The Heritage of Sociology. The Promise of Social Science

Abstract

The article criticises the present situation in sociology for not reflecting social reality. The solution is to create a new open culture of social sciences, not just a culture of sociology. Using the example of the sociological canon of Durkheim, Mars, and Weber it is shown that its heritage does not adequately reflect social reality. The main arguments are Freud's challenging of rationality, eurocentricity, the social construction of time, research into complex systems, feminism, and questions over modernity. As possible developments in the social sciences the author mentions the epistemological reunification of so-called dual culture, i.e., science and human sciences, organisational reunification and a new division of social sciences, and the presumption of the centrality of social sciences in the world of cognition.