A Study Of Richard Henry Tawney’s Social Criticism Thought

Richard Henry Tawney was a famous English economic historian, social critic, and an important proponent of adult education. This dissertation aims to conduct a systematic research on his social criticism thought. What Tawney concerns about covers several fields, yet the core of his thoughts is relatively clear and concise, viz., a kind of reflection or criticism of loss of self in the development of industrial era or society, and thought of reconstruction of society.If we make a thorough survey of the rich writings of Tawney, and uncover the descriptions in his writings at different levels or aspects to reach the core of his thoughts, the main thread of them will be revealed completely:Tawney has all the time contributed to criticize various inequalities and anomic in society, puting forward and practiced his own idea about the reconstruction of society, viz. welfare society. This dissertation will expound Tawney’s thoughts by following the logic mainline, criticism and reconstruction closely.This dissertation consists of six chapters. The background of Taweny’s thoughts will be introduced in Chapter One, in which his life will also be described in detail from early life, war experience to delving into research, and resources of his thoughts be elaborated in critic tradition of British industrial society. He has followed the Christian moral value all his life and deeply influenced by the contemporary thinkers, such as Matthew Arnold. Chapter Two and Three are about Tawney’s social criticism thoughts. His criticism of society accounts for a kind of dissatisfaction with the whole capitalist societies, in other words, a kind of universal criticism, which covers the British society he lived in, America and Germany, also extends much concern to China. Chapter Two includes Tawney’s criticisms of the British society in terms of economical greediness, political privilege and educational unbalance; Chapter Three contains his criticisms of social ills in America, Germany and China. As a result, the overall diagnosis of the existing social ills by Tawney comes into being. Chapter Four is about Taweny’s thought of welfare society. Tawney’s sharp criticism of the inequalities in capitalist societies is not inconsistent and unreasonable; rather, after revealing the various social ills in greedy societies, he puts forward his idea of reconstruction of society. The welfare society is a complex of material (economic changes) and spirit (improvement of social equality), and denotes three kinds of meaning, viz., functional society, liberalism and equal value, covering every social and economic aspects and extending from recognition of common human nature to cultivation of common human culture. All in all, Tawney’s new theory of social construction is on the way to moral on the basis of establishment of welfare system. Chapter Five is about the practice and influence of Tawney’s thought of social welfare. Differing from monotonous scholars staying in studying-room all days, Tawney is a firm practitioner of his theory. He works in different fields, such as the British Labor Party, the Fabian Society, the Workers Educational Association, and the Economic History Association, on which he exerts great influence. It is through the very Tawney-Titmuss relation that the tradition of British public culture has shifted to social welfare need which is deeply rooted in sharing of social value. Chapter Six is a comparison of ’three red professors’. By contrasting of socialist thoughts about social criticism and reconstruction among Harold Laski, Georage Cole and Tawney, the understanding of Tawney’s thoughts will be deepened and their uniqueness will be illustrated.