What is Social Theory?: The Philosophical Debates

In this wide ranging collection of original essays, the intersection of philosophy and social theory is examined from a variety of viewpoints, some from the interpretative side of the discipline, and others from within the camp of formal and mathematical modeling. Leading practitioners from both of these major theoretical factions give voice to their plans for enlarging the scope of social theory, and maintaining its vitality, into the next century. They seek to help alleviate some of the crises that have recently afflicted sociology as it has struggled to accommodate postmodernism, feminism, moral philosophy, and other challengers to its classical analytic tradition.

With chapters by Peter Blau and Stanley Lieberson, the old guard is well represented, as are newer interests concerning Nietzsche, the sociology of knowledge and of science, feminist phenomenology, neo–Kantian ethical theory, formal models of power and social action, to name a few. By including chapters by some of the best representatives from various contemporary modes of theorizing, the book fills a unique role as a guide to philosophically informed social thought as it is practised today.

List of Contributors.

1. Philosophy′s Tutelage of Social Theory: A Parody of Profundity? Alan Sica (Pennsylvania State University).

2. Mapping Postmodern Theory: Robert J. Antonio (University of Kansas).

3. A Thesaurus of Experience: Maurice Natanson, Phenomenology and Social Theory: Mary F. Rogers (University of West Florida).

4. A Social Epistemology of the Structure–Agency Craze: From Content to Context: Steve Fuller (University of Durham).

5. Making Normative Soup with Non–normative Bones: Stephen Turner (University of South Florida).

6. Criteria for a Theory of Knowledge: Jennifer Croissant (University of Arizona).

7. Examples, Submerged Statements and the Neglected Application of Philosophy to Social Theory: Stanley Lieberson (Harvard University).

8. Loosening the Chains of Philosophical Reductionism: Steven Rytina (McGill University).

9. Social Order and Emergent Rationality: Michael Macy (Cornell University).

10. Theoretical Models: Sociology′s Missing Links: John Skvoretz (University of South Carolina).

11. Sociological Models: Paul Humphreys (University of Virginia).

12. Culture and Social Structure: Peter Blau (University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill).

Name Index.

Subject Index.

Alan Sica is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Graduate Program in Social Thought at Pennsylvania State University. For five years the editor of Sociological Theory, his other books include Weber, Irrationality, and Social Order (1988) and Ideologies and Corruption of Thought (1997) and forthcoming with Blackwell Max Weber and the New Century.

"To invite authors of two broadly contrasting sociological camps to engage in the discussion helps to highlight a wide variety of issues in such a clear manner as to be of great value to students, not to mention a wider readership. For it not only enables the reader to understand the broadly accepted dual demarcation of interpretative and positive, but also to illuminate the more subtle differences that exist within each camp." Michael Keaney, University of Glasgow

"There is no more thorough an editor in sociology than Alan Sica for the simple reason that there are so few who are as broadly literate as he and who, at the same time, know and understand good books and good writing. The list of authors include the most astute sociologists who happen to know philosophy." Charles Lemert, Wesleyan University

"This volume would make useful reading for those interested in the philosophical underpinnings of social theory and where its continued inter–connection may take it in the future as well as, arguably, essential reading for those within the discipline who look more towards the natural sciences than the humanities for their influence." John Walliss, BSA