The Sociological Revolution: From the Enlightenment to the Global Age

by Kilminster,Richard

• ISBN13: 9780415029209
• ISBN10: 0415029201
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-10-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Richard Kilminster provides an historical analysis of sociology and a detailed study of contemporary theories ranging from historical materialism, phenomonology, structuralism and world system theory, contending that the dynamic sociology of knowledge is the rightful heir of the sociological tradition.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi	(4)
Acknowledgements	xv
PART I From philosophy to the sociology of knowledge	1	(54)
1 Sociologists and philosophy	3	(24)
Preamble	3	(2)
The culture of philosophers	5	(5)
The sociological revolution	10	(4)
Sociology and philosophy today	14	(4)
Philosophy as a culture of defence	18	(3)
Philosophers' self-definitions	21	(2)
The `end of philosophy' thesis	23	(4)
2 The Hegelian apogee	27	(14)
Kant and Hegel	27	(2)
The Kantian hegemony	29	(2)
The Hegelian temptation	31	(4)
Sociological observations	35	(5)
Metacritique or socio-genesis?	40	(1)
3 Marx's theory of knowledge as a partial breakthrough	41	(14)
The theory and practice dualism	41	(2)
The primacy of the practical	43	(2)
Marx's synthesis: the practical core	45	(5)
The theoretical inertia of the Marxian tradition	50	(5)
PART II Figurational explorations	55	(125)
4 The limits of transcendental sociology	57	(11)
The ubiquity of transcendentalism	57	(1)
Back to Parsons	58	(2)
The Kantian inspiration	60	(2)
Transcendentalism or developmentalism?	62	(2)
Excursus: social phenomenology as proto-sociology	64	(4)
5 The structure of structuralism	68	(25)
Preamble	68	(1)
Structuralism: a first approximation	68	(3)
The individual ego or knowing subject	71	(2)
Metaphysical dualisms	73	(2)
Positivism and empiricism	75	(2)
Theories of diachronic social processes	77	(2)
Structuralism as para-sociology: Levi Strauss and Foucault	79	(11)
Summary	90	(3)
6 Globalization as an emergent concept	93	(22)
An emerging area of inquiry	93	(4)
Forerunners	97	(3)
Marx's synthesis: global aspects	100	(3)
Thinking globally	103	(2)
Sociological issues	105	(5)
Orientation and disorientation	110	(5)
7 Structuration theory as a World-view	115	(30)
Parsonian affinities	115	(2)
New Liberal affinities	117	(3)
The scope of sociology	120	(7)
Philosophy and `social theory'	127	(4)
Interaction or interdependence?	131	(6)
Systematics or socio-genesis?	137	(8)
8 Sociology since 1945: socio-genetic and psychogenetic aspects	145	(28)
Validity, progress and phaseology	145	(2)
The institutionalization of sociology: the British case	147	(1)
Functional democratization and informalization	147	(6)
The three phases of post-war sociology	153	(19)
Epilogue	172	(1)
9 Concluding remarks	173	(7)
Notes	180	(13)
Bibliography	193	(21)
Index	214