Representation of Prince Sabahaddin's Ideas in Turkish Social and Political Thought: Liberalism or Conservatism?

Abstract

Prince Sabahaddin is one of the first and most important founders of sociology in our country. His Ilm-i Ictima has become one of the two mainstream sociology schools in Turkish Sociology with Ziya Gokalp's Ictimaiyat. Prens Sabahaddin's name is known as one of the important names of Turkish policy as well as sociology. After the separation of centralists and centrists which began with the 1st Jonturk Congress in 1902, Prens Sabahaddin was considered as one of the forerunners of liberal thought in Turkish political thought. While Prince Sabahaddin thought can be judged in liberalism in view of the political struggle with centralist/authoritarian forms of power, it has also considerably conservative elements when considered together with the idea of the 'Science Social' school of thought. In spite of Prince Sabahaddin's concept of "social science" that excludes ideologies itself, it can be thought that it unconsciously carried some teachings of both liberalism and conservative ideology in the system of thought of the country, and can be positioned in both ideologies in this context.