Main Currents in Sociological Thought: Durkheim, Pareto, Weber


Book Description

For many years now, Professor Aron's course of lectures at the Sorbonne on "Les Grandes doctrines de l'histoire sociologique" has been a mecca for students from the United States, Europe, and the rest of the world. These lectures now serve as the basis for this major work--to be completed in succeeding volumes--on the history of man's understanding of his social order"--Book jacket.




Main Currents in Sociological Thought: Durkheim, Pareto, Weber


Book Description

In this second volume of Main Currents of Sociological Thought, Raymond Aron continues the analysis, begun in the first volume, of the "great doctrines of historical sociol-ogy." Aron explores the work of three figures who profoundly shaped sociology as it entered the twentieth century: Emile Durkheim, the great French theorist of consensus, who continued Auguste Comte's quest for a science of society and a scientific validation of morality; Vilfredo Pareto, the Italian "neo-Machiavellian" who mocked traditional mo-rality and humanitarian pretensions and emphasized the oligarchic or elitist character of all societies; and the German sociologist Max Weber, who reflected continuously on the relationship between science and action, filled with deep foreboding about the pros-pects for human freedom in an age marked by bureaucratization and rationalization. Aron presents rich portraits of these three thinkers, drawing from them what remains of enduring worth, even as he distances himself from Durkheim's project for a science of society, Pareto's exaggerated critique of humanitarianism, and Weber's tragic pessimism. Aron's book is essential for clarifying his profound indebtedness to and crucial divergences from the thought of Max Weber, the sociologist par excellence, in Aron's view. Together with volume 1, which treats the work of Montesquieu, Comte, Marx, and Tocqueville, it forms the definitive survey of the great social thinkers to date. Yet, as Daniel J. Mahoney and Brian C. Anderson explain in their introduction, Main Currents is more than a survey; it is above all a challenge to contemporary social science to retain the ambition of an older, philosophically informed sociology to present an interpretation of modern society and to reflect on the meaning of universal history.




Main Currents in Sociological Thought: Volume One


Book Description

This is the first part of Raymond Aron's landmark two-volume study of the sociological tradition—arguably the definitive work of its kind. More than a work of reconstruction, Aron's study is, at its deepest level, an engagement with the very question of modernity: how did the intellectual currents which emerged in the eighteenth century shape the modern political and philosophical order? With scrupulous fairness, Aron examines the thoughts and arguments of the major social thinkers to discern how they answered this question. Volume One explores three traditions: the French liberal school of political sociology, represented by Montesquieu and Tocqueville; the Comtean tradition, anticipating Durkheim in its elevation of social unity and consensus; and the Marxists, who posited the struggle between classes and placed their faith in historical necessity. In his customary clear and penetrating prose, Aron argues that each of these schools offers its own theory of the diversity of societies and that "each is inspired both by moral convictions and by scientific hypotheses." This Routledge Classics edition includes an introduction by Daniel J. Mahoney and Brian C. Anderson.




Main Currents in Sociological Thought


Book Description

This is the first of Raymond Aron's magisterial two-volume treatment of the sociological tradition—perhaps the definitive work of its kind. The second volume treating Durkheim, Pareto, and Weber is scheduled to appear in spring 1998. More than a work of reconstruction, Aron's study is, at its deepest level, an engagement with the question of modernity: What constitutes the essence of the new modern order that, having emerged in the eighteenth century, still forms the categories of our experience, sweeping us along toward an unknown destination? With his usual scrupulous fairness, Aron looks to the major social thinkers to discern how they answered this pressing question. Volume 1 explores three traditions: the French liberal school of political sociology, represented by Montesquieu and Tocqueville; the Comtean tradition, anticipating Durkheim in its deemphasis of the political and its elevation of social unity and consensus; and the Marxists, who posited the struggle between classes and placed their faith in historical necessity. A foreword by the eminent French philosopher Pierre Manent highlights Main Currents as a unique contribution to political philosophy as well as the history of sociological thought, while Daniel J. Mahoney and Brian C. Anderson provide an introduction situating Main Currents within the corpus of Aron's work as a whole. This work is essential reading for philosophers, historians, sociologists, and political scientists.




