Introduction

1. The Enlightenment

1. 1 Prehistory

1. 2 The concept of modernity

1. 3 A moral science

1. 4 The development of social theory

1. 5 Inner strains

2. Hegel

2. 1 Reconciling modernity

2. 2 The labour of the negative

2. 3 The debate over modernity

3. Liberals and Reactionaries

3. 1 Post-revolutionary debates

3. 2 Agonistic liberalism: Tocqueville and Mill

3. 3 Providence and race: Maistre and Gobineau

4. Marx

4. 1 The adventures of the dialectic

4. 2 History and capitalism

4. 3 Class struggle and revolution

5. Life and Power

5. 1 Evolution before and after Darwin

5. 2 Two evolutionists: Spencer and Kautsky

5. 3 Nature as the will to power: Nietzsche

6. Durkheim

6. 1 Social evolution and scientific objectivity

6. 2 Society as a moral reality

6. 3 Meaning and belief

7. Weber

7. 1 Prussian agriculture and the German state

7. 2 Science and the warring gods

7. 3 History and rationalization

7. 4 Liberal imperialism and democratic politics

8. The Illusions of Progress

8. 1 The strange death of liberal Europe

8. 2 Objectivity and estrangement: Simmel

8. 3 The self dissected: Freud

8. 4 Memories of underdevelopment: Russian intellectuals and capitalism

9. Revolution and Counter-Revolution

9. 1 Hegelian Marxism: Lukacs and Gramsci

9. 2 Heidegger and the conservative revolution

10. The Golden Age

10. 1 Theories of capitalism: Keynes and Hayek

10. 2 Functionalist sociology: Talcott Parsons

10. 3 Despairing critique: the Frankfurt school

11. Crack-Up?

11. 1 The 1960s and after

11. 2 Structure and subject: Levi-Strauss and Althusser

11. 3 Nietzsche's revenge: Foucault and poststructuralism

11. 4 Carrying on the tradition: Habermas and Bourdieu

12. Debating modernity and postmodernity

12. 1 Postmodernity?

12. 2 Modernity and capitalism

12. 3 Reason and nature

12. 4 Theory and practice

12. 5 Universal and particular

12. 6 Beyond capitalism?

13. Changing the subject: globalization, capitalism, and imperialism

13. 1 Much ado about globalization

13. 2 The social as networks ... or as nothing

13. 3 Back to capitalism - and imperialism?

13. 4 The debate resumed

About the Author

Alex Callinicos, Professor of European Studies, King's College London

Reviews

"The best of its kind on the market."
Steve Fuller, Times Higher Education

"Alex Callincos has written one of the best historical introductions to sociological thoery. His book also does a nice job of connecting sociological theory to broader intellectual trends and movements. This new edition sustains the quality and improves the coverage."

Craig Calhoun, New York University

"The second edition of Alex Callincos' Social Theory reads in the same beautifully clear, reliable and accessible way as the first edition. The new material adds a further dimension to this splendid book, bringing it fully up to date with debates in which Callinicos has himself played a part."

William Outhwaite, University of Sussex

Table of Contents

About the Author

Reviews