The sociological text

Abstract

In contemporary social science, notably in sociological theory, social research methodology and philosophy of social science, the epistemological and methodological questions of sociological analysis are of central importance. Although sociological thinking about social life is usually intertwined with writing about it, sociology's textual dimension has attracted considerably less attention. Adorno's sociological writings, too, are chiefly concerned with the problems and possibilities of a sociological investigation of exchange society. Yet Adorno, convinced that ‘language constitutes thinking just like vice versa’ (MCP 123), is unable to discuss sociological thought without engaging in detail with the question of the sociological text. The process of writing – neither purely thinking nor purely acting – is a prominent theme in his work on the discipline. Adorno repeatedly addresses the problems contemporary social conditions create for sociological writing. He examines sociology's possibilities to respond to those problems and to develop the potential of its texts to articulate something about social life in exchange society. A discussion of Adorno's vision of sociology's textual dimension is indispensable to an account of his views on the discipline and might offer sociologists ideas for more rigorous inquiries into the process of writing about social reality.