REFLECTIONS ON THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL RESPONSIBILITY OF SOCIOLOGISTS.

Three Points on the problem of the proper role of the professional that may be seen as a continuum, may be identified as orthodoxy, activism, and the crisis position. This paper examines these points as professional ideologies. The orthodox position regarding the responsibilities of the professional emphasizes a radical separation between facts and values. The activist position has its roots in orthodoxy, but goes beyond it to emphasize the citizen responsibilities of professionals in areas relevant to their expertise. The crisis position holds that professionals must take social and political initiatives which have not been deemed appropriate in the past under the positivist rubric of "orthodoxy." It is conceivable that, as its adherents have argued, the crisis position represents an emergent ethic which involves sociologists no less than other professionals in the attempt to deal with problems of our time while there is still time. It is also conceivable that, of the three professional ideologies cited in this paper, it is the most potentially dangerous.