Postmodernism and Social Theory: The Debate over General Theory

by Steven Seidman, Leonard G. Dudley

A new division has emerged in the social sciences between modernists and their postmodern critics. The former defend the project of a general theory with secure analytical foundations; the latter challenge the possibility and indeed the desirability of aspiring to create totalizing theories. Postmodernists contest the view of science as an autonomous sphere of knowledge and reflection.

This volume brings together leading theorists in the social sciences and philosophy to debate the respective merits of modernism and postmodernism as paradigms of social inquiry. It examines the relations between science, critique, and narrative; addressing serious questions about the moral and political meaning of science today.

379 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 1991