1st Edition

The Nature and Types of Sociological Theory

By Don Martindale Copyright 1998
    572 Pages
    by Routledge

    572 Pages
    by Routledge

    First Published in 1998. This is Volume XI of twenty-two in a series on Social Theory and Methodology. Notions are widespread that sociological theory is either an industrious activity on the drawing boards of the architects of fantasy or a branch of esoterics operating in a shadowy realm of semi-darkness. The present study holds neither of these conceptions of sociological. The present study’s function is to illuminate the difference between one theory and another. The power and reliability of a theory are not always evident all at once. A theory may have a power to explain what was not originally anticipated; it may also disclose the existence of problems it cannot explain.

    Part 1 Sociology and the Sciences; Chapter 1 The Road to Sociology; Chapter 2 The Birth of the Social Sciences; Part 2 Positivistic Organicism; Chapter 3 The Social and Philosophical Origins of Positivistic Organicism; Chapter 4 The Classical Period of Positivistic Organicism; Chapter 5 The Transformation and Eventual Disintegration of Positivistic Organicism; Part 3 Conflict Theory: The Paradox of Maturity; Chapter 6 The Foundations of Conflict Theory; Chapter 7 Major Conflict Ideologies of the Nineteenth Century; Chapter 8 Sociological Conflict Theories; Part 4 The Formal School of Sociological Theory; Chapter 9 The Philosophical Foundations of Sociological Formalism; Chapter 10 The Neo-Kantian Branch of Sociological Formalism; Chapter 11 The Phenomenological Branch of Sociological Formalism; Part 5 Social Behaviorism; Chapter 12 The Conceptual Foundations of Social Behaviorism; Chapter 13 The Pluralistic Behavioral Branch of Social Behaviorism; Chapter 14 Symbolic Interactionism; Chapter 15 The Social-Action Branch of Social Behaviorism; Chapter 16 Further Developments in Social-Action Theory; Part 6 Sociological Functional; Chapter 17 The Nature and Origins of Sociological Functionalism; Chapter 18 Macro-Functionalism in Contemporary Sociology; Chapter 19 Micro-Functionalism: Group Dynamics; Part 7 Conclusion; Chapter 20 Toward Theoretical Integration;

    Biography

    Don Martindale