The cognitive and metacognitive dimensions of social and political theory

Abstract

The central concern of contemporary social and political theory is closely related to the nature of modern society as a functionally differentiated class society which involves normative claims pointing far beyond its systemic and stratified organization. This chapter brings a relatively new departure, the cognitive approach, to bear on social and political theory and its potential for coming to grips with the problems confronting contemporary society. After some preliminary remarks about cognitive social science, the argument is opened with a brief consideration of the nature of modern society in order to pinpoint the problems stimulating social and political theory. This is followed by a cognitively inspired analysis in terms of the dialectical processes of the constitution and organization of society. It provides the opportunity to introduce some central cognitive theoretical concepts and to indicate both their meaningfulness and usefulness. Finally, this account allows a restatement of the task of contemporary social and political theory and the identification of the core practical aspect of the contemporary problematic situation: the formation of a subject appropriate to the emerging world society.