1. SOCIOLOGY, HISTORY, AND THE ABSTRACT PERSPECTIVE.
- Author
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Conviser, Richard H. and Fararo, Thomas J.
- Subjects
SOCIOLOGY ,HYPOTHESIS ,SOCIOLOGISTS ,PROBLEM solving ,VARIANCES ,METHODOLOGY - Abstract
The article presents information about sociology, history and the abstract perspective. In a recent paper, professor Kai Erikson has compared several implicit assumptions which prevail in the work of contemporary sociologists with those of contemporary historians. He concludes from his analysis that sociologists could avoid certain kinds of problems if they were to become more conscious of their immersion in historical processes and were to adopt certain of the perspectives of historians. With Erikson's diagnosis of the shortcomings of current sociological research one is in considerable agreement. Nevertheless, it is not clear that the adoption of Erikson's recommendations would do much to alter what he identifies as problematic in sociology. Indeed, one has a sense of foreboding that should his prescriptions be taken too seriously, the development of sociological knowledge would be still more thwarted than it is by the problems he locates. After restating several points in Erikson's argument, one will outline a point of view which is somewhat at variance with his and attempt to demonstrate ways in which it is responsive to the issues he raises. This point of view may be of some general interest also because it arises not from the concreteness of history, but from the abstraction of philosophy and mathematics.
- Published
- 1973