is Sorokin's integral perspective. This more inclusive theory of humanness replaced his earlier preference for positivism and scientific sociology. The epistemic shift resulted from the loss of historical optimism that had characterized his science prior to the first world war. As he noted: ...World War I [and]... the Revolution of 1917... shattered this [positivistic, scientific, and humanistic] world-outlook [and] forced me... to sternly reexamine my prewar [views].... This reconstruction took place slowly [and]... in [its] mature form the basic principles of Integralism are systematically stated in my volumes published in the last three decades. (Sorokin 1963, 204-205).

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