That's Classic! A Gadamerian Defence of the Classic Text in Sociology

Abstract

Many in sociology believe the discipline to be ill served by its classic authors, and that there are now good strategic and cognitive reasons to dispense with the canon. To some, in this more heterogeneous, postmodern world, Marx, Weber and Durkheim have outlived their usefulness and inhibit rather than encourage the growth of sociology. Using Gadamer's hermeneutics as a resource this paper challenges such claims, arguing instead that classic texts are an important and valid product of the human sciences. Classic texts illuminate the real nature of the present by showing how much it still shares with the past. To jettison classic texts would not democratise, but impoverish the discipline.

Slouching towards Babel

“…Drawing, as Alan How (1995How ( , 1998 has done over recent years, on the importance of Gadamer's notion of the tradition we can move to a different level of theorizing which has to do with the necessity of our talking to each other and with our ability to understand each other's positions. In contrast to Callinicos, he seems more aware of the increasing pace of social change in recent decades and does not conclude -as does Callinicos -by emphasizing stabilities.…”

“…I think that first there could be a stronger defence of the importance of the classics. Drawing, as Alan How (1995How ( , 1998 has done over recent years, on the importance of Gadamer's notion of the tradition we can move to a different level of theorizing which has to do with the necessity of our talking to each other and with our ability to understand each other's positions. This will become important when this review moves on to Elliott's books, which seem to indicate that we might be losing the ability to talk and think across traditions.…”