Sociological Theory in the Contemporary Era


Book Description

Combines the major writings of sociology's core contemporary theorists with a historical and theoretical framework for understanding these works. This text enables students to compare and contrast core concepts and ideas, stresses contemporary applications and examples, and provides a variety of visuals and pedagogical devices.




Contemporary Social and Sociological Theory


Book Description

In the Third Edition of Ken Allan's highly-praised Contemporary Social and Sociological Theory book, sociological theories and theorists are explored using a straightforward approach and conversational, jargon-free language. Filled with examples drawn from everyday life, this edition highlights diversity in contemporary society, exploring theories of race, gender, and sexuality that address some of today's most important social concerns. Through this textbook students will learn to think theoretically and apply to their own lives.




Currents of Thought in African Sociology and the Global Community


Book Description

Currents of Thought in African Sociology and the Global Community focuses on research findings further enriched in the realm of the emergent, indigenous African sociology within a global context. An authentic guide, it has potential to expose readers to the intricacy of research in its various ramifications. Its uniqueness consists in casting, in an explanatory framework, what each of the subdisciplines of sociology is all about, while simultaneously discussing the theoretical and methodological orientations in which the accompanying research findings are situated. The transition of sociology in Africa, inextricably tied in with global dimension, is its major theme. And discussion questions/exercises and essays at the end of each chapter constitute a stimulating teaching tool. Its theoretical coverage straddles a wide variety of paradigms - from structural-functional theory and conflict theory to symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, dramaturgy, exchange theory, etc. The book will be of use in courses in sociology, anthropology, research methods, global human issues, African and African-American studies, Third World societies, and criminal justice. Besides, it constitutes an experiential celebration of deivory-towerism, emphasizing the involvement of the academic citadel with the community.




Classical Sociological Theory


Book Description

This comprehensive collection of classical sociological theory is a definitive guide to the roots of sociology from its undisciplined beginnings to its current influence on contemporary sociological debate. Explores influential works of Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Mead, Simmel, Freud, Du Bois, Adorno, Marcuse, Parsons, and Merton Editorial introductions lend historical and intellectual perspective to the substantial readings Includes a new section with new readings on the immediate "pre-history" of sociological theory, including the Enlightenment and de Tocqueville Individual reading selections are updated throughout




Concise Reader in Sociological Theory


Book Description

Essential writings from classical and contemporary sociological theorists engagingly introduced and brought to life for students This Concise Reader in Sociological Theory contains excerpts from the writings of a wide range of key theorists who represent the dynamic breadth of classical and contemporary, macro- and micro-sociological theory. The selected writings elaborate on the core concepts and arguments of sociological theory, and, along with the commentary, explore topics that resonate today such as: crisis and change, institutions and networks, power and inequality, race, gender, difference, and much more. The text contains editorial introductions to each section that clearly explain the intellectual context of the theorists and their arguments and reinforce their relevance to sociological analysis and society today. The excerpts include writings from the classicists Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, W.E.B. Du Bois to the contemporary Patricia Hill Collins, Dorothy Smith, Raewyn Connell. This indispensable book: Offers a concise review of the diverse field of sociological theory Includes contributions from a wide range of noted classical and contemporary theorists Incorporates engaging empirical examples from contemporary society Demonstrates the relevance and significance of the ideas presented in the theorists’ writings Designed for undergraduate and graduate students in sociology and in social and political theory, Concise Reader in Sociological Theory is an engaging and accessible guide to the most relevant sociological theorists.




On Self and Social Organization


Book Description

This te×t presents a collection of Charles Horton Cooley's work, a contribution to the history of ideas - especially to the origin of modern sociological theory - but also to the late-1990s public debate on civil society, community, and democracy.