Edward Shils as Stranger, Social Thought as Vocation

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 14-18
Author(s):  
Peter C. Blum ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Thought ◽  
Georg Simmel ◽  
American Sociology ◽  
Contemporary Sociology ◽  
Edward Shils ◽  
Extended Review

This essay is a response to Struan Jacobs, “Recovering the Thought of Edward Shils,” which is an extended review of Adair-Toteff and Turner’s The Calling of Social Thought. It considers Edward Shils as a “stranger,” in the sense defined by Georg Simmel, relative to contemporary sociology. Christian Smith’s claim that American sociology is implicitly pursuing a “sacred project” is invoked, in contrast with Shils’ vision for consensual sociology. The expansion by CST to “Social Thought” as a calling (vocation), and its ties to science as understood by Polanyi, are strongly affirmed.

Recovering the Thought of Edward Shils

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 4-13
Author(s):  
Struan Jacobs ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Thought ◽  
Social Theorist ◽  
Edward Shils ◽  
Extended Review

This article provides an extended review of The Calling of Social Thought, a collection of essays about the thought of social theorist Edward Shils. The article includes preliminary observations about Shils’ life and work, brief summaries of the essays included in the collection, and several suggestions aimed at encouraging additional study of Shils’ writings.

The sociologist as human scientist: the meaning of Shils

2019 ◽  
pp. 47-60
Author(s):  
Thomas Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
University Of Chicago ◽  
Comprehensive Understanding ◽  
Contemporary Sociology ◽  
Scientific Approach ◽  
Edward Shils ◽  
The University ◽  
Human Scientist ◽  
Contemporary Social Theory

The writings of Edward Shils have been widely neglected in contemporary sociology. One major reason for this neglect is due to the contradictory receptions of his ideas. There have been two dominant lines of interpretation—the functionalist as well as the practice-theoretical paradigm of understanding of Shils’ writings—and they are not consistent with each other. Therefore, a more comprehensive understanding of Shils’ thinking needs to take into account his close attachment to the University of Chicago and to some of its pragmatist traditions. The suggestion in this paper is that we should read Shils from a standpoint which is called a human scientific approach. Thus, placing Shils in the context of contemporary social theory and moral philosophy reveals similarities to what has been called ‘sacralisation’ and ‘affirmative genealogy’.

The Human Face of Knowledge

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-20
Author(s):  
Stephen Turner ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Thought ◽  
Human Face ◽  
Recent Collection ◽  
Edward Shils

This is a brief response to comments by Struan Jacobs and Peter Blum on The Calling of Social Thought, Rediscovering the Work of Edward Shils, a recent collection of essays edited by Christopher Adair-Toteff and Stephen Turner. It identifies a distinctive contribution of Shils to the larger problem of the tacit.

scholarly journals Epistemologias marginalizadas: a questão racial no debate sociológico latino-americano

Afro-Ásia ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franciane Da Silva Santos Oliveira ◽  
Lia Pinheiro Barbosa
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Social Thought ◽  
Scientific Racism ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
American Sociology

<p>Este artigo analisa o não lugar da questão racial e das epistemologias afrodiaspóricas no pensamento social e na sociologia latino-americana. Argumentamos que ainda é incipiente uma produção do conhecimento no campo sociológico que atente para o caráter marginal conferido às epistemologias africanas e afrodiaspóricas, resultado do racismo científico e da invisibilização dessas epistemologias. Problematizamos este debate enfatizando a necessidade histórica de uma produção sociológica que leve em consideração as epistemologias diaspóricas no processo de teorização sociológica e de seu papel na interpelação do suposto caráter universal de uma ciência eurocentrada e branca em detrimento de outros referentes epistêmicos do fazer sociológico.</p><p><strong>Palavras-chave: </strong>questão racial | epistemologias afrodiaspóricas | sociologia Latino-Americana | racismo epistêmico | descolonização científica.<strong></strong></p><p><strong><em> </em></strong></p><p><strong><em>Abstract:</em></strong></p><p><em>This article analyzes the </em><em>absence </em><em> of the racial question and African diasporic epistemologies in Latin American sociology and social thought. We argue that the production of knowledge that addresses the marginalization of African and African diasporic epistemologies in Latin American sociology is still incipient, as </em><em>the</em><em> result of scientific racism and the lack of visibility of these epistemologies. We further this debate by emphasizing the historical need for a sociological production that takes into account diasporic epistemologies in the process of sociological theoriz</em><em>ing</em><em>, and their role in questioning the supposedly universal character of an Eurocentric and white science, to the detriment of other epistemic referents of sociology.</em></p><p><strong><em>Keywords: </em></strong><em>racial question | afro-diasporic epistemologies | Latin American sociology | epistemic racism | scientific decolonization.</em></p>

Natural law as early social thought: The recovery of natural law for sociology

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-90
Author(s):  
Angela Leahy
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social World ◽  
Social Thought ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Contemporary Sociology ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

Natural law contains much social thought that predates sociology and related disciplines, and can be seen as part of the prehistory of the human sciences. Key concerns of natural law thinkers include the achievement of social life and society, and the individual’s place therein. However, there is an enduring tendency within sociology to dismiss the ahistoricism and universalism of natural law, and therefore to reject natural law thought in its entirety. This article proposes an approach that rescues the sociological relevance of natural law. It draws on the respective methods of Chris Thornhill and Gary Wickham, who each seek to recover the importance of natural law for sociology. Thornhill treats natural law as a valid sociological object by focusing on its functions within society rather than engaging with its ahistorical concepts. His focus on the external functions of natural law, however, leads to a neglect of the internal conceptualisations of the social world in natural law thought. This in turn leads to a misinterpretation of Hobbes and voluntarist natural law. Wickham, on the other hand, explores in detail Hobbesian conceptions of society and the individual that Wickham argues can be utilised within contemporary sociology. This article revises Thornhill’s methodological framework in order to secure a space for the recovery of natural law as social thought. This approach allows for the recognition of natural law as an important piece of the epistemological background against which contemporary understandings of the human and society emerged.

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