Classical social theory and the origins of modern sociology

pp. 40-67

in: Anthony Giddens, Profiles and critiques in social theory, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1982

Abstract

My aims in this essay are both iconoclastic and constructive. An iconoclast, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a "breaker of images", "one who assails cherished beliefs". I begin by taking to task a series of widely held views, relating above all to Durkheim's writings, of the past development of social theory. These views, as I have tried to show elsewhere,¹ are myths; here I try not so much to shatter their images of the intellectual origins of sociology as to show that they are like reflections in a hall of distorting mirrors. I do not, however, propose to analyse the development of classical nineteenth- and early twentieth-century social theory for its own sake alone, but wish to draw out some implications for problems of sociology today.