Showing papers on "Social theory published in 1975"
Book•
01 Jan 1975
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a view of science as a social theory based on positivism and realist philosophy of science, with a focus on the explantion and understanding of social action.
Abstract: Part one Conceptions of science 1. Positivist philosophy of science 2. Realist philosophy of science 3. Forms of conventionalism Part two Conceptions of science as social theory 4. Sociology and positivism 5. Marx and realism 6. Structure and structuralism Part 3 Meaning and ideology 7. The explantion and understanding of social action 8. Reification and realism 9. Values theory and reality
309 citations
TL;DR: The role and relevance of hermeneutics for the problem of society and social life is discussed in this article, where the authors consider the conditions and the historical constellation under which the social sciences in our epoch are organized and working.
Abstract: asked to describe from my own point of view the role and relevance of hermeneutics for the problem of society and social life. I shall begin with a consideration of the conditions and the historical constellation under which the social sciences in our epoch are organized and working. In our century, particularly in the second half of our century, the social sciences have been given a special challenge. When one compares the impact of both philosophy (notably British Empiricism and German Idealism) and the social sciences in the same epoch, one is forced to say that the influence of the former was extremely weak. Of course, there was the development of theoretical economics and the first steps toward a thematization of society as burgerliche Gesellschaft. In general, however, this theoretical work did not have much influence upon the practical organization of our society. The basis of our social life in the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century had been sustained by the Christian tradition, its secularization and the consequent secular formation of society. However, by the middle of our century, the breakdown of these traditions caused by the two wars and the connected shift in the balance of power and the political equilibrium fostered a new desire and inner longing in our society to find in science a substitute for lost orientations a very dangerous situation. While the serious scientist knows the restrictive conditions of his thematization of social appearances and givens, the makers of public opinion can distort the real work of scientists in view of the inner needs and
285 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1975
TL;DR: Come with us to read a new book that is coming recently, this is a new coming book that many people really want to read will you be one of them?
Abstract: Come with us to read a new book that is coming recently. Yeah, this is a new coming book that many people really want to read will you be one of them? Of course, you should be. It will not make you feel so hard to enjoy your life. Even some people think that reading is a hard to do, you must be sure that you can do it. Hard will be felt when you have no ideas about what kind of book to read. Or sometimes, your reading material is not interesting enough.
63 citations
TL;DR: The antipositivists' main complaint against positivism is that as a descriptive account of empirical science it is too narrow and as a methodological program it is a too restrictive brand of empiricism.
Abstract: The dominant tendency in contemporary philosophy of natural and social science is antipositivist. That much is easy to ascertain even by a cursory survey of books and articles. But what are antipositivists against? Whether dead or alive, their enemy is difficult to identify on the basis of antipositivist accounts which vary considerably one from another. A brief glance at those accounts will suffice to show that antipositivists do not have an identity either, they are a motley group with different interests, motives and backgrounds. In the present article I shall restrict my attention to those antipositivists who are, broadly speaking, in the empiricist tradition and whose main complaint against positivism is that as a descriptive account of empirical science it is too narrow and as a methodological programme it is a too restrictive brand of empiricism. I shall argue that the basic antipositivist criticisms are relevant and effective against what I shall call positivism in the strict sense but not against a variety of scientists and philosophers also labelled positivists in some vague sense of the word. It is, therefore, in the antipositivists' own interest-unless their aim is confusion rather than rational discussion-to identify their opponents more precisely. I shall also argue that whereas positivism in the strict sense is in fact for many purposes an unnecessarily restrictive brand of empiricism, this does not apply to a variety of doctrines or programmes often subsumed under 'positivism' in the broad and vague sense and that many views and principles the antipositivists regard as their own (and so non-positivist) have been part of their opponents' doctrines for some time now.
42 citations
TL;DR: The author states that two important articles relating to this topic reached him after this paper was completed, and consequently he has not been able to refer to their findings as much as he would have liked.
Abstract: *For valuable criticism I am indebted to the referees. I wish to acknowledge the hospitality of the Warden and Council of Christ College, University of Tasmania, where this paper was drafted. Two important articles relating to this topic reached me after this paper was completed, and consequently I have not been able to refer to their findings as much as I would have liked. The papers are: B. J. Norton, 'The Biometric Defence of Darwinism', Journal of the History of Biology, 6 (1973), 283-316; and D. A. MacKenzie and S. B. Barnes, 'Historical and Sociological Analyses of Scientific Change: The Case of the Mendelian-Biometrician Controversy in England', Kolner Zeitschrift fur Soziologie und Socialpsychologie (Spring 1975, forthcoming). 1 R. K. Merton, 'Science and Democratic Social Structure', Social Theory and Social Structure (New York, 1968), chapter 18. 2 Ibid., 614.
