Social Theory: A Historical Introduction

Abstract

* Introduction *1. The Enlightenment *1. 1 Prehistory *1. 2 The concept of modernity *1. 3 A moral science *1. 4 The development of social theory *1. 5 Inner strains *2. Hegel *2. 1 Reconciling modernity *2. 2 The labour of the negative *2. 3 The debate over modernity *3. Liberals and Reactionaries *3. 1 Post-revolutionary debates *3. 2 Agonistic liberalism: Tocqueville and Mill *3. 3 Providence and race: Maistre and Gobineau *4. Marx *4. 1 The adventures of the dialectic *4. 2 History and capitalism *4. 3 Class struggle and revolution *5. Life and Power *5. 1 Evolution before and after Darwin *5. 2 Two evolutionists: Spencer and Kautsky *5. 3 Nature as the will to power: Nietzsche *6. Durkheim *6. 1 Social evolution and scientific objectivity *6. 2 Society as a moral reality *6. 3 Meaning and belief *7. Weber *7. 1 Prussian agriculture and the German state *7. 2 Science and the warring gods *7. 3 History and rationalization *7. 4 Liberal imperialism and democratic politics *8. The Illusions of Progress *8. 1 The strange death of liberal Europe *8. 2 Objectivity and estrangement: Simmel *8. 3 The self dissected: Freud *8. 4 Memories of underdevelopment: Russian intellectuals and capitalism *9. Revolution and Counter-Revolution *9. 1 Hegelian Marxism: Lukacs and Gramsci *9. 2 Heidegger and the conservative revolution *10. The Golden Age *10. 1 Theories of capitalism: Keynes and Hayek *10. 2 Functionalist sociology: Talcott Parsons *10. 3 Despairing critique: the Frankfurt school *11. Crack-Up? *11. 1 The 1960s and after *11. 2 Structure and subject: Levi-Strauss and Althusser *11. 3 Nietzsche's revenge: Foucault and poststructuralism *11. 4 Carrying on the tradition: Habermas and Bourdieu *12. Debating modernity and postmodernity *12. 1 Postmodernity? *12. 2 Modernity and capitalism *12. 3 Reason and nature *12. 4 Theory and practice *12. 5 Universal and particular *12. 6 Beyond capitalism? *13. Changing the subject: globalization, capitalism, and imperialism *13. 1 Much ado about globalization *13. 2 The social as networks ... or as nothing *13. 3 Back to capitalism - and imperialism? *13. 4 The debate resumed * Further Reading * Index

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