On Understanding a Sociological Classic

Jones, Robert Alun

doi:10.1086/226548

Cited by 80 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…One is the presentist way of interpreting them with a view of applying their ideas to today's social relations that are different from those that the classic authors themselves had in mind (Seidman, 1985). The other way is historicist, the opposite way in a sense, that mandates the reading of classics in their own context and without adding any interpretive language at all that was not used by the classics themselves (Jones, 1977). There is also a phenomenological way suggested for reading the meanings of historic texts as lived ones, unmediated symbolically by speech.…”

Section: De-objectifying Understanding and Re-objectifying Conceptualmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sociological Deconstruction and Reconstruction: Mediation of Opposites by Interpenetration

Smikun¹

2014

Current Perspectives in Social Theory

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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. ABSTRACTPurpose À The paper argues for a comprehensive method of sociological deconstruction and reconstruction that includes: (i) de-subjectifying interpretation, (ii) re-subjectifying explanation, (iii) de-objectifying understanding, and (iv) re-objectifying conceptualization.

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Section: De-objectifying Understanding and Re-objectifying Conceptualmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sociological Deconstruction and Reconstruction: Mediation of Opposites by Interpenetration

Smikun¹

2014

Current Perspectives in Social Theory

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“…Rather than the context being the determinant of the text, it becomes the framework for deciding the possibilities of what an author intended to communicate at that particular point (Jones, 1977). 3 Nevertheless, in many ways the Skinnerian approach to reading historical texts reproduces the distinction Merton made between 'systematics' and 'history'.…”

Section: Reading the Classic Textmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Author, the Text and the Canon

How

2007

Journal of Classical Sociology

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The role of the classic text in the social sciences has come under fire in recent years. The authority of classics has been challenged on the grounds that they conceal a variety of ideological assumptions, tensions and discontinuities as well as being far removed from our experience of contemporary life. Drawing on Gadamer’s account of the ‘classical’ in Truth and Method, the article contests these views, arguing that classic texts are a source of intellectual vitality and should not be jettisoned. Following the introduction the article divides into two main sections. The first deals with the issue of authorship, arguing that while ‘names’ remain intrinsic to sociology, attention should remain with the text. The second employs Gadamer’s ideas to show why classic texts persist. The claim that subsequent historical horizons elicit from the text truths that continue to resonate is illustrated with Weber’s Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

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“…Furthermore, and building on this very same assumption, a number of scholars have already worked along similar lines. Robert Alun Jones has devoted the last two decades of his career to the study of Durkheim's theory of religion following Skinner's method (see Jones, 1977Jones, , 1986Jones, , 1997, Charles Camic has studied Parsons's early work, 5 and Fine and Kleinman (1992), Andrew Feffer (1990, and Gary Alan Cook (1993) proposed analogous perspectives for the study of Mead's ideas. One can thus argue that, in simplified terms, our understanding of the classics has become the subject of a controversy between two major poles, usually designated as "historicist/contextualist" and "presentist/textualist."…”

Section: Sociology and The History Of Ideasmentioning

confidence: 99%

G. H. Mead in the history of sociological ideas

Silva

2005

J History Behavioral Science

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My aim is to discuss the history of the reception of George Herbert Mead's ideas in sociology. After discussing the methodological debate between presentism and historicism, I address the interpretations of those responsible for Mead's inclusion in the sociological canon: Herbert Blumer, Jürgen Habermas, and Hans Joas. In the concluding section, I assess these reconstructions of Mead's thought and suggest an alternative more consistent with my initial methodological remarks. In particular, I advocate a reconstruction of Mead's ideas that apprehends simultaneously its evolution over time and its thematic breadth. Such a historically minded reconstruction can be not only a useful corrective to possible anachronisms incurred by contemporary social theorists, but also a fruitful resource for their theory-building endeavors. Only then can meaningful and enriching dialogue with Mead begin.

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On Understanding a Sociological Classic

Cited by 80 publications

References 54 publications

Sociological Deconstruction and Reconstruction: Mediation of Opposites by Interpenetration

Sociological Deconstruction and Reconstruction: Mediation of Opposites by Interpenetration

The Author, the Text and the Canon

G. H. Mead in the history of sociological ideas

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