Sociology and its Philosophical Other: Gillian Rose’s Critique of Sociological Reason

• In Event: 557 - Theory Section Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 07. The Discipline of Social Thought

Abstract

More than thirty years ago, Gillian Rose articulated a significant critique of classical sociological reason, emphasizing its relationship to its philosophical forebears. In a series of works, but most significantly in her Hegel contra Sociology, Rose worked to specify the implications of sociology’s failure, both in its critical Marxist and its ‘scientific’ forms, to move beyond Kