ISBN:
9780415738927
Language:
English
Pages:
Online-Ressource (257 p)
Series Statement:
Theoretical Logic in Sociology
Parallel Title:
Print version Positivism, Presupposition and Current Controversies (Theoretical Logic in Sociology)
DDC:
301
Keywords:
Electronic books
Abstract:
〈P〉This volume begins by challenging the bases of the recent scientization of sociology. Then it challenges some of the ambitious claims of recent theoretical debate. The author not only reinterprets the most important classical and modern sociological theories but extracts from the debates the elements of a more satisfactory, inclusive approach to these general theoretical points. 〈/P〉
Description / Table of Contents:
Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Original Title Page; Original Copyright Page; Dedication; PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS; INTRODUCTION; Table of Contents; Chapter One: Theoretical Logic in Scientific Thought; 1. Introduction: Scientific Thought as a Two-Directional Continuum; 2. The Positivist Persuasion in Social Science: The Reduction of Theory to Fact; 3. The Failure of the "Human Studies" Alternative to Social Scientific Positivism; 4. Toward an Alternative Conception of Science; 4.1. Early Foundations; 4.2. Contemporary Elaborations
Description / Table of Contents:
5. The Postpositivist Persuasion: Rehabilitation of the Theoretical6. Conclusion: The Need for a General Theoretical Logic in Sociology; Chapter Two: Theoretical Logic in Sociological Thought (1): The Failure of Contemporary Debate to Achieve Generality; 1. The Reduction of General Logic to Political Commitment: The Debate over Ideology; 2. The Reduction of General Logic to Methodological Choice: The Debate over Positivism; 3. The Reduction of General Logic to Empirical Proposition: The Debate over Conflict; 4. The Reduction of General Logic to Model Selection: The Debate over Functionalism
Description / Table of Contents:
Chapter Three: Theoretical Logic in Sociological Thought (2): Toward the Restoration of Generality1. The Epistemological Reference for Generalized Sociological Argument; 2. The Generalized Problem of Action; 2.1. The Presupposition of Rationality: ""Instrumental" Action and the Reduction of Ends to Means; 2.2. The Presupposition of Nonrationality: "Normative"" Action and the Relative Autonomy of Ends; 2.3. Other Approaches to Rationality and the Problem of Theoretical Reduction; 2.3.1. Rationality as Means/End Calculation; 2.3.2. Rationality as the Achievement of Particular Ends
Description / Table of Contents:
3. The Generalized Problem of Order3.1. The Conflationary Dimensions of Current Approaches to Order: Empirical, Ideological, and Presuppositional Reduction; 3.2. The Individualist Presupposition in Its Instrumental and Normative Forms: Social Order as Residual Category; 3.3. The Collectivist Presupposition in Its Rationalist Form: Coercive Order and the Elimination of Freedom; 3.4. The Collectivist Presupposition in Its Normative Form; 3.4.1. Social Constraint and the Preservation of Voluntarism; 3.4.2. Voluntarism, Constraint, and the Reification of the Free Will Concept
Description / Table of Contents:
3.4.3. Voluntary Order and the Problem of Sociological IdealismChapter Four: Theoretical Logic as Objective Argument; 1. Objective Evaluation through Universal Reference: The "Structural" Status of Action and Order; 2. Objective Evaluation through Synthetic Standards: The Scope and Mutual Autonomy of Action and Order; 3. Objective Evaluation through Explicit Hierarchical Judgment: The Need for a Multidimensional Approach to Action and Order; Notes; Author-Citation Index; Subject Index
Note:
Description based upon print version of record
