From law to social theory late Ottoman thought

Aim of this study is to find out how the conception of modern society found its reflection in late Ottoman thought. The Ottoman thought, from disembedding of classical law understanding to acception of sociology institutionally, explored in terms of thought-society relations. The relations, before specifically looking into Ottoman context, is discussed through natural law. The continuity between natural law and social theory which is accepted as the theoretical aspect of this study. Besides that both natural law and social theory systematically corresponds to the society understanding, both have a method from thought to action. They are also successor-predecessor. With this continuance, they could have been evaluated in terms of social formation instead of schools and thinkers. Natural law intervened society by offering just order, social theory aims to organize social reality with scientific laws. In the last instance both of them shaped by social formation and aims to alter it. Premodern society thought has holistic view, conceptualized as praxis, embodied with natural law. In modern era, with the emergence of self-sufficient fields, social praxis lost its validity and this replacement allowed for theoretical designs of society. It is debated that bourgeoisie would be the designer of social norms. In this way, the transformation which evaluated as the split between theory and practice, evaluated in philosophical and social context. Tanzimat reforms were evaluated in this way. Thus, Ottoman natural law embodied as justice of circle lost its legitimacy in face of capitalist development. The legitimacy crisis, in terms of modern social dynamics, is discussed through enlightened-bureaucrat typology, first philosophy of law books and first sociology articles in first social science periodical. As a result, the import of social theory, as an outcome of social formations of Western Europe, was the consequence of the instrumentalisation demand of normative aspect of the theory.