Beyond Postpositivism
Dialectics, Epistemology, and Critical Sociology with Adorno and Horkheimer
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2364045 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Cameron Day (0009-0009-6537-4162, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 67-90 |
| Publication date | 2025-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociological Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0735-2751 • E-ISSN: 1467-9558 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/07352751251317650 |
| OpenAlex | W4407296907 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 27 |
A broad 'postpositivism' characterizes the epistemological basis of contemporary sociology. Nevertheless, sociology remains a multiparadigmatic discipline, home to approaches that differ greatly from each other in method. In this article, I examine questions of epistemology in sociological research by revisiting Adorno and Horkheimer's critiques of positivism in German sociology. I argue that Adorno and Horkheimer's articulation of an alternative critical theory provides four central features that remain novel in sociology today: (1) the refusal of a priori methodological or data protocol, (2) a strongly interpretive approach to theorization, (3) a necessarily totalizing approach to theorization, and (4) an active and overt political Marxism. I conclude by comparing implications of Adorno and Horkheimer's critical sociology with Burawoy's extended case method, with which it shares many features yet remains distinct
Critical theory · Dialectic · Epistemology · Psychoanalysis · Social science · Sociology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Philosophy · Psychology · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory
Science in action
The Extended Case Method
Conjectures and Refutations
The Positivist dispute in German sociology
The Logic of Scientific Discovery
History and Class Consciousness. Studies in Marxist Dialectics
Adorno and Existence
Romanticism Against the Tide of Modernity
Critique and Disclosure
The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology
The social construction of reality
Pandora's hope
Marcuse's Phenomenology
Towards a paradigmatic enhancement of sociology
The Possibility of a Disclosing Critique of Society
Positivism and Sociology
The Dialectic of Nihilism
Ontological Turn, The
Laws, Causality and Statistics
At the crossroad of Magic and Positivism'. Roots of an Evidential Paradigm through Benjamin and Adorno
The Culminating Crisis of American Sociology and Its Role in Social Science and Public Policy
Epistemology Contextualized
The Extended Case Method
The Ideologically Driven Critique
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |