Chaos of disciplines / Andrew Abbott.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Abbott, Andrew Delano.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sociology--Philosophy.

Sociology.

Social sciences--Philosophy.

Social sciences.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (276 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this vital new study, Andrew Abbott presents a fresh and daring analysis of the evolution and development of the social sciences. Chaos of Disciplines reconsiders how knowledge actually changes and advances. Challenging the accepted belief that social sciences are in a perpetual state of progress, Abbott contends that disciplines instead cycle around an inevitable pattern of core principles. New schools of thought, then, are less a reaction to an established order than they are a reinvention of fundamental concepts. Chaos of Disciplines uses fractals to explain the patterns of disciplines, and then applies them to key debates that surround the social sciences. Abbott argues that knowledge in different disciplines is organized by common oppositions that function at any level of theoretical or methodological scale. Opposing perspectives of thought and method, then, in fields ranging from history, sociology, and literature, are to the contrary, radically similar; much like fractals, they are each mutual reflections of their own distinctions.

Contents:

pt. 1. Self-similarity in social science

pt. 2. Two essays on self-similarity.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612678929

9781282678927

1282678922

9780226001050

0226001059