Social Ontology and Social Critique: Toward a New Paradigm for Critical Theory

Abstract

“Social Ontology and Social Critique” constructs a theory of critical social ontology as a means to diagnose the existence and nature of social pathologies in capitalist societies. The chapter begins by outlining four branches of social ontology that are common in the literature and then demonstrates how each can be dialectically synthesized to construct a critical theory of social ontology. The chapter then proceeds to show how this theory of a critical social ontology can serve as a theoretical foundation for a richer, more satisfying and more radical form of social critique by reconstructing the way in which the descriptive knowledge of social facts can also serve as normative judgments about their existing, empirical state of society. The chapter concludes by outlining how this critical social ontology can provide theorists with a more trenchant critique of capitalism and its social pathologies.