The ‘duplex’ perspective as an attempt to resolve the key sociological dilemma

This article is a review of the books by the famous Czech sociologist, head of the Historical Sociology Chair of the Faculty for Humanities at the Charles University (Prague), Jiří Šubrt Historical Processes, Social Changes, and Modernization in the Sociological Perspective (Moscow: RUDN; 2017. 248 p.), Antinomies, Dilemmas, and Discussions in the Contemporary Sociological Thought: Essays on Social Theory (Moscow: RUDN; 2018. 280 p.), and Individualism, Holism and the Central Dilemma of Sociological Theory (Bingley: Emerald Publishig; 2019. 184 p.). All three works focus on the key sociological dilemma - individualism versus holism, which has been the main scientific interest of J. Šubrt in recent years. The relevance of this dilemma is obvious: individualism declares the subjectivity of the person, while holism insists on the objectivity of the supra-individual social reality, and this contradiction hinders the development of theoretical knowledge. Therefore, it is necessary to try to resolve this contradiction, which Šubrt does by critically analyzing the previous attempts to resolve this dilemma and by considering it in the ‘duplex’ perspective that reflects both voluntarist and social principles.