of sociological research. Lavrov defined sociology as a science dealing with forms of social solidarity, which he subdivided into three major types: - unconscious solidarity of custom; - purely emotional solidarity, based on impulses not controlled by critical reflection; - “conscious historical solidarity” resulting from a common effort to attain a consciously selected and rationally justified goal. The latter represented the highest and the most significant type of human solidarity. It developed later than the first two types and proclaimed the conversion of the static “culture” into the dynamic “civilization.” To sum it up, social solidarity in Lavrov's view is “the consciousness that personal interest coincides with social interest, that personal dignity is maintained only by upholding the dignity of all who share in this solidarity”. Otherwise it is a mere community of habits, interests, affects, or convictions. Thus solidarity is an essential premise of the existence of society. Solidary interaction distinguishes society from a simple gathering of individuals, the latter phenomenon constituting no sociological object. Moreover, the condition of individuals being conscious creatures excludes from the field of sociology forms of solidarity / solidary interaction performed by unconscious organisms, or, in other words, marks the borderline between social and biological phenomena. Further reading Pjotr Lawrow: Die Pariser Kommune vom 18. März 1871. Geschehnisse – Einfluss – Lehren; Unrast, Münster 2003. (German) Alan Kimball: The Russian Past and the Socialist Future in the Thought of Peter Lavrov; Slavic Review 30, Nr. 1, 1971. Philip Pomper, Peter Lavrov and the Russian Revolutionary Movement; University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL 1972. References 1823 births 1900 deaths People from Pskov Oblast People from Velikoluksky Uyezd Russian nobility Narodniks Writers from the Russian Empire Philosophers from the Russian Empire Russian sociologists Historians from the Russian Empire Male writers from the Russian Empire Russian revolutionaries 19th-century historians from the Russian Empire 19th-century male writers from the Russian Empire