Antanas Kaupas - sociologas

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Antanas Kaupas; Sociologai; Sociologijos istorija; Darbai; Idėjos; Antanas Kaupas; Sociologists; History of sociology; Ideas.

ENThe priest Antanas Kaupas (1870-1913) is one of the most outstanding public men, publicists and sociologists of the end 19th and the beginning 20th century of the US Lithuanian community. For reading and dissemination in Lithuania publications by the tsarist regime he had been persecuted and in 1892 was made to emigrate to the USA. After the graduation from the Polish clerical seminary in Detroit in 1896 he was ordained. Alongside with his ministerial duties and participation in the activity of various associations, A. Kaupas took an active part cooperating in publication and editing of Lithuanian newspapers such as the "Dirva" (1904), "Katalikų draugas" (1908) and the "Draugas" (1909-1913). During his short lifetime (he died at 43) A. Kaupas had written several sociological works. A. Kaupas stated his social views and ideas in his major studies "The weaknesses of socialism" (1904), "Patrimpas’s letters" (1907) "Evolution, but not revolution" (1907) and others. In 1907 after the establishment of a new sociology division at the Ecclesiastical Academy of Petersburg, A. Kaupas, as distinguished of sociological works, was invited to take a professor’s position. Although A. Kaupas refused the proposal and remained in the USA, he kept to be interested in sociology. A. Kaupas’s social view similarly to those of other catholic clergymen’s had been determined by Pope Leo’s XIII encyclic "Rerum Novarum" (1891). The encyclic laid out the view of the Catholic Church on major social issues: property rights, social (worker’s) problems, evaluation of social, economic, political systems and enforcement theories based on Christian values.A. Kaupas, who considered the right to property and life to be basic birth rights, claimed that the State’s responsibility is to defend and protects these rights by all means. In his view any socialisation of production facilities is to be considered as a social political act, which aims at imposing a rule over people and suppressing their initiative and creative capabilities. Productivity is dependant on freedom. Such was A. Kaupas’s view on the property issue. Revolutionary ideas declared by socialists were adverse to A. Kaupas who believed that any progress is based on evolution. Therefore, by his works he pursued to prove that better forms of social life cannot be achieved by destroying the existing order but by common work and mutual understanding. Therefore, A. Kaupas was especially interested in the efforts by US sociologists to better know the moods of different social groups in order to avoid contradictions that evoke social processes. All sociological works by A. Kaupas reflect basic catholic principles that social evolution should be based on human Christian values. They should not come into conflict with the human nature. Any kind of enforcement cannot be justified and is in contradiction with any legal or natural laws. The prosperity of the society may be achieved only in co-operation with all social groups. Therefore, Lithuania’s independence is possible only on setting up common goals and cooperation in achieving them. [From the publication]