Relational Sociology. A New Paradigm for the Social Sciences
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2020
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Abstract
"This book formulates a new paradigm for the social sciences appropriate to our age, based on the primacy of what Donati terms ‘social relations’ which, for him, are crucial in upholding the distinctiveness of humanity. The target is to sound the alarm about the unwelcome effects of many social theories that threaten to drive the human out of the social or else submerge the human within the social and so drown out its distinctive individuality. By placing social relations at the heart of society, the Author hopes to preserve the uniqueness of both humanity and individual personality. In defending the primacy of social relations, two concerns animate the book. The first is to rethink our conception of society which has become divorced from our humanity. And the second is an extended critique of some of the most prominent social theories that have led to this state of affairs. Social relations provide the key to understanding social reality, expressed as follows: ‘in the beginning there is the relation’ and society is understood as a net or web of relations. The relation does not eliminate the subjects or terms which it connects; instead, it reclaims, explores and expresses them. This book offers an alternative to both positivist and relativis paradigms widespread in the social sciences, so to respond to the request of Joseph Ratzinger about the need to widen the ray of reason"
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Estética y filosofía contemporánea, Artes y Humanidades