Gunnar Myrdal

A Theorist of Modernity

Bibliographic Data

ID2137386
AuthorsSven Eliaeson (0000-0003-2378-4066, Stockholm University, corresponding author), Sven Eliœson (Box 3340, SE-712 94 Grythyttan, Sweden © Scandinavian Sociological Association 2000)
Year2000
Volume43
Issue4
Pages331-341
Publication date2000-10-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueActa Sociologica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0001-6993 • E-ISSN: 1502-3869
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/000169930004300406
OpenAlexW2041913456, W4233962701
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited9

Gunnar Myrdal's contribution to social science could be encapsulated in the following key words: secularization, intellectual migration and trans-Atlantic reciprocity, objectivity and value-intrusion (-bias), the role of philanthropy, Protestant reform creed, social engineering, and national styles of research. Myrdal's central role in the history of social thought is his part in facilitating the diffusion of Weberian value-orientation, despite differences in nuances between Myrdal and his neo-Kantian predecessors. His oeuvre is multi-disciplinary and he could himself be characterized in terms of a number of antinomies, such as the parochial cosmopolitan, the patriotic internationalist, the compassionate 'nihilist'. the elitist egalitarian, the social Darwinist anti-racist, the male chauvinist feminist, the ahistorical 'historicist', the conservative socialist, etc. He never hesitated to take a controversial position. Essentially he is a theorist of modernity, combining ambiguity and antinomies with anti-metaphysics (anti-natural law, instrumental means-end-analyses)

Cosmopolitanism · Economics · Epistemology · Historicism · Modernity · Neoclassical economics · Objectivity (philosophy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Subjectivism · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory

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