Theoretical Crossroads in Twentieth Century Sociology

Abstract

With the idea of reviewing the most interesting sociological debates along the past century, this paper will present a brief synopsis of those contributions that seemed to retain a clearer theoretical drive. Basic categories of causes andreasons will be used here to shed some light on central questions, and dissolve the main differences into some core analytical features. For cognitive and sociological causes we refer here to objective social and cognitive structures enabled to determine dominions of competence to certain microstates (symbolic or other). In a similar way, for epistemic reasons one should understand those objective or rational reasons qualified to give account of lateral macro social effects. These categories have proved to be useful, not only for dealing with the various positions visited, but especially adequate for opposing some critical views in terms closely related to the new paradigmatic horizon social sciences will face in this millennium.