American sociologists know Georges Gurvitch as one of the editors of Twentieth Century Sociology and as the author of the Sociology of Law. His fame in France is confirmed by a long list of publications beginning in 1932 with Idee du droit social and Le temps present et ['idee du droit social, followed by Experience juridique et philosophie pluraliste du droit (1936), La morale theorique et la science des maurs (1937, third edition 1961), Essais de sociologie (1938), and after the second World War by La vocation actuelle de la sociologie (1950, third edition in two volumes 1963), Les determinismes sociaux et la liberte humaine (1955, second edition 1963), Traite de sociologie in two volumes (directed by him and to which he made important contributions in 1958, second edition 1963), and finally Socio­ [ogie et diaiectique (1962). In addition a number of courses presented at the Sorbonne have been published in mimeographed form, such as the lectures on the sociological theories of Saint-Simon, Comte, Proudhon and on The social class concept from Marx till today (1954, second edition 1960). Translations of these books have appeared in German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Serbian and Japanese. Georges Gurvitch is recognized as one of the major figures in con­ temporary sociology.

I/Introduction.- General Theoretical Orientation.- The Relation of Sociological Theory to Study of Time.- II/The Problem of Time.- Jean Piaget's Definition.- Is Multiple Time Possible?.- Bergson and the Problem of Time.- The Problem of Time in Contemporary Physics.- The Multiple Manifestations of Time in Different Sciences.- Social Time.- Varieties of Social Time.- Sociological Time and Historical Time.- III/The Depth Levels and Social Time.- Ecological Time.- Time Characteristic of Organizations.- The Time of Conduct of Some Regularity of Patterns, of Rules, of Signals and Signs.- Time of Social Roles and Collective Attitudes.- Time of Symbols, Ideas and Collective Values.- Collective Mentality and Time.- IV/The Micro-Social Framework and its Time: The Manifestations of Sociability.- Time Belonging to Mass Sociability.- Community Sociability and Its Time.- Time Characteristic of Communion Sociability.- The Time Characteristic of Approach, Withdrawal and Mixed Interpersonal and Intergroup Relations.- V/The Particular Groupings and Their Social Time.- The Criteria for Classification of Groups.- Time of Groupings Classified According to Their Duration.- Time of Groupings Classified by Their Rhythm.- Time of Groups Classified According to Their Dispersion.- Time of Groups Classified According to Mode of Admission.- Time of Groups Classified by Functions.- Time of Groupings Classified According to Their Orientation.- VI/The Social Classes and Their Scales of Social Time.- The Peasant Class and Its Scales of Social Time.- The Bourgeois Class and Its Scales of Social Time.- The Proletarian Social Time Scale.- The Middle Classes and the Techno-Bureaucrats; Their Social Time Scales.- VII/Global Societies and Their Time Scales.- The Time Scales of Archaic Societies.- The Typesof Historical Societies.- Charismatic Theocracies and Their Social Time Scales.- The Patriarchal Societies and Their Scales of Time.- The Feudal Societies and Their Time Scales.- The Ancient City-States Becoming Empires and Their Time Scales.- VIII/The Time Scales of Modern Societies.- Nascent Capitalistic Global Societies and Their Time Scales.- The Time Scales of Democratic-Liberal Global Societies with Developed Competitive Capitalism.- IX/The Time Scales of Contemporary Societies.- The Time Scales of the Managerial Society of Organized Capitalism.- The Time Scales of the Fascist Society Based on Techno-Bureaucracy.- The Time Scales of the Planned, Centralized, Collectivist State.- The Time Scales of the Planned, Decentralized, Pluralistic, Collectivistic Society.- Conclusion.