Soundings

BAHÁ'Í STUDIES REVIEW, Volume 7, 1997
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SOUNDINGS

Are 'Abdu'l-Bahá's views on evolution original?
Keven Brown

The editors of The Bahá'í Studies Review have asked if I would answer this question because I have written an article called "'Abdu'l-Bahá's Response to Darwinism: Its Historical and Philosophical Context" (to be published by Kalimát Press). My research of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's understanding on evolution is summarized as five points:

Wherever 'Abdu'l-Bahá affirms evolution (taraqqí), he means it in the sense of progress or development within a single species, not in the meaning of the followers of Darwin, who believed that one species, by the force of natural selection alone, could gradually evolve into another species. In a letter, he says: "Some of the philosophers of Europe think that one species evolves into another species. For example, that the animal evolved until it became a human being. But the prophets teach that this theory is erroneous, as we have explained already in the book Some Answered Questions. Nay, rather evolution and growth take place within the same species. For instance, the seed of man gradually develops, passing through the stages of embryo, fœtus, infant, child, and adolescent until intellectual maturity is attained. All the while it has progressed within the same species" (Má'idiy-i Asmání 2: 69).
What 'Abdu'l-Bahá is against is the idea that one species could gradually and haphazardly transform into another species on its own, so he says: "Supposing this to be true [this gradual change in appearance], it is still not proof of the change of the species. No...it is merely like the change and alteration of the embryo of man until it reaches the degree of reason and perfection" (SAQ, Chap. 49, 193). This analogy does not imply that "there was a time when man walked on his hands and feet, or had a tail" etc., because 'Abdu'l-Bahá says: "This explanation is assuming assent to the [Darwinistic] evolution of species, but the truth is that man was, from the beginning, in this perfect form and composition, and possessed the capacity and aptitude for acquiring inner and outer perfections, and was the manifestation of these words, 'We will make man in Our image and likeness'" (Mufávadát 138, SAQ, Chap. 49, 194; revised translation). Consequently, wherever 'Abdu'l-Bahá compares the evolution of man on this planet to a human being's embryological development (e.g. SAQ, chaps. 47 and 51), he does not seem to be saying that man once had a form and composition similar to other animal species.
Although man is man only by reason of his intellectual endowment, this capacity requires a particular kind of biological composition: man appears on earth (or elsewhere) only when this kind of composition is present. This is the theme of the second proof offered by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in SAQ, Chapter 46: "The perfection of each individual being...is due to the composition of the elements, to their measure, to their balance, to the manner of their combination, and to the interaction and influence of other beings. In the case of man, when all these factors are gathered together [in a particular way], then man exists." So a form such as a fish or a dog is not and never was man. In SAQ, Chapter 51, when 'Abdu'l-Bahá says: "In the beginning of his formation [in the matrix of the world] mind and spirit also existed," this required an appropriate biological form.
'Abdu'l-Bahá, therefore, teaches the appearance of species on this planet by the "formation" or "composition" of already-existing elements into particular configurations. When the species appear, they appear physically complete (just as the embryo of a child is physically complete), though their potential perfections become manifested gradually.
The cause of formation is not via God directly, but via species essences (a subject treated in detail in my forthcoming article). 'Abdu'l-Bahá says, for example: "Each time that the isolated elements become combined in accordance with the divine universal system, one being among beings comes into the world. That is to say, that when certain elements are combined, a vegetable existence is produced; when others are combined, it is an animal; again others become combined, and different creatures attain existence. In each case, the existence of things is the consequence of their realities" (Mufávadát 204, SAQ, chap. 82, p. 292; revised translation). Realities (haqá'iq) is a synonym for essences (mahíyát). The realities of living beings are one category of Platonic forms or laws of nature.

'Abdu'l-Bahá does not explicitly explain how creation by formation occurs, though he does say that the species essences become manifested as soon as capacity exists to receive them: "The divine emanations [essences] pervading all created beings have had no beginning and will have no end. That illimitable bounty becomes effective in every station whenever the capacity appears to receive it" (Khitábát 2: 106; The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 160, revised translation). Species essences, therefore, have no beginning or end; they are part of God's timeless creation; and they manifest themselves where the capacity to receive them and the right mutual influence of other beings (environment) exists. The important point is that for 'Abdu'l-Bahá species are timeless realities, or essences, while the compositions dependent upon them are mutable and subject to appearance and extinction, progress and decline.
