The history of futures studies: A note on Gilfillan's early work

摘要

Seabury Colum Gilfillan (1889-1987), an American sociologist who received his MA and PhD from Columbia University, is considered as a seminal author in futures studies. The aim of this note is to contribute to the history of futures studies through a study of Gilfillan's early work on prediction and prophecy. We focus on Gilfillan's contributions in the 1910s and on his 1920 master's thesis in which he studied four eighteenth-century French authors. We identify Gilfillan's main methodological principles and, using some of his later contributions, show their relevance for some of the methodological debates in the field.