This book analyzes the main competing grand theories in the social sciences, including developmentalism, dependency analysis, Marxism, institutionalism, rational choice, Freudianism, environmentalism, sociobiology, neurosciences, and transitions to democracy.

This book analyzes the main competing grand theories in the social sciences, including developmentalism, dependency analysis, Marxism, institutionalism, rational choice, Freudianism, environmentalism, sociobiology, neurosciences, and transitions to democracy.

[The book presents a critique of the dominant ideologies in the major social sciences. Crucial issues for the understan- ding of society- the nature of capitalizm, the situation of the working class and the characteristics of US imperialism-are examined to develop this critique.The readings then indicate the sources of scientific alternatives to thr prevailing ideological conceptions of social theory]

This book is a story of how ideas become culture. It shows how intuited ideas and feelings come to interpret the world as to the human condition and the desirable way of responding to it. It shows how such perceptions become articulated as world-outlooks-religions, philosophies, or ideologies that can be shared by others. And finally-out of their embedded sense of the human condition and how to respond to it-these world-outlooks give their particular logic to variations in cultural development. This logic is seen in the consistency of form and function found in such universal cultural features as art, reason, education, warfare, ethics, psychology, inventiveness, government, law, industriousness, class-structure, and economics. Modify a world-outlook and-even under the same name-these cultural features will begin to change in understandable ways. This book introduces a theory making all this understandable. Using psychological dispositions in explaining individual behavior or assertions of human nature in explaining the foundations of civilizations-people have always expounded their understanding of other people's approaches to life by describing specific mentalities behind such approaches. As part of their belief/culture systems, all societies have examples of human mentalities within their myths, histories, and literature. When stripped to their essences, it turns out that the range and types of mentalities recognized are remarkably the same within all societies. What differs is which of these mentalities are allowed to grow into religions, philosophies or ideologies-interpreting the human condition and how to respond to it-and which mentalities are blocked in their expression. Within this pattern are the starting points of the agreements and disagreements that are most distinctly human-ultimately concerning what people will live or die for-or send their children to die for. Grounded at different levels of this struggle are the elements most unique to the humanities and social sciences-and the basis for an integrated understanding of their subject matters. The phenomenon of people interpreting the human condition and approaching life differently out of different mentalities has long been recognized by scholars and thinkers as a starting point for explaining variations within the belief/cultural systems of the world. Yet, the elements, connections, and processes involved have never been fully recognized or understood within a single framework of thought-that is, from an Archimedean perspective or within a single sweep of the mind. The elements, connections, and processes of this phenomenon remain only partially understood and in fragments as did the pattern of the solar system prior to Copernicus or the explanation of variation within flora and fauna prior to Darwin. By mentioning these breakthroughs in science, I am suggesting the magnitude of what has been attempted in this study-and I am inviting criticisms suitable for claims of this order. Regarding the human phenomenon that I have been describing as having been understood in imprecise and fragmented terms, I have reduced its elements to their natural essentials and shown how the interplay between them can be viewed in terms of logical outcomes rather than rough correlations. What I am offering is a comprehensive theory for understanding the emergence of-and variations within-the most important intellectual and uniquely human cultural expressions of individuals, groups, societies, and civilizations. I have shown this to be understandable within a single framework-allowing new material to be integrated with older material as it is being learned and older material, long held in isolation, to be newly discovered as connected to other knowledge. The theory should prove useful at all levels of teaching and learning as well as to those involved in understanding and implementing social decisions.

On the Boundaries focuses on the connections between international relations, comparative politics, and foreign policy. To many observers, international relations and comparative politics have recently lost focus. Both fields continually move away from foreign policy concerns. In this provocative volume, Howard J. Wiarda details where these fields have gone astray, indicates what must be done to correct their downward trajectories, and offers probing analyses of recent hot political topics that re-forge the links between international relations, comparative politics, and foreign policy.