'Abdu'l-Bahá's teachings on this subject are not original but are based on the Judeo-Christian-Islamic doctrine that the formation of all things is by God's creative power, and they are firmly based in Platonic essentialistic metaphysics, insofar as Platonism was received and understood by Muslim philosophers. In one of his talks on the subject of evolution, given in San Francisco on 10 October 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá associates his views with the "philosophers of the East," among whom he includes "Aristotle and Plato, and the philosophers of Iran" (Khitábát 2: 299; PUP 356, revised translation). Many of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's intellectual contemporaries in the Arab world, such as Jamál al-Din al-Afghani, Hussein al-Jisr, and Abu al-Majd Muhammad Rida al-Isfahaní shared 'Abdu'l-Bahá's response to Darwinism. Isfahaní, for example, states: "What is meant by the philosophy of creation is the theory of the independence of species (istiqlál al-anwá') and their non-evolution from each other. If we have defended this philosophy, it is a purely scientific defence, not religious" (Naqd falsafa Darwin, 1:179). Like 'Abdu'l-Bahá, a definition of evolution that he finds acceptable is "the movement of living bodies toward [their own] perfection" (221), a perfection that is potentially present from the beginning as part of God's timeless creation. The philosophical and historical context of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's response to Darwinism is fully treated in my forthcoming article.

Is the Bahá'í view of evolution compatible with modern science?
Eberhard von Kitzing
According to 'Abdu'l-Bahá the human species "has existed from all eternity".⁽¹⁾ 'Abdu'l-Bahá designates this concept the originality of the human species. One of the arguments in support of this statement is that "without man the perfections of Divinity would not appear... The reflection of the divine perfections appears in the reality of man, so he is the representative of God, the messenger of God. If man did not exist, the universe would be without result, for the object of existence is the appearance of the perfections of God."⁽²⁾ In this context "species" refers to the human species essence, to the blueprint for the physical existence of human beings. 'Abdu'l-Bahá presents humanity as a mirror of the eternal names and attributes of God which define the human species essence. 'Abdu'l-Bahá uses Plato's argument of the perfect, harmonious universe to support the originality of species: "If, however, the creation in the past had not been adorned with utmost perfection, then existence would have been imperfect and meaningless, and in this case creation would have been incomplete."⁽³⁾ Without humanity our universe would be imperfect, it would lack harmony.
The concepts of the existence of timeless species essences and of a perfect, harmonious universe were also fundamental for classical (pre-Darwinian) biology. Until the beginning of the 19th century the biosphere was believed in the occident to be created by God relatively recently, e.g. 6000 years, and remained static until today.⁽⁴⁾ The species essences were thought to ensure that cows can beget only calves but cannot give birth to horses, cats or ants. Although 'Abdu'l-Bahá defends the concept of timeless species essences he does not support a static world view. On the contrary, he considers this world to be subjected to substantial evolution: "Know that nothing which exists remains in a state of repose - that is to say, all things are in motion. Everything is either growing or declining; all things are either coming from nonexistence into being, or going from existence into nonexistence... This state of motion is said to be essential - that is, natural; it cannot be separated from beings because it is their essential requirement..."⁽⁵⁾ 'Abdu'l-Bahá proposes that all things in this world are subject either to growth or to decay.
During the 19th century careful analysis of fossil findings made it increasingly clear that the terrestrial biosphere was, firstly, very much older than had been assumed, and, secondly, was not static but that it changed dramatically through the ages. Since the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, evolution has become a central subject in biology. In this respect modern biology agrees with 'Abdu'l-Bahá's concept of substantial evolution. In classical as well as modern biology, species essences are equated with a static biosphere and are considered to be incompatible with evolution, and consequently modern biology developed species concepts without reference to species essences. Today, concepts of species essences are widely considered to be inappropriate for biology. According to this view, the "modern" species is defined for an existing population of interbreeding organisms, by a common gene pool. For many modern biologists evolution is not the unfolding of a set of time invariant laws of nature or a God-given natural order, but evolution is believed to consist of new self-creations.⁽⁶⁾ According to this view biological characteristics, which are not even potentially pre-existing, are assumed to be created de novo on the path of evolution. From the view point of an essentialist this position implies the evolution of species essences. Such concepts of self-creational evolution clearly contradict 'Abdu'l-Bahá's thesis that humanity mirrors the timeless names and attributes of God.
