Abstract

In becoming an indispensable advisory branch of the administered society of the post-World War II era, sociology prospered beyond its wildest dreams. By providing the bureaucracy with that readily processable information without which social control becomes chaotic and counterproductive, objectivistic social science compensated for its paucity of significant theoretical accomplishments through the success and prestige that befell those who could show their usefulness in the marketplace. But what appeared as the long-awaited take-off of sociology as a rigorous objectivistic science soon showed itself to be a round-trip flight of the proverbial owl of Minerva. The hour of its greatest success coincided with the realization of its incipient obsolescence.