What was sociology?

What Is Economic Sociology

Understanding what was said

On the most prominent account, understanding what was said is propositional knowledge of what was said. I defend an alternative on which understanding is a distinctive form of engagement with what was said. The knowledge account has been supported by its capacity to explain testimonial knowledge transmission. I argue that my account provides a superior explanation.

What Is (Was) Alchemy?∗

A serious scientific journal seems to be the wrong place for a paper on alchemy. However, we believe that the history of science includes knowledge of the complex relations between specific scientific disciplines and what is called the “world-view” (Weltanschauung): the image of the world corresponding to a given stage of cultural development. The world-view, born of the “marriage” of Aristotle...

Was what ail'd ya what kill'd ya?

Making use of those Union Army veterans for whom death certificates are available, we compare the conditions with which they were diagnosed by Civil War pension surgeons to the causes of death on the certificates. We divide the data between those veterans who entered the pension system early because of war injuries and those who entered the pension system after the 1890 reform that made it avai...

What Kind of Combat Sport Is Sociology?

Criticism is not merely a good thing; the discipline requires it to advance. Precisely because it is so important, criticism must be held to high scholarly standards. As I will show, Wacquant’s review of Sidewalk quotes selectively and misleadingly and systematically misrepresents the work as a whole. The review is thoroughly inaccurate and unreliable. Forty years after Jane Jacobs wrote The De...