By Steven Seidman
Within the 5th variation Contested wisdom, social theorist Steven Seidman provides the newest subject matters in social idea and addresses the present shift of ’universalist theorists’ to networks of clustered debates. •Responds to present matters, debates, and new social pursuits •Reviews sociological conception from a modern point of view •Reveals how the common theorist and the period of rival faculties has been changed through networks of clustered debates which are quite ’autonomous’ and interdisciplinary •Features updates and in-depth discussions of the latest clustered debates in social theory—intimacy, postcolonial nationalism, and the idea that of ’the different’ •Challenges social scientists to resume their dedication to the real ethical and political function social wisdom performs in public lifestyles •Accompanied through a significant other web site for college students at www.wiley.com/go/seidman that includes bankruptcy outlines and beneficial internet hyperlinks; an teacher website is also accessed which good points password-protected PowerPoint educating slides
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Extra resources for Contested Knowledge: Social Theory Today
Example text
7 Auguste Comte, The Course of Positive Philosophy, 3 vols. (London: George Bell and Sons, 1876 [1830–42]); System of Positive Polity, 4 vols. (New York: Burt Franklin, 1875 [1851–4]). indd 21 5/31/2012 10:49:44 PM 2 The Revolutionary Theory of Karl Marx Marx never met Comte. His few belittling comments on his somewhat older contemporary suggest that he thought of Comte as a bit of a crank. In truth, Marx himself was reportedly quite quarrelsome and irascible, especially with intellectual competitors.
Marx proposed what was to become a controversial tenet of his thought: Individuals do not act on ideas primarily because they are true but on the basis of their selfinterest. Ideas may shape our actions, but our social interests determine which ideas we adopt. Moreover, our social interests are determined by our social position, in particular, our class status. It follows that, if ideas are rooted in class structure, only by changing this social condition can there be cultural change. Criticizing culture – the realm of ideas, values, meanings – is important, but one must also criticize the social conditions that produce and sustain this culture.
Driving social development is the evolution of the human mind. Changes in social and political institutions are correlated with cultural evolution. Thus, the theological stage is dominated by priests and military institutions. In the metaphysical stage, which corresponds roughly to the early modern period (1300–1700), it is lawyers and clergy who govern society. Finally, the positive stage, an era just coming into view in European societies, will witness the growing social authority of industrialists and scientists.