36 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The authors discusses the use of the terms of these African intellectuals in Western discussion of modern African literature, a use that sometimes leads the literary critic and the social scientist alike, away from, rather than into the actual nature of the works he is examining.
Abstract: Many African intellectuals-politicians, writers and other professionals -have been concerned with establishing the value of precolonial African life, in the face of hundreds of years of Western condescension towards and misunderstanding of "primitive" peoples. This essay concerns the use made of the terms of these African intellectuals in Western discussion of modern African literature, a use that sometimes leads the literary critic and the social scientist alike, away from, rather than into the actual nature of the works he is examining. This attempt to establish a "positive" African identity, indeed to stress the unique values of African societies, has been intimately involved with the struggle for independence, and with nation-building. It has been characterized by the use of a series of contrasts between African and Western cultures, which are, by now, very familiar to the reader of modern African fiction and nonfiction, of Western discussion of African literature, and, finally, of African commentary, both on African literature itself and on Western criticism of it. Perhaps the most familiar of these contrasts is that between "communal" African society and "individualistic" Western society, which is often linked to the contrast between the "traditional" and the "modern," the "rural" and the "urban," and often closely associated with a distinction between a mystical attitude toward nature that does not separate the individual from the cosmos, and an empirical or rational attitude toward nature. The contrast between "communal" African society and "individualistic" Western society has become a touchstone for Western criticism of African literature; it has been put into service in the explanation of apparent differences between Western literature-in particular, the nineteenth and twentieth century novel -and African fiction, which, for example, less frequently involves conventions of extensive introspection. The intellectual history of these familiar contrasts might plausibly begin with the distinction in nineteenth century German social theory between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, originally found in T6nnies, buut also present in Max Weber, and anticipated in Marx, who is certainly an influential figure in modern African thought. On the one hand, there are
16 citations
Book•
01 Jun 1975
TL;DR: In this article, it is shown that the activities which fall under that description are either logically illegitimate, or, if warranted, do not differ significantly from many activities practiced by ordinary people in the world.
Abstract: It is refreshing, just for a change, to come across someone who asks a more radical question-Are they possible ?-and, moreover, someone who asks this question not ironically, but in all seriousness. That this is so is only too evident from his conclusion, which is negative: they are not possible. The activities which fall under that description are either logically illegitimate, or, if warranted, do not differ significantly from many activities practiced anyway by ordinary people in the
TL;DR: The authors examines the theoretical merits of Skinner's approach, examining his methodological postulates, his implicit epistemology, and some underlying normative assumptions, concluding that Skinnerian behaviorism commits a serious error in allowing a methodological presupposition (reduction of the subject matter to observable behavior of the organism) to become a de facto ontology that prematurely forecloses the incorporation of potentially valuable hypothetical constructs at the level of social theory.
Abstract: Humanist critiques of B. F. Skinner have made valuable contributions to our understanding of his thought, but more attention needs to be paid to his work as potential empirical theory. To evaluate the theoretical merits of Skinner's approach, this paper examines his methodological postulates, his implicit epistemology, and some underlying normative assumptions. It is argued that Skinnerian behaviorism commits a serious error in allowing a methodological presupposition (reduction of the subject matter to observable behavior of the organism) to become a de facto ontology that prematurely forecloses the incorporation of potentially valuable hypothetical constructs at the level of social theory. This theoretical difficulty is critical because the inherent safeguards of science that Skinner proposes as a humane safeguard against misuse would be unlikely to apply to an actual technology of behavior control as employed by political and administrative authorities.
TL;DR: For instance, crime has been relegated to the parasitic and politically insignificant Lumpenproletariat and one-sidedly viewed as symptomatic of the endemic degeneracy and "demoralization" of industrial capitalism as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: That Marxists have traditionally paid little attention to crime is not simply attributable to the fact that Marx and Engels themselves wrote scarcely anything on the topic. Rather, this neglect manifests a deeper theoretical devaluation rooted in the classical Marxian analysis of the capitalist mode of production, an analysis which has resulted in a frequently fetishist focus on the industrial proletariat as the tendential collective subject. Crime, for the most part, has been relegated to the parasitic and politically insignificant Lumpenproletariat and one-sidedly viewed as symptomatic of the endemic degeneracy and “demoralization” of industrial capitalism. At best, it has occasionally been treated as a form of transitional or pre-political (individual) revolt which cannot, in itself, play an historically important part in the revolutionary process and which, in any event, is ultimately destined (like law and the state) to disappear with the abolition of class society and the advent of genuinely universal communism.
