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Alex Law - Roots of Sociology, Inbunden

Inbunden, Engelska, 2026

Roots of Sociology

Scottish Enlightenment and the Civilising Process

Av Alex Law

Del i serien Classical and Contemporary Social Theory

2497 kr

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Beskrivning
This book argues that of today’s ‘core’ social scientific disciplines, it is sociology that has inherited the capacious ambitions of the Scottish Enlightenment. Departing from the practice of classifying thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment using modern disciplinary categories that they themselves would not have recognised – categories that obscure the fact that these figures were engaged in what they considered to be a wide-ranging, historical science of society – it argues that sociology continues to explore many of the central themes in their work: historical processes, relations of power, societal differentiation and integration, morality, jurisprudence, violence, civil society and the state, as well as social divisions of class, gender, race and nation that are often overlooked in characterisations of ‘Enlightenment reason’.A critical, qualified introduction to the precocious effort of the Scottish Enlightenment to create a theory of ‘the civilising process’, The Roots of Sociology assesses the contribution and continuing relevance of the enlightened intellectuals to sociology as an intergenerational process. As such, it will appeal to scholars and students of sociology, social theory and intellectual history.
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Alex Law is Professor of Sociology at Abertay University, UK. He is co-editor of The Anthem Companion to Norbert Elias and Sociological Amnesia.

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'Intellectually, sociology has lost its way. In this scholarly book, Alex Law charts how it might regain its bearings. He does so by making a thorough re-evaluation of the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment, pointing the way forward to a sociology relevant to a broader understanding of the structure of processes in the turmoil we are living through – processes, as Norbert Elias put it, "From plans arising, yet unplanned / By purpose moved, yet purposeless".'Professor Stephen Mennell, University College Dublin, Ireland.'This book brilliantly argues the case for interpreting the intellectual corpus of the Scottish Enlightenment—most notably, Adam Ferguson, David Hume, John Millar and Adam Smith—as the collective precursors of classical sociology. Offering an abundance of historical detail, lucid analysis of Enlightenment works and a profoundly sociological approach to their thought, this is a particularly original contribution to the sociology of knowledge that combines the conceptual frameworks of both Norbert Elias and Pierre Bourdieu. Law undertakes a theoretically innovative departure into the lost intellectual microcosms of the last half of the 18th Century, illuminating both the Enlightenment’s achievements and, crucially, their social conditions of formation.'Professor Bridget Fowler, University of Glasgow, UK.'Law’s book is one in a line of rehabilitation studies, to reclaim our ancestors as the originators of sociology as the science of society.'Professor David McCrone, University of Edinburgh, UK.'The book is an exemplary case study in the larger question of exactly how a field of knowledge evolves and develops over time, anchored in but also challenging surrounding social, political and economic conditions, without reversion to a linear genealogy of great thinkers and great books. [...] Reading it, you will reflect on all of its themes and topics in new and intellectually stimulating ways, armed with a genuinely sociological understanding of the sociological endeavour.'Emeritus Professor Robert van Krieken, University of Sydney, Australia.

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