THE RELATIONSHIP RELIGION-STATE-SOCIETY IN ZİYA GÖKALP IN THE CONTEXT OF HIS DICHOTOMIES

THE RELATIONSHIP RELIGION-STATE-SOCIETY IN ZİYA GÖKALP

Abstract

Ziya Gökalp (1876-1924) was one of the leading early Turkish sociologists who lived in the post-Tanzimat period. He shaped the history of Turkish thought with the ideas he put forward in the fields of society, state and religion. Religion, state and society are three important phenomena that occupy the world of thought in every period and in every culture, and are the subject of many debates in theory and practice in terms of their relations with each other, and even cause conflicts in various forms. Ziya Gökalp also put forward very important and valuable thoughts on religion, state and society. It is possible to argue that Ziya Gökalp, who gave a wide place to the subject of religion in the pre-Republican period, had an important share in the formation of both the theoretical and social basis of the secular understanding in the Republican period. His sociology is based mainly on Durkheim. Therefore, Durkheim's influence on Gökalp's thoughts in the field of religion is great. However, Gökalp does not completely ignore the relationship between religion and society. On the other hand, it sees the existence of religion as a phenomenon that must continue to exist in the conscience of the individual.

There are many valuable studies on Ziya Gökalp and his thoughts on religion, state and society. In this study, it is aimed to investigate Gökalp's views on religion, state and society in a relational context based on dichotomies. Descriptive analysis method was used in the study. Thus, Ziya Gökalp's thoughts on religion, state and society and how he made sense of the relationship between them were discussed through his works, as well as contemporary research on Gökalp was used.