'Abdu'l-Bahá uses two arguments to rebut concepts of self-creational evolution. In support of the existence of timeless species essences, 'Abdu'l-Bahá presents a modernised version of Plato's argument of the perfect harmonious universe; that is, the argument of the time-invariance of the fundamental laws of nature which is one of the central axioms of modern physics. 'Abdu'l-Bahá states: "As the perfection of man is entirely due to the composition of the atoms of the elements, ... since man was produced ten or a hundred thousand years ago from these earthly elements ... exactly the same man existed then as now. This is evident and not worth debating. A thousand million years hence ... exactly the same man will exist."⁽⁷⁾ This argument implies that the possibility to form oil lamps, computers, myoglobin molecules or human beings was present in our universe from the very beginning. Their development or evolution is understood as the unfolding of the inherent properties of the laws of nature, or, in terms of Bahá'í terminology, as particular reflections of the eternal names and attributes of God. In contrast, according to the self-creational model of evolution, there would have been certain time points during the evolution of our universe before which oil lamps, computers, myoglobin molecules or human beings would have been impossible in principle, because the necessary characteristics of those tools or beings were not yet created. By the argument of the time-invariance of the fundamental laws of nature 'Abdu'l-Bahá rejects this strange consequence of self-creational evolution.
In a second argument 'Abdu'l-Bahá shows that timeless species essences are compatible with evolution using the example of the analogy between human phylogeny and embryonic ontogeny: "In the same way, the embryo of man in the womb of the mother was at first in a strange form; then this body passes from shape to shape, from state to state, from form to form, until it appears in utmost beauty and perfection. But even when in the womb of the mother and in this strange form, entirely different from his present form and figure, he is the embryo of the superior species, and not of the animal; his species and essence undergo no change."⁽⁸⁾ This argument is similar to those put forward by the Meckel-Serrhs law of classical biology, where the embryo was considered to develop through the lower levels of the scala naturae, and to Haeckel's recapitulation law, where the embryo is assumed to repeat the previous evolutionary stages.⁽⁹⁾ 'Abdu'l-Bahá, however, merely uses the resemblance of human phylogeny and embryonic ontogeny as an analogy.
Although, the embryo starts single-celled and during its growth evolves through many different stages and develops its form, size and organisation, throughout this process the embryo maintains its human identity. The information stored in the genes remains time-invariant and guides the evolution of the embryo. Without this constant blueprint the development from a simple single cell towards a highly complex organism would be impossible. During its development, the embryo unfolds the inherent properties stored in its timeless genetic information. Similarly, as time-invariant Newton's laws rule the motion of molecules and planets, so does the genetic information in the cells of the embryo guide ontogeny, species essences providing the necessary background for the evolution from the primeval soup towards complex organisms and ecosystems. These species essences represent the names and attributes of God, the "space" of possible forms of life, the "composition and arrangement" produced "through the wisdom of God and His preexistent might."⁽¹⁰⁾
With the concept of substantial evolution 'Abdu'l-Bahá agrees with evolution biology that life evolves, that the development of life is essentially dynamic. 'Abdu'l-Bahá's concept of the originality of the species, assuming timeless species essences, potential eternal reflections of the names and attributes of God, stands in vivid contrast to philosophies of self-creational evolution,⁽¹¹⁾ and of the formation of a complex universe from a trivial origin.⁽¹²⁾ According to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, our universe is complex from the very beginning, and reflects the eternal, inherently complex names and attributes of God. It is grounded in a complexity which totally surpasses human imagination: "O Children of the Divine and Invisible Essence! Ye shall be hindered from loving Me and souls shall be perturbed as they make mention of Me. For minds cannot grasp Me nor hearts contain Me."⁽¹³⁾

Night as frontier: some implications for Bahá'í communities
Will van den Hoonaard
A particularly illuminating work by Murray Melbin, entitled, Night as Frontier,⁽¹⁴⁾ was published some ten years ago. It tells the reader that on an average night some 29 million people in America - 12% of the population - stay up after midnight. The reader is further startled by the fact that none of these people suffer from insomnia, or are even watching television. It is mainly business or work that keeps them up.
