Abstract

This paper is dedicated to the Robert Nisbet's original vision, although little explored, of the social philosophy. Nisbet analyzes the social theories as developed from ancient times to the early twentieth century using the methodology of research of the philosophical roots in the classics of sociology. He recognises the autonomy of the social philosophy with respect especially to the political philosophy, and uses the expression "social philosophy" in almost all his works, in which presents, from a realistic perspective, the social philosophy as the history of ideas of community, directly connected to the human responses to the various crises of the fundamental social institutions. The paper also focuses on the similarities between Nisbet's philosophical approach to the study of society and that of other relevant authors of the second half of the twentieth century.