Robert Owen in the history of the social sciences: three presentist views.

Authors :: Pūras A
Source :: Journal of the history of the behavioral sciences [J Hist Behav Sci] 2014 Winter; Vol. 50 (1), pp. 58-78. Date of Electronic Publication: 2013 Nov 22.
Publication Year :: 2014
Abstract: This paper argues that the present-day disagreements over the right course for sociology and its public role are reflected and paralleled in contemporary historiography of Robert Owen, British social reformer and a self-described social scientist. Historical accounts, written from the perspectives of public sociology, "pure science" sociology, and anti-Marxism, interpret Owen's historical role in mutually antithetical and self-serving ways. Contrasting the three presentist accounts, I engage in an analysis of "techniques of presentism"-history-structuring concepts, such as "disciplinary founder" and "disciplinary prehistory," that allow presentist authors to get their effects. Along the way, I elaborate Peter Baehr's classification of sociology's founders.<br /> (© 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)