Once the wild west was the frontier, and sometimes the boreal forests in North America - vast areas where more stable populations followed the first new settlers. Gradually, these geographical frontiers became incorporated in the routine way of life. The frontiers receded as services, both material and spiritual, and goods followed each wave of new populations. Melbin's observations that civilization is now invading our last frontier - the night - can make Bahá'ís more aware of the dilemma which this newly-conquered frontier poses to contemporary Bahá'í communities.
Not too long ago, the arrival of night meant that the natural rhythm of one's daily life came to an end. Even battles stopped when night arrived. The advancement of technology has pushed back the edge of night and society has filled the vacuum with new activity. Since the time of Bahá'u'lláh, human beings have been able to extend their life by some one third, without having to add one year to their life! All it took was a light-bulb which extended one's day from 8 pm to midnight. This extension has become habitual because our society now depends upon night-time activity to ensure the well-being of those who are awake during daylight hours. The night-time, like any frontier, has become a land of opportunity - and constraints. This is the frontier of overtime pay, if you are lucky. This is the frontier of making new friends (it has been shown that any activity during the night is marked with greater affability than during the day). The voluntary choice of night work, according to one study,⁽¹⁵⁾ makes it possible for workers to escape the control and supervision of day shift work.
This frontier not only has opportunities, but also imposes very serious constraints on individuals. Feeling obliged by economic and technological factors,⁽¹⁶⁾ company executives decide to rely on night workers to extract profits and minimise costs. Whenever possible, night workers will seek daytime work, motivated by the knowledge that, with night work, comes industrial accidents, low morale, fatigue, and the breakup of social routines. Physical, social, and spiritual dimensions of the individual are thus adversely affected under such conditions of work. Social researchers are unanimous in their findings about the overarching, negative impact of night work on family life,⁽¹⁷⁾ already beset by low-paying service jobs.
More recent research shows that the extent of night work, sometimes euphemistically called "evening" work, is broadening among the population. For example, some countries like the Netherlands and Spain have at least 15% of the population engaged in this type of work and some companies have employees of whom 42% engage in night work.⁽¹⁸⁾ Harvey Krahn in Canada reiterates the finding that night work involves less job security, lower pay, and fewer fringe benefits. The proportion of workers holding more than one job has risen since the early 1980s.⁽¹⁹⁾ Krahn also found that part-time work in general increased since 1976 at an annual rate of 6.9%, until 1994 when it covered 23% of all employees. Involuntary part-time increased to 36%. Women are three times more likely to work part-time than men.
The implications of the increasing prevalence of night work as the new frontier for Bahá'í communities are far-ranging. If we assume for the moment that the Bahá'í population reflects the demographic composition of the larger society, it means that between 12% to 15% of our fellow Bahá'ís are not able to attend feasts or assembly meetings. Whereas not too long ago in Bahá'í communities assembly meetings took place at a time when all of the elected members could meet (usually in the evenings), now a number of people see such meetings as standing in the way of their involuntary obligations to night work. As more parts of the economy and society adjust to the night frontier, it will become increasingly more difficult for Bahá'ís to disengage themselves from this trend.
For some national Bahá'í communities, their particular demographic composition, in fact, heightens the disruption by night work on Bahá'í community life. In Canada, for example, the Bahá'í community is very well represented in terms of youth and women, has average representation of adults, and is underrepresented among the aged. In such a national Bahá'í community, the impact of night as frontier is even more severely felt, because the very segments of the population that involve night workers (especially youth and women) are also very well represented in the Bahá'í community. When 90% of new jobs in Canada are part-time and when many workers in stores must be on an instant-call standby basis, it does not take much imagination to see the debilitating effects of such trends on Bahá'í community life. Failing to respond to such instant calls, part-time night workers will forfeit their jobs.⁽²⁰⁾
Melbin's book also underscores another important implication of the night as frontier. Low-income groups, ethnic minorities, men under 35, and women of all ages are the main denizens of the world of night work, while day-time work is often closed to them. If this trend continues we should find that only Bahá'ís who do not belong to these groups can attend Bahá'í functions which are set according to the "traditional" pattern of work and rest. Are we surprised that some of our assemblies no longer can meet than barely with a quorum? Is this new frontier crippling our communities? Are we personally never going to meet that 12-15% of the Bahá'í community? Are members of ethnic groups less able to participate in the "normal" rhythm of our communities?
