Founders, classics, canons : modern disputes over the origins and appraisal of sociology's heritage

Bibliographic Information

Founders, classics, canons : modern disputes over the origins and appraisal of sociology's heritage

Peter Baehr ; with a foreword by Steven Lukes and critical contributions by Adomas Pūras, Philip Walsh, and William Outhwaite

Transaction, 2016

2nd ed

  • : paperback

Available at  / 2 libraries

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Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Founders, classics, and canons have been vitally important in helping to frame sociology's identity. Within the academy today, a number of positions-feminist, postmodernist, postcolonial-question the status of "tradition." In Founders, Classics, Canons, Peter Baehr defends the continuing importance of sociology's classics and traditions in a university education. Baehr offers arguments against interpreting, defending, and attacking sociology's great texts and authors in terms of founders and canons. He demonstrates why, in logical and historical terms, discourses and traditions cannot actually be "founded" and why the term "founder" has little explanatory content. Equally, he takes issue with the notion of "canon" and argues that the analogy between the theological canon and sociological classic texts, though seductive, is mistaken. Although he questions the uses to which the concepts of founder, classic, and canon have been put, Baehr is not dismissive. On the contrary, he seeks to understand the value and meaning these concepts have for the people who employ them in the cultural battle to affirm or attack the liberal university tradition.

Table of Contents

  • 1: Introduction
  • 2: Founders of Discourse
  • 3: Founders of Institutions
  • 4: The Utility, Rhetoric, and Interpretation of Classic Texts
  • 5: Classicality: Criteria and Reception
  • 6: Canons
  • 7: A Concluding Look at the Three Concepts

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

  • NCID
    BB22284729
  • ISBN
    • 9781412857055
  • Country Code
    us
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    New Brunswick
  • Pages/Volumes
    xx, 290 p.
  • Size
    23 cm
  • Classification
  • Subject Headings
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