Reflections on Social Theory Today

Abstract

A peculiarity of social theory is that its object of study (society) includes those who carry out the research about it. This means that the regularities that theory establishes are not absolute, but historical. The article explores how this fundamental observation is displayed in classical sociological theory (Marx, Durkheim, Weber), and then it analyzes the suspicions that currently fall on social theory. In order to outline but also clear this suspicion, the paper differentiates between theoretical knowledge and data obtained from surveys, and then emphasizes the close relationship between social theory, history and criticism. The cases of Hayek and the founding book of Chilean neoliberalism El ladrillo are used to show that criticism is a characteristic of all social theory and not just of those of the left. These examples help distinguishing truth from theory and theory from ideology. The text concludes with an analysis of the ambiguous position of social theory today.