The Roots of Sociology
Scottish Enlightenment and the Civilising Process
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Publishing:23rd Mar '26
£155.00
This title is due to be published on 23rd March, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This book argues that of today’s ‘core’ social scientific disciplines, it is sociology that has inherited the capacious ambitions of the Scottish Enlightenment.
Departing from the practice of classifying thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment using modern disciplinary categories that they themselves would not have recognised – categories that obscure the fact that these figures were engaged in what they considered to be a wide-ranging, historical science of society – it argues that sociology continues to explore many of the central themes in their work: historical processes, relations of power, societal differentiation and integration, morality, jurisprudence, violence, civil society and the state, as well as social divisions of class, gender, race and nation that are often overlooked in characterisations of ‘Enlightenment reason’.
A critical, qualified introduction to the precocious effort of the Scottish Enlightenment to create a theory of ‘the civilising process’, The Roots of Sociology assesses the contribution and continuing relevance of the enlightened intellectuals to sociology as an intergenerational process. As such, it will appeal to scholars and students of sociology, social theory and intellectual history.
'Intellectually, sociology has lost its way. In this scholarly book, Alex Law charts how it might regain its bearings. He does so by making a thorough re-evaluation of the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment, pointing the way forward to a sociology relevant to a broader understanding of the structure of processes in the turmoil we are living through – processes, as Norbert Elias put it, "From plans arising, yet unplanned / By purpose moved, yet purposeless".'
Professor Stephen Mennell, University College Dublin, Ireland.
'This book brilliantly argues the case for interpreting the intellectual corpus of the Scottish Enlightenment—most notably, Adam Ferguson, David Hume, John Millar and Adam Smith—as the collective precursors of classical sociology. Offering an abundance of historical detail, lucid analysis of Enlightenment works and a profoundly sociological approach to their thought, this is a particularly original contribution to the sociology of knowledge that combines the conceptual frameworks of both Norbert Elias and Pierre Bourdieu. Law undertakes a theoretically innovative departure into the lost intellectual microcosms of the last half of the 18th Century, illuminating both the Enlightenment’s achievements and, crucially, their social conditions of formation.'
Professor Bridget Fowler,University of Glasgow, UK.
ISBN: 9780367491819
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 560g
210 pages