The epistemological, theoretical and methodological difficulties which were identified and debated by Max Weber and Emile Durkheim have not been and cannot be easily resolved. Because there is no obvious theory cumulation or resolution of disputes, one can still learn from and value the classical accounts of sociological theory. Analytical difficulties and debates in sociology are not easily resolved, because the issues themselves remain essentially contested. In part, I support existing defences of the classics which suggest that the nature of dispute and development in sociological theory is very different from the pattern of intellectual development in the natural sciences. Despite these difficulties, a hasty and ill-considered rejection of classical sociology is to be avoided for reasons which I try to establish in this study of early sociological theory. Finally, the construction of a tradition within the discipline of sociology must be somewhat artificial given the fact that most of the principal contributions came from people who would not have self-consciously regarded themselves as sociologists. We know that women in sociology have found it difficult to find a voice and the idea of a definite founding event in the construction of a separate discipline of sociology is controversial. Critics also feel uncomfortable with the sociological canon of ‘founding fathers’. Canonical works in literature have been challenged by a process of decolonization which has rejected the hegemony of western literature. It is also claimed that the canon which constitutes classical sociology represents a unified view of sociology which can no longer be sustained in our academic world which is fragmented, diverse and contested. For example, the computer on which this manuscript was written would have been unimaginable to Max Weber whose cramped but energetic handwriting has given translators so much difficulty. It is sometimes argued that the world we live in is so manifestly different from the social context within which the classics of sociology were written that the view of social life of early sociologists can have little relevance to us. Preface: The Sociological Classics There is in contemporary social theory a degree of hostility to the study of the sociological classics. Part II The Early Sociology of Institutionsġ0 The Sociology and Anthropology of Religionġ2 The Sociology of Social Stratificationġ3 The Sociology and Anthropology of the Familyġ4 The Sociology of Generations (with Ron Eyerman)ġ6 Conclusion: Coherence and Rupture in the Discipline of Sociology Part I Classical Theory 1 The Central Themes of Sociology: An introductionĢ Max Weber’s Reception into Classical Sociologyħ Karl Mannheim and the Sociology of CultureĨ Georg Simmel and the Sociology of Money Printed in Great Britain by Cromwell Press Ltd, Trowbridge, Wiltshire.Ĭontents Preface: The Sociological Classics Typeset by SIVA Math Setters, Chennai, India.
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