At this critical juncture of our history where do we as Bahá'ís stand in this night frontier? As a demographic minority, the Bahá'í community cannot exercise any direct influence in the way companies arrange their shift-work and night work, so that companies either require fewer night workers or change the organisation of work shifts. Moreover, the reduction of hours of work and the lowering of the retirement age, as "solutions" to night work, are also beyond the pale of Bahá'í influence.
Many groups in the past offer a sorry spectacle when they are absorbed by the demands of the new frontier: hucksters, gun-totting desperados, Lone Rangers, whiskey salesmen, peddlers of snake medicine. And all Americans, according to popular opinion, have horse thieves in their genealogy of the wild west. Fortunately, however, history shows how some groups have managed to resist the challenges posed by new frontiers and, in fact, take full advantage of the new frontier. The groups which have spiritually, rather than materially, conquered the frontier were those which maintained a certain discipline and detachment: the Moravians in Labrador, the Oblate Fathers in the Canadian Arctic, or the Puritans in early America. We may disagree with the tenets of some or all of these, but the point is this: the frontier became a spiritual opportunity which suited their ends, while maintaining their cohesiveness and their communities. They were not absorbed by the material mentality of the frontier.
With respect to the night as frontier and religious communities, it appears that traditional western religious groups whose gatherings occur once a week and have consigned them to Sunday mornings, night work seems to have less of an effect than on non-traditional religious communities, who must rely on irregular, often daily, meetings to conduct their affairs.⁽²¹⁾ Their many gatherings are not synchronized with the rhythms of night work. Some of these non-traditional groups, however, have been making a particular use of night work, to their advantage. In eastern Canada - in the four Atlantic provinces⁽²²⁾ - members of evangelical religious groups either own or work for office-cleaning companies during the night time, freeing them up to prosletyse during the day.
Where do we, as Bahá'ís, then turn to, to ward off the material attractions of the new frontier? How do we help each other in establishing spiritual priorities in our lives? Unlike the vast majority of people who tend to seek personal solutions to social problems, Bahá'ís should articulate their approach to the night as frontier as essentially a spiritual dilemma and a question of social structure.
Acknowledging the far-reaching influence of social structure may, at first glance, not be an easy task. As members of western, post-industrial society, we have ingested the belief of individualism as a fetish. We easily attribute such "failings" to personal flaws or lack of personal effort. The flood of self-help books and the rise of self-help groups are based on a psychological understanding of human life rather than an acknowledgement that some of the problems and solutions we face are social structural in nature. The fact that there is a society, a social structure that is not merely an aggregate of individuals, is something that we have difficulty in grasping.⁽²³⁾ Taking the famous example of the rotten apple in the barrel, my colleague Howard S. Becker once said that there is perhaps something wrong with the barrel in the first place that causes particular apples to rot. The belief that we should apply private solutions to private troubles is so ingrained in us, that we usually do not see private troubles as public issues. It is, however, possible to grasp the fundamental importance of society when we consider the following. Readers will, no doubt, offer other approaches or solutions.
First, the Bahá'í community should not engage in blaming the victims of society which is pushing them to the new frontier by virtue of their powerlessness. Society seems to exercise a strong hold in the way it forces its disadvantaged members (of particular ethnic groups, migrants, the partially-employed young, etc.) to turn to shift-work and night work. For some it is virtually impossible to escape the frontier of the night, especially now when even double-income families in the minimum-wage society can barely make ends meet (unlike two decades ago when a family could easily have subsisted on a single income). Many cannot exercise any choice but to turn to the frontier of the night. A personal strategy of choosing only particular kinds of work or careers only seems at hand for those already in a position to make those choices. We thus cannot blame the "nightworkers" for their "disappearance" from Bahá'í community life. Such an understanding of the problem relieves the night worker from seeing himself or herself as someone to blame and frees all of us to find the solution in the way society has been organized.
