The Flight from Ambiguity: Essays in Social and Cultural Theory

by Donald Nathan Levine

The essays turn about a single theme, the loss of the capacity to deal constructively with ambiguity in the modern era. Levine offers a head-on critique of the modern compulsion to flee ambiguity. He centers his analysis on the question of what responses social scientists should adopt in the face of the inexorably ambiguous character of all natural languages. In the course of his argument, Levine presents a fresh reading of works by the classic figures of modern European and American social theory—Durkheim, Freud, Simmel and Weber, and Park, Parsons, and Merton.

260 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1988

Reviews

[University of Chicago Magazine]

Donald N. Levine, AB'50, AM'54, PhD'57
Author

From our pages (Spring/86): "These essays turn about a single theme, the loss of a capacity to deal constructively with ambiguity in the modern era. In our high-tech culture, the demand for precision and univocal language has created, in humanist and scientist alike, a passion for bytes rather than nuances, definitions rather than discourse. Levin offers a head-on critique of this modern compulsion to flee ambiguity. He centers his analysis on the question of what responses social scientists should adopt to the fact of the inexorably ambiguous character of all natural languages."