Chaos of Disciplines

by Andrew Abbott

In this vital new study, Andrew Abbott presents a fresh and daring analysis of the evolution and development of the social sciences. Chaos of Disciplines reconsiders how knowledge actually changes and advances. Challenging the accepted belief that social sciences are in a perpetual state of progress, Abbott contends that disciplines instead cycle around an inevitable pattern of core principles. New schools of thought, then, are less a reaction to an established order than they are a reinvention of fundamental concepts.
Chaos of Disciplines uses fractals to explain the patterns of disciplines, and then applies them to key debates that surround the social sciences. Abbott argues that knowledge in different disciplines is organized by common oppositions that function at any level of theoretical or methodological scale. Opposing perspectives of thought and method, then, in fields ranging from history, sociology, and literature, are to the contrary, radically similar; much like fractals, they are each mutual reflections of their own distinctions.

Genres: Sociology, Social Science, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Academia

248 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2001

Reviews

[Victor Wu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book offers an eye-opening and theoretically powerful framework for thinking about the social sciences through the concept of "fractal distinctions." All social scientists interested in becoming more intellectually self-aware about their chosen profession would benefit from reading it. Chapters 1 and 5 in particular I think are the most important and relevant to a generalist reader.

[Prez · Rating 3 out of 5]

giving it a 3 only because he used a caste analogy and he used it in the worst way possible and I didn't enjoy it but otherwise the book was bang on about how knowledge is reproduced and sustained in almost cyclical manners

[ehk2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first theoretical chapter is exactly what I've been looking for for years. Excellent!

[Bahadır Dağ · Rating 4 out of 5]

doktora seviyesinde sosyoloji bilgisi gerektiren bir kitap, bir sayfa okumak 20 dakikanızı alabilir