What is Social Theory?: The Philosophical Debates

In this wide ranging collection of original essays, the intersection of philosophy and social theory is examined from a variety of viewpoints, some from the interpretative side of the discipline, and others from within the camp of formal and mathematical modeling. Leading practitioners from both of these major theoretical factions give voice to their plans for enlarging the scope of social theory, and maintaining its vitality, into the next century. They seek to help alleviate some of the crises that have recently afflicted sociology as it has struggled to accommodate postmodernism, feminism, moral philosophy, and other challengers to its classical analytic tradition.With chapters by Peter Blau and Stanley Lieberson, the old guard is well represented, as are newer interests concerning Nietzsche, the sociology of knowledge and of science, feminist phenomenology, neo-Kantian ethical theory, formal models of power and social action, to name a few. By including chapters by some of the best representatives from various contemporary modes of theorizing, the book fills a unique role as a guide to philosophically informed social thought as it is practised today.