Sociology Without an Alibi. Towards Ontology, Pluralism, and Engagement

Abstract

The author of the article describes several of the main tendencies in contemporary sociological theory, arguing that it abandons the convenient assumptions that create the impression of its disputes being purely methodological and its language neutral. For several decades, we have been witnessing major theoretical reorientations that indicate a retreat from four justifications characterizing classical theory, which simplified reality and made the work of theorists easier. The first was the alibi of neutrality, understood as the fiction of impartiality. The second was the alibi of reductionism, namely the promise that the complexity of the social world could be reduced to a single principle (interest, power, class, or semantic code). The third was the alibi of teleology–the belief that society can be treated as a whole whose functioning possesses an overarching purpose. The fourth was the alibi of epistemological solipsism, that is, the assumption that everything is resolved at the level of perspective, discourse, and narrative. Contemporary theoretical reflection shatters all four of these beliefs by revealing that theorists are inevitably shaped by values, and that the selectivity of reduction falsifies the picture of society, the description of which requires theoretical pluralism. Modern theory introduces explanations in terms of mechanisms where holism once reigned. Finally, the center of gravity of the debate is shifting from epistemology toward social ontology, from questions about constructions and imaginaries to questions about the nature of social objects; for example, the relationship between physical entities and “observational loops”.