Second, the Bahá'í community can think about re-organizing the rhythm of Bahá'í community life to accommodate this temporary facet of society by holding feasts at different times (such as the weekends, if necessary) and having committees meet at a time that are less stressful for night workers and at a time that does not compete with the workers' need to pay attention to family life. In some cases, for example, a night worker has preserved a particular day of rest to be with the family, and communities can become more observant of that fact.
Third, we can accentuate the benefits of the Bahá'í calendar, with its feasts, fasts, and especially the holy days, setting them aside at times when no night work takes place or during the day when everyone else is working. In this fashion, holy days and other Bahá'í events are positively associated with "times off" from the stress of night work. Bahá'ís can thus collectively play an important role. As assemblies become increasingly aware of this new trend, that awareness becomes part of their planning of teaching and deepening work. They can start to innovate in scheduling events, so that the proverbial other 12%-15% of the Bahá'ís can more freely participate in them. More drastically perhaps, Bahá'í communities should give more serious thought about their own conventionally-established rhythms. Are there other ways to take into account the night as frontier and, in the process, revitalize our communities as well?
Fourth, Bahá'í communities can start using technology to their own advantage, such as the use of less time-bound electronic formats for bulletins. While "cyber" feasts should not be advocated, there might be a middle ground for some of the Bahá'ís to engage in Bahá'í community life, using the "cyber" as a starting point.
Melbin's Night as Frontier offers an insightful new look at modern life. As a sociologist and a Bahá'í I am constantly seeking to correlate the facts of Bahá'í community life with the facts of the larger society and its problems. Such a correlation does not necessarily entail compromise in the fundamentals of Bahá'í community life, but it does allow us to come to terms with societal trends in an imaginative way. However inadequate my insights are, Melbin has allowed me to look at society with new eyes. At the risk of making a poor analogy, one could say it is a question of the light bulb meeting the light of the new Revelation. Neither frontier should be ignored.

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End Notes (Use [BACK] to return to article.)

Some Answered Questions 50:1.
SAQ 50:1,3.
SAQ 46:3.
Ernst Mayr, The Growth of Biological Thought (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982).
SAQ 63:1.
See Mayr, Growth and Jacques Monod, Le Hasard et la Nicessiti (Paris, 1970).
SAQ 46:5.
SAQ 47:8.
See Mayr, Growth.
SAQ 47:3.
See Daniel C. Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea (New York, Simon & Schuster, 1995); Mayr, Growth and Monod, Hasard.
See Peter W. Atkins, The Creation (Oxford: Freeman & Company, 1981); John Archibald Wheeler, Information, Physics, Quantum: the Search for Links (Tokyo: Proc. 3rd Int. Symp. Foundation of Quantum Mechanics, 1989).
Bahá'u'lláh, The Hidden Words, Arabic no. 66.
Murray Melbin, Night as Frontier: Colonizing the World After Dark (New York, The Free Press: 1987).
Daniel Mercure, Daniel Regimbald, and Alain Tanguay, "Voluntary Night Work: To Remain Autonomous," Sociologie du Travail 29.3 (1987): 359-363
Ralf Dahrendorf, Eberhard Köhler, and Françoise Piotet, New Forms of Work and Activity (Dublin: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, 1986) 175.
Ibid., 175-179; and J. Carpentier and P. Cazamian, Night Work: Its Effects on the Health and Welfare of the Worker (Geneva: International Labour Office, 1977).
Harald Bielenski, New Forms of Work and Activity: Survey of Experience at Establishment Level in Eight European Countries, (European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, Dublin: 1994), 267-268.
Harvey Krahn, "Non-standard work on the Rise," Perspectives and Labour and Income (Ottawa: Statistics Canada, Winter 1995), Catalogue 75-0001E, 35-36.
I have noticed that companies seldom take into account the assignment dates and examinations of university students, among whom many are employed as part-timers in the night economy. The necessity to answer those instant calls takes precedence almost over anything else.
There is no published research on the impact of night work on religious communities. My comments are gleaned from personal experience and reflection.
Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick.
There are a number of highly insightful books that speak eloquently to the problem of individual fetishm, such as Allan G. Johnson, The Forest for the Trees: An Introduction to Sociological Thinking (Fort Worth, Texas: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991).