Dialogical Social Theory by Donald N. Levine Howard G. Schneiderman

Author:Donald N. Levine, Howard G. Schneiderman [Donald N. Levine, Howard G. Schneiderman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780815375470
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2018-02-16T00:00:00+00:00

Playing with Pluralism

Inspired by the spirit of McKeon’s approach to historical semantics, if not employing the terms of his schemas, the foregoing reflections challenge the hegemonic view of standard professional sociology as represented by Parsons. They subject the notion that pure sociology should inform practice through the logic of instrumental rationality to a fivefold critique.

From the viewpoint of diagnostic rationality, the SPS conception of the theory-practice nexus can be faulted for failing to provide norms about normal or healthy states. For example, it might lead one to apply propositions about group process to eliminating the authority of leaders, without considering whether or not authoritative leaders comprise a normal and healthy part of group functioning. From the viewpoint of deliberative rationality, that conception can be faulted for neglecting the importance of particulars in action and the imprecise nature of practical decisions—for example, looking for universally valid processes to heighten morale in organizations without considering the nuances of local life and the difficulties of verbalizing certain aspects of interpersonal rapport. From the viewpoint of deontological rationality, it can be faulted for shortchanging the ability of reason to provide normative injunctions independent of empirical circumstances using instrumental calculations to optimize the elimination of allegedly inferior peoples without considering whether there is not a rationally prescribed duty to resist such objectives. From the viewpoint of sensuous rationality, it can be faulted for deflecting attention from urgent social needs, spending millions to do research on poverty instead of on programs to alleviate poverty through job training and job creation. From the viewpoint of pragmatic rationality, it can be faulted for deriving its problems, concepts, and methods from antecedently formulated theories, when appropriate concepts and methods can only be identified as plausible responses to problems that emerge in indeterminate or conflictual situations. One example is when one brings a set of standard procedures demonstrated to enhance communication among staff members when the chief presenting problem in their office is a lack of time to deal with crises in their families.

This kind of work—identifying shortcomings in a position by appeal to the insights of plausible alternative positions—can be construed as any of the others with critical arguments from the remaining five. Yet, this is not the only way in which McKeon’s work can be utilized, for it opens up at least two more advanced ways to employ a pluralistic vision. In these other modes, the point is not to engage alternative perspectives or principles in order to open up new ways of looking at a commonplace issue, but to see how those different positions relate among themselves. As George Kimball Plochmann has observed, “essay after essay of [McKeon’s] begins with some variation on the theme that there are great discrepancies in the traditional philosophies, and it is important to lay them out in order to resolve them” (Plochmann 1990, 92). I shall call them, first, the mode of cyclical history, and second, following Watson’s (1985) usage in The Architectonics of Meaning, the mode of “reciprocal priority.”

McKeon exhibited

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