Three questions for a big book: Collins's the sociology of philosophies
Sociological Theory 19 (1):86-91 (2001)
| Abstract | This essay first describes some of the impressive theoretical and empirical contributions of The Sociology of Philosophies, namely, to cultural sociology. Second, it offers a criticism of Collins's argument by focusing on the conceptions of the self it posits; its lack of specificity concerning the relationship between intellectual networks and imagined communities of scholars; and its neglect of how the law of small numbers is affected by the size of a field. Against a priori definitions of the selves of intellectuals posited by Collins, I advocate approaching the diversity of their selves as an empirical issue. Against Collins's overemphasis on personal network centrality in the making of philosophical greatness, I propose that the transcendent values of intellectual work are insufficient but nonetheless necessary conditions for philosophical greatness | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,875 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesH. M. Collins (2002). The Experimenter's Regress as Philosophical Sociology. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 33 (1):149-156.
Jonathan S. Marko (2010). Revisiting the Question. Philosophy and Theology 22 (1/2):77-104.
H. M. Collins (1985/1992). Changing Order: Replication and Induction in Scientific Practice. University of Chicago Press.
Steve Fuller (2000). In Search of an Alternative Sociology of Philosophy: Reinstating the Primacy of Value Theory in Light of Randall Collins's "Reflexivity and Embeddedness in the History of Ethical Philosophies". Philosophy of the Social Sciences 30 (2):246-256.
John A. Hall (2000). An American Portrait: Critical Reflections on Randall Collins's the Sociology of Philosophies. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 30 (2):202-206.
I. C. Jarvie (2000). The Philosophical Deficit in Randall Collins's the Sociology of Philosophies. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 30 (2).
Randall Collins (2000). The Sociology of Philosophies: A Précis. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 30 (2):157-201.
Douglas Goodman (2001). What Collins's the Sociology of Philosophies Says About Sociological Theory. Sociological Theory 19 (1):92-101.
Randall Collins (1998). The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads2 ( #234,778 of 556,895 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #64,931 of 556,895 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