The extent to which modern social science continues to reflect the subjective traits of authors and the contexts in which they operate, rather than the objective facts or insights they claim to develop, remains one of the most striking features of social science research and writing. Kinloch and Mohan provide a multidisciplinary and worldwide examination of the ties between the subjective traits of social scientists, the contexts in which they affect research, and the kinds of knowledge they produce. The essays fall into five general topic areas: major theoretical issues, research as ideology, the political context of ideology, major factors in the academic setting, and the relationship between personal biography and professional ideology. This book will be of greatest concern to scholars, students, and researchers involved with the sociology of knowledge, social theory and methods, comparative social science, and social problems.

This book provides complete, systematic expositions of the classical sociological thinkers, theories, and concepts--from the 18th-century Enlightenment to the 20th century. It features broad, extended, and balanced coverage of both the European theorists of Social Structure as well as the Classical American Theorists of Social Psychology. Covers Montesquieu; Rousseau; Mary Wollstonecraft; Bonald and Maistre; Saint-Simon; Auguste Comte; Alexis de Tocqueville; Harriet Martineau; Harriet Taylor and John Stuart Mill; Karl Marx; Frederick Engels; Max Weber; Gaitano Mosca; Robert Michels); Émile Durkheim; Karl Mannheim; Charles Sanders Peirce; William James; John Dewey; George Herbert Mead. For anyone interested in Classical Social Theory and Classical Principles of Social Psychology.

This book analyzes Talcott Parsons' largest-scale effort to overcome the relativism and subjectivism of the social sciences. Harold J. Bershady sets forth Parsons' version of the characteristics desirable for social knowledge, showing that Parsons deems the relativistic and subjectivistic arguments as powerful challenges to the validity of social knowledge. Bershady maintains that all Parsons' intellectual labors exhibit a deep and abiding concern for social knowledge. From his first major work in the 1930s to his later writings on social evolution, Parsons' theoretical aim has been to provide an unassailable answer to the question, "how is social knowledge possible?"Ideological criticisms of Parsons' work, Bershady argues, not only miss his awareness of ideological influences upon social thought, but also miss the logical and epistemological strands of his thinking. This book sheds light on the persistent importance of the work of a major theoretical sociologist of the twentieth century. It also brings into the open and discusses issues of deepest concern to the philosophy and methodology of all of the social sciences.

Truly interdisciplinary work between Sociology and History is are, because one discipline usually exploits the concerns or data of the other. Eric Carlton, however, has succeeded in bringing together the distinctive orientations of sociology and ancient history into a clearly written discussion of concerns crucial to both disciplines. Based on a comparative analysis or two pre-industrial civilisations, those of Ancient Egypt and Classical Athens, the study is primarily concerned with three issues. The first is the relationship between belief and action: does belief (intellectualised as ideology) affect or determine social behaviour? Second, the author examines the ways in which belief contributes to stability and ‘good order’ in society, and asks to what extent such factors as social status and social change are related to institutionalised mechanisms of social control. Finally, he indicates possible sociological frameworks or models which are ideological rather than stratificatory, whereby complex pre-industrial systems might be analysed. By analysing the societies of Ancient Egypt and Classical Athens in institutional terms, Eric Carlton examines the potency and pervasiveness of the ideological factor and shows that it is a persistent and determinative feature of this type of society.

This essential new textbook guides readers through the social aspects and sociologically informed approaches to the study of translation. Sergey Tyulenev surveys implicitly and explicitly sociological approaches to the study of translation, drawing on the most important and influential works both within translation studies and in sociology, as well as recent developments in the field. In addition to the theoretical grounding provided, the book explains in detail the methodology of studying translation from a sociological point of view. Translation and Society discusses why translation should be studied sociologically, reinforces the foundation of the sociologically informed translation research already in existence in the field and outlines possible new directions for the future. Throughout the book there are many examples and case studies and each chapter includes thought-provoking discussion points, possible assignments, and suggestions for further reading. This is an invaluable textbook for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Translation Studies.