The logical foundations of social theory / Gert H. Mueller ; preface and introduction by Joseph R. Pearce

The Logical Foundations of Social Theory describes Gert Mueller’s argument that physical, biological, social, moral, and cultural reality form an asymmetrical hierarchy of founding and controlling relationships that condition social reality rather than mechanically determining it. This book analyzes social stratification as labor, wealth and power, the moral order as solidarity, ideology and morality, and culture systems as art, science, and religion.The author offers a detailed and wide-ranging account of the birth of social theory as a distinctive and modern intellectual genre. Focusing mainly on France, Heilbron traces the origins of modern social theory in the Enlightenment and discusses the work of early theorists such as Montesquieu and Rousseau, although he also deals with the Scottish moral philosophers. He examines the trend towards scientizing social theory in the decades around 1800 and analyzes the first attempts to formulate sociology as a relatively autonomous discourse, culminating in the writings of Comte. Heilbron argues that it was the natural sciences, rather than moral philosophy or natural law, which became the leading intellectual model in the nineteenth century. The mathematician Cordorcet and a physiologist, Cabanis, were the most prominent representatives of this trend.Combining social and intellectual history, Heilbron examines changes in social science within the context of wider developments in the intellectual domain, and discusses the social conditions under which these changes occurred. The Rise of Social Theory is both a brilliant account of the 'pre-history' of sociology and a vivid portrayal of intellectual culture between the Enlightenment and the age of Romanticism. It will be welcomed by students and researchers in the social sciences, social and cultural history, and the history of science. The Logical Foundations Of Social Theory 1 Contents 4 Acknowledgments 8 Preface 10 Introduction 14 PART I SOCIAL THEORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 28 1. The Axes and Types of Sociological Theory 30 2. Theory: Pure and Applied 44 3. The Dual Structure of Science 49 4. Two Types of A Priori: Contingent and Transcendental 54 PART II THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS OF LOGIC 60 5. Truth Functions and Mapping Functions 62 6. The First Quadrant: Contiguity and Commutativity 68 7. The Second Quadrant: Material Implication 72 8. The Third Quadrant: Intension and Extension 84 9. The Fourth Quadrant: Quantification and Modality 91 10. The General Structure of Logic 97 PART III THE LOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY 104 11. The Epistemological Reformulation of Logic 106 12. Disjunction and Conjunction, Identity and Opposition 110 13. The Logical Analysis of Society 114 14. The Logical Analysis of Ethics 118 15. Basis and Superstructure 123 16. Religion and Morality 128 17. The Architectonic of Society 135 18. The Architectonic of the Mind 140 19. Equations, Concordances, and Emendations 144 PART IV THE LOGICAL STRUCTURE OF ACTION 148 20. Social Consciousness and Society 150 21. The Analytics of Action: Means and Ends 156 22. The Analytics of Belief: Values and Commitments 161 23. The Analytics of Thought: Symbols and Meanings 165 24. Causes, Purposes, and Functions 170 PART V THE ALGEBRA OF ANALYTICAL SOCIOLOGY 176 25. Trinomial Foundational Relationships 178 26. A Trinomial Analysis of Social Stratification 183 27. A Trinomial Analysis of the Mind 187 28. A Trinomial Analysis of the Intellect 191 29. The Idealistic and the Materialistic Interpretation of Society 195 30. The Dialectic of Social Being and Social Consciousness 199 PART VI A MODAL ANALYSIS OF CHANGE 204 31. A Modal Analysis of Change: Optimum, Lag, Crisis, and Constraint 206 32. The Vicissitudes of Ecology: Plenty vs. Dearth 211 33. The Vicissitudes of Political Economy 216 34. The Dynamics of the Mind: Reason and Revolution 222 35. The Intellect: Universalism vs. Particularism 228 36. Macroanalysis: The Mind and Society 235 Bibliography 244 Sociological Theory 244 Logic and Philosophy of Science 253 Philosophy 256 Index 260