Truth, Fact and Value: Recovering Normative Foundations for Sociology

Abstract

Can sociology have normative presuppositions? Is the purpose of sociology to study society as it is or how it ought to be? Can we task sociology with serving moral and ethical ends? If so, are there universal categories by means of which we can define what constitutes a good society? Or are all such categories in the end but particular constructs unique to particular cultures and traditions, and hence bound by relativism? The history of the social sciences has proven these to be profoundly formidable questions to answer. In fact, far from providing a systematic conceptual framework, contemporary social theory in its current state consists of diverse and often contradictory theoretical standpoints and ethical presuppositions that make any single approach to normative foundations of social science appear to be limited, partial and ultimately untenable.