Full Description
The Aporia of Freedom systematizes social theories in a new manner, alternative both to the pluralistic concept, according to which social theories are incommensurable, and to the concept which postulates a theoretical synthesis in social sciences. Kaczmarczyk argues that famous social theories constitute interrelated attempts to solve the same problem, called the aporia of freedom. The problem concerns the relation between existential assumptions of social determinism and human freedom. Although these ideas turn out to be mutually exclusive, they seem to be necessary for the construction of a coherent and empirically convincing social theory.
Contents
Introduction
1 Visions of Freedom
1.1 Freedom as an Illusion: David Hume
1.2 Freedom as Belonging: Baruch Spinoza
1.3 Freedom as an Assumption: Immanuel Kant
2 The Negated Aporia of Freedom
2.1 Freedom as Social Belonging: Émile Durkheim
2.2 Freedom as a Theoretical Problem: Talcott Parsons
2.3 Freedom as a Practical Problem: Niklas Luhmann
3 The Acknowledged Aporia of Freedom
3.1 The Renaissance of Freedom: Rational Choice Theory
3.2 Implications of the Subjective Perspective: Raymond Boudon
3.3 The Choice of Values: Max Weber
4 At the Source of Freedom
4.1 Basic Anxiety: Social Phenomenology
4.2 Freedom between People: Erving Goffman
4.3 Reconstructions of Subjectivity: Paul Ricoeur, Michel Foucault
5 Freedom by Belief
5.1 Belief in Scientific Community: Charles Sanders Peirce
5.2 Belief in God: William James
5.3 Belief in the Act: George Herbert Mead
6 Freedom as a Challenge
6.1 The Human Reality: Karl Marx
6.2 Theories of Practice: Pierre Bourdieu and Anthony Giddens
6.3 Freedom and Democracy: Antonio Gramsci, Cornelius Castoriadis
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
