Perspectivism

Kenneth Smith is the author of Emile Durkheim and the Collective Consciousness of Society: A Study in Criminology (2014) and Karl Marx's Capital: A Guide to Volumes I–III (second edition, 2021). He was formerly Professor of Sociology at Regent’s University, London and Reader in Criminology and Sociology at Buckinghamshire New University, UK.

‘This is an ambitious book. Its primary purpose is to show that ‘perspectivism’ – a perspectival view of the world – is the most effective and productive approach for use in the social sciences. It argues that perspectivism implies looking at questions from as many different perspectives as possible and, used in the proper way, this approach will enable the social sciences to escape its present stasis and begin to make progress, not unlike the natural sciences. Employed as the book suggests, it will not only end the seemingly interminable disputes about terminology, but also resolve core problems concerning method, truth and objectivity.’ - Trevor Hussey, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Buckinghamshire New University, UK‘Ken Smith provides a comprehensive and impassioned discussion of the idea of perspectivism in social thought. Tracing the development of the idea through Nietzsche, Mannheim, Weber, and Peirce, he shows how objects of sociological knowledge can be seen as related to the point of view of the observer and yet have an objectivity that warrants us to talk about the ‘truth’ of sociological ideas. This arises from the recognition of a plurality of legitimate perspectives on an externally real world that provides the basis for assessing empirical validity. Perspectivism, properly understood, leads not to relativism but to the possibility for advances in sociological understanding that Smith sketches through considerations on power, equality, crime, and sexual difference.’ – John Scott, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Plymouth, UK

• Introduction Part 1: Theoretical Considerations: Concept of Perspectivism 1. Nietzsche and the origins of Perspectivism 2. Karl Mannheim and the concept of Perspectivism 3. Max Weber’s concept of Objectivity in the Social Sciences 4. Pragmatism and Perspectivism Part 2: Application of the Concept of Perspectivism to a Number of Different Concepts in the Social Sciences 5. Power as a Mutually Contested Concept 6. The Concept of Equality Reconsidered 7. A Three / Four Dimensional Concept of Crime 8. The Social Construction of Sexual Difference General Conclusion