- Helmut Schoeck
Helmut Schoeck (
Graz ,July 3 ,1922 -February 2 ,1993 ) was anAustria n-Germansociologist andwriter , best known for his work "Envy . A Theory of Social Behaviour" ("Der Neid. Eine Theorie der Gesellschaft").Life
Schoeck, born in
Graz , spent his early years inBaden-Württemberg , finishing high school inLudwigsburg . He then studiedmedicine ,philosophy andpsychology at the universities of Munich and Tübingen. With a dissertation onKarl Mannheim , Schoeck would obtain his doctorate underEduard Spranger .For fifteen years, starting in 1950, Schoeck would work as a professor at various U.S. universities. In 1953, he taught philosophy at Fairmont State College, followed by a two-year stint at Yale. At
Emory University he was awarded a full professorship insociology . During the 1950s, Schoeck published some works in German, and translatedJoachim Wach 's "Sociology of Religion" into German.In 1965, Schoeck returned to Germany, where he obtained a chair in sociology at the Johannes Gutenberg University in
Mainz , which he would occupy until his retirement in 1990.Schoeck gained international fame with his book "Der Neid. Eine Theorie der Gesellschaft" (
Envy . A Theory of Social Behaviour), which was published in 1966 (the English translation appeared in 1969). Written without a great deal of technical jargon, the book would receive widespread appreciation, even outside the academic community. The book became something of a best-seller, and was translated into more than ten languages.A polemicist against the New Left movements of the 1960s, Schoeck citicized their ideas from a conservative-liberal viewpoint. The egalitarian and anti-capitalist mentality of the leftish generation was the especial target of Schoeck's attacks.
Schoeck, who was also a columnist of the "
Welt am Sonntag " for twenty years, died of cancer in 1993.
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