On the strained relationship between philosophy and sociology

Franco Ferrarotti

Academicus International Scientific Journal, 2014, issue 10, 14-19

Abstract: The main contention of this article is the following: sociology, like all the modern sciences, was born out of philosophy. But, ungratefully enough and perhaps because of a deepseated inferiority complex vis-�-vis the older well established sciences, sociology tends to forget or at least to blurr its philosophical foundation. Thus it turns out to be �social engineering�. The sociologist becomes a technical expert, rather indifferent to a synoptic or global view of society, and ready to offer his or her services to the best offer in the open market. Social theory is reduced to �model building� according to the changing needs of the economic agencies, from government bodies to private entrepreneurs. Contrary to social theory, a model is a purely intellectual arbitrary construct and, although conditioned by a basic congruity among its different parts, it is not historically rooted but essentially a �fictio mentis�. In this way sociology loses inevitably its problem awareness and it runs the risk of �quantifying the qualitative�, that is to say to accumulate bits of knowledge without knowing for what purpose.

Keywords: Philosophical foundation; Problem awareness; A-historical Model; Social Engineering (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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