01 Jan 1975
TL;DR: In this article, the authors apply the methods of sociological analysis to the development of their own discipline, which is the only firm basis for evaluating whether we have "progressed" and, if so, how much and in what ways.
Abstract: Eminent sociologists such as Small (1924), Parsons (1968, Vol. 1: Preface), Merton (1968: Ch. 1), and Gouldner (1965; 1970: Part 1) have followed Comte’s (1863: 22) dictum that “a new science must be pursued historically.” Nevertheless, students of social theories have been hesitant in applying the methods of sociological analysis to the development of their own discipline.1 To know its past and present state “is the only firm basis for evaluating whether we have ‘progressed’, and, if so, how much and in what ways” (Gouldner, 1962: 8).
TL;DR: The Moral Foundations of PoliticsThe Communist ManifestoThe German IdeologyMarxism versus LiberalismThree Aspects of Political Theory on Confusions and Reformation of an ExpressionMarx for the 21st CenturyCoalition Strategies of Marxist PartiesMarxism, Morality, and Social JusticeJohn Stuart Mill on HistoryOn ReligionKarl MarxMill, Marx, and Mill Two Views of Social Conflict & Social HarmonyPhilosophy Research ArchivesDiverse Perspectives on Marxist PhilosophyCulture and Social Theory
Abstract: Journal of Economic LiteratureCapital, Volume IFichte, Marx, and the German Philosophical TraditionMeanjin QuarterlyThe Moral Foundations of PoliticsThe Communist ManifestoThe German IdeologyMarxism versus LiberalismThree Aspects of Political Theory on Confusions and Reformation of an ExpressionMarx for the 21st CenturyCoalition Strategies of Marxist PartiesMarxism, Morality, and Social JusticeJohn Stuart Mill on HistoryOn ReligionKarl MarxMillMarx and MillThe Communist ManifestoBasic Writings on Politics and PhilosophyWestern Political ThoughtMarx and MillTwo Views of EqualityKarl Marx’s Theory of Revolution IIIHistory of Sociological ThoughtJohn Stuart MillList of Titles Added to the CatalogueConceptions of Liberty in Political PhilosophyJohn Stuart MillSociological Interpretations of EducationWhy History?Marx, Engels and Modern British SocialismKarl Marx's EconomicsMarx and Mill Two Views of Social Conflict & Social HarmonyPhilosophy Research ArchivesDiverse Perspectives on Marxist PhilosophyCulture and Social TheoryMarx's Critique of ?eternal? Political EconomyMarx and MarxismMarx's Critique of Political Economy Volume TwoSignifying Woman
TL;DR: This paper present a critical appraisal of these fundamental categories of current social science and trace out the contradictions which they entail for the theoretical comprehension of social phenomena, providing the necessary starting point for the critique of modern sociology and economics.
Abstract: Modern social thought identifies social science with the conception of (1) ‘social action’ and (2) the ‘rationality’ of social action. This identification is central to the specificity of modern social thought as opposed, in particular, to Marxian social theory. In this paper we present a critical appraisal of these fundamental categories of current social science and trace out the contradictions which they entail for the theoretical comprehension of social phenomena. The contradictions intrinsic to the social action methodology, once made explicit, provide the necessary starting point for the critique of modern sociology and economics.
01 Jan 1975
TL;DR: Burmeister as mentioned in this paper showed how Linguet's theories reveal the limitations of Enlightenment ideology by reflecting the contradictions of capitalistic society, insoluble within the framework of bourgeois emancipation, not in a communistic Utopia but in an equally utopie, and yet reactionary, rejection of Enlightenment thought.
Abstract: Brigitte Burmeister : Linguet's paradoxes. ; The social theories of Linguet (1736-1794) combine lucid criticism of 18th-century capitalism with pessimistic, even reactionary conclusions. In his Theory of Civil laws (1767), a critique of the Esprit des lois, Linguet begins with a description of the suffering caused by social inequality, to finish with a plan of reform which rejects any social change. Taking as a starting-point two " paradoxes " of Linguet — his apologies for slavery and for oriental despotism — the author demonstrates how these theories reveal the limitations of Enlightenment ideology by reflecting the contradictions of capitalistic society, insoluble within the framework of bourgeois emancipation. This results in the case of Linguet, not in a communistic Utopia but in an equally utopie, and yet reactionary, rejection of Enlightenment thought.
TL;DR: In this paper, the social theories of Talcott Parsons have been studied in the context of religion in the social theory of the social sciences and its application in the field of social sciences.