Sorokina teoria działań pozytywnych
Sorokin’s theory of positive actions

Summary/Abstract: The author starts the discussion by recalling the theory of supranormal deviant, as formulated by the father of modern Polish sociology — F. Zaniecki, to show its similarities with the thinking of P. A. Sorokin — the first world renowned Russian sociologist and Znaniecki’s contemporary. Taking as a starting point the theory of L. Petrażycki, which he followed for his whole life, in his first book, “Prestuplenie i kara, podwig i nagrada”, published in 1913, Sorokin builds the theory of supranormal positive actions, i.e. virtuology as a separate subdiscipline of social sciences. Even if the concept seems to be absent in his magnum opus — “Social and Cultural Dynamics” of 1937, it reappears, even more pronounced, in later Sorokin’s works, when, in 1950 he publishes the results of his research team’s analysis of the lives of Catholic and Orthodox saints and of North American popular culture “good neighbors”.

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