“…There is, in fact, a tension between disciplinary division and the dynamic, reflexive holism emphasized in dialectical historical analysis. Compartmentalization of knowledge of the human condition into disciplines always risks what Bertell Ollman () has aptly called the Humpty‐Dumpty problem: After the fall, it was not only extremely difficult to put the pieces of poor Humpty together again but even to see where they fit, This is what happens whenever the pieces of our everyday experience are taken as existing separate from their spatial and historical contexts, whenever the part is given an ontological status independent of the whole. (P 340)…”
Section: The Formation Of Disciplinementioning
confidence: 99%
“…There is, in fact, a tension between disciplinary division and the dynamic, reflexive holism emphasized in dialectical historical analysis. Compartmentalization of knowledge of the human condition into disciplines always risks what Bertell Ollman (1998) has aptly called the Humpty-Dumpty problem:…”
Cet article propose une reconceptualisation de la discipline sociologique ainsi que de sa place dans le monde actuel. Nous remettrons tout d'abord en question l'idée même que la sociologie puisse être considérée en tant que discipline académique dans le sens habituel du terme, tout comme le fait qu'il soit possible de distinguer, à la manière des sciences de la nature, autant de disciplines distinctes au sein du champ des sciences sociales. Au contraire, nous defendrons la thèse selon laquelle la sociologie et ses disciplines connexes furent plutôt constitueés en tant que champs sociaux à travers un processus historique particulier. Cette analyse nous permettra de réaffirmer la position centrale qu'occupe la sociologie dans le champ de la recherche sociale, de par les liens étroits qu'elle entretient avec les autres disciplines qui constituent ce champ, ainsi que par sa nature interdisciplinaire et critique. Cette reconceptualisation implique qu'une ontologie sociale claire fondée sur une méthodologie cohérente, en l'occurence le réalisme critique, puisse remédier aux tendences centrifuges propre à la discipline, en renforçant sa capacité à analyser les problèmes sociaux, et donc à contribuer à défendre et à élargir les pratiques démocratiques au fondement d'un avenir meilleur.
This article proposes a re‐visioning of sociology and of its relationship to the late‐modern world it inhabits. I first problematize the claim that sociology is a discipline in any ordinary sense of the term, indeed, that social science can be reasonably cleaved into “disciplines” on the model of natural science. I then explore the thesis that sociology and kindred pursuits have been constituted as fields. Finally, I argue that among the fields of social scientific inquiry, the sociological terrain is of great import, as a nexus whose permeability, dense connectivity to other fields and critical transdisciplinarity are prime assets. By implication, the remedy for centrifugal tendencies that worry some sociologists is greater clarity on matters of social ontology and, on that basis, a coherent methodology (critical realism) that can strengthen sociology's capacity to understand our troubled world and to defend and enrich democratic practices that may portend a better future.
“…There is, in fact, a tension between disciplinary division and the dynamic, reflexive holism emphasized in dialectical historical analysis. Compartmentalization of knowledge of the human condition into disciplines always risks what Bertell Ollman () has aptly called the Humpty‐Dumpty problem: After the fall, it was not only extremely difficult to put the pieces of poor Humpty together again but even to see where they fit, This is what happens whenever the pieces of our everyday experience are taken as existing separate from their spatial and historical contexts, whenever the part is given an ontological status independent of the whole. (P 340)…”
Section: The Formation Of Disciplinementioning
confidence: 99%
“…There is, in fact, a tension between disciplinary division and the dynamic, reflexive holism emphasized in dialectical historical analysis. Compartmentalization of knowledge of the human condition into disciplines always risks what Bertell Ollman (1998) has aptly called the Humpty-Dumpty problem:…”
Cet article propose une reconceptualisation de la discipline sociologique ainsi que de sa place dans le monde actuel. Nous remettrons tout d'abord en question l'idée même que la sociologie puisse être considérée en tant que discipline académique dans le sens habituel du terme, tout comme le fait qu'il soit possible de distinguer, à la manière des sciences de la nature, autant de disciplines distinctes au sein du champ des sciences sociales. Au contraire, nous defendrons la thèse selon laquelle la sociologie et ses disciplines connexes furent plutôt constitueés en tant que champs sociaux à travers un processus historique particulier. Cette analyse nous permettra de réaffirmer la position centrale qu'occupe la sociologie dans le champ de la recherche sociale, de par les liens étroits qu'elle entretient avec les autres disciplines qui constituent ce champ, ainsi que par sa nature interdisciplinaire et critique. Cette reconceptualisation implique qu'une ontologie sociale claire fondée sur une méthodologie cohérente, en l'occurence le réalisme critique, puisse remédier aux tendences centrifuges propre à la discipline, en renforçant sa capacité à analyser les problèmes sociaux, et donc à contribuer à défendre et à élargir les pratiques démocratiques au fondement d'un avenir meilleur.
This article proposes a re‐visioning of sociology and of its relationship to the late‐modern world it inhabits. I first problematize the claim that sociology is a discipline in any ordinary sense of the term, indeed, that social science can be reasonably cleaved into “disciplines” on the model of natural science. I then explore the thesis that sociology and kindred pursuits have been constituted as fields. Finally, I argue that among the fields of social scientific inquiry, the sociological terrain is of great import, as a nexus whose permeability, dense connectivity to other fields and critical transdisciplinarity are prime assets. By implication, the remedy for centrifugal tendencies that worry some sociologists is greater clarity on matters of social ontology and, on that basis, a coherent methodology (critical realism) that can strengthen sociology's capacity to understand our troubled world and to defend and enrich democratic practices that may portend a better future.
“…(Marx, 1844/1963 Indeed, in any reading of Marx it is imperative to understand how this deeper sense of self-creation is being appealed to simultaneously in his analysis of capitalism and its substantive effects upon human possibility or 'becoming' (Arthur, 1986(Arthur, , 2004Ollman, 1976Ollman, , 1993Ollman, , 1998Rubinstein, 1981;Sayers, 1998Sayers, , 2003. 'Labour' does not refer simply to the toil involved in man's productive engagement with the environment.…”
Section: Marx's Onto-formative View Of Human Naturementioning
“…What we constantly witness within Marx's work is thus a continuation of the challenge that Hegel initiated—a challenge against the basic units constitutive of thought, inquiry and analysis and how these operated to represent the world normatively in his own time. As Ollman has shown so well in his extensive investigations into Marx's use of the dialectic (1976, 1993, 1998), Marx's words must be understood as ‘place‐holders’ or ‘markers’ that signify the presence of this new historical‐dialectical orientation 4 . This is the reason why, Ollman explains, Vilfredo Pareto once characterized Marx's words as functioning ‘like bats’; that is, in one instance one might see a bird, yet in another, a mouse (Ollman 1976, p. 3).…”
Section: Marx's Onto‐formative View Of Human Naturementioning
The specific nuances of what Gramsci names 'the new dialectic' are explored in this paper. The dialectic was Marx's specific 'mode of thought' or 'method of logic' as it has been variously called, by which he analyzed the world and man's relationship to that world. As well as constituting a theory of knowledge (epistemology), what arises out of the dialectic is also an ontology or portrait of humankind that is based on the complete historicization of humanity; its 'absolute "historicism" ' or 'the absolute secularisation and earthliness of thought', as Gramsci worded it (Gramsci, 1971, p. 465). Embracing a fully secular and historical view of humanity, it provides a vantage point that allows the multiple and complex effects of our own conceptual heritage to be interrogated in relation to our developing 'nature' or 'being'. The argument presented in this paper is that the legacy of both Hegel and Marx is manifest in the depth of Gramsci's comprehension of what he termed the 'educative-formative' problem of hegemony. It is precisely the legacy of this Hegelian-Marxist radical philosophical critique that is signified in his continuing commitment to the 'philosophy of praxis' and the historicaldialectical principles that underpin this worldview.
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