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In a provocative gesture author Paulo Coelho lets his novel’s ten? protagonists interpret the intriguing, elusive main character, Athena or the witch of Portobello, as the principle narrator, 44-year-old journalist Henry Ryan (who is not one) provides ‘raw transcripts” from interviews he collected. I keep thinking of Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an [...]
Filed under: postmodernity | Tagged: nonlinear, nonlinearity, Paulo Coelho | 1 Comment »
Luhmann argued that the role of sociology was to develop a theory that would provide a better and more complex understanding of the world. This could be done by developing a description and analysis of modern society through observation of society in its minute details. However, in its role as a science, sociology should not try to provide recipes to improve the world. The functional differentiation between sociology and politics should be respected. In this way ethics should not determine sociological theory rather ethics depends on sociological theory.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: complexity with complexity, cybernetics, debates in sociology (1995-2000), ethics, Fuchs, grand sociological theory, Husserl's phenomenology, Luhmann vs Habermas (1971), Maturana, Niklas Luhmann, precise sociological profiles, sociological theory, sociology and ethics, systems science in sociology, systems theory, tools of legal theory, Varela | 1 Comment »
Current trends in many academic and cultural institutions’ policies are strongly influenced by business models of profitability. This could prove detrimental to issues of identity and representation and to an adequate reflection of the complexities of society and culture. Huber’s uncritical positivism and objectivism reflects sociology divorced from its implications. Huber grants the safe acceptable forms of knowledge a privileged status. She concludes her paper with a call to sociologists to produce “solid facts” about the way societal organizations function and change in order to clarify the the problems experienced by individuals and groups. Giving it a comparative advantage, sociology supplies the knowledge needed to run welfare states. Sociology needs practical problems that will stimulate pressure for action, attract resources and test theories. The data produced by sociologists should be generated through the sharpest theoretical and methodological tools, while maintaining historic continuity (Huber 1995:203). Joan Huber is more concerned about the question “What do we do as sociologists, that gives us the right to make a claim for legitimacy as a scientific discipline ?” My question, “Who are we as sociologists?” should be at least recognised and investigated before we just “get to work” and produce these “solid facts about the way societal organizations function and change in order to clarify the experistates, to stimulate pressure for action, attract resources and test theories (Huber 1995:213-4).”
Filed under: Sociologists, sociology | Tagged: "get busy", American Sociological Association, bureaucratic tendencies, business models of profitability, crisis within sociology, Eurocentric, Gulbenkian, iron cage of the future, issues of representation and identity, leftist radicalism, legitimized ability, Max Weber, objective truth, parochial, postmodern, rationalist philosophy, relativism, replicable research, Richard Rorty, sociologists as civil servants, student activists, uncritical positivism, welfare states, Western European civilization | 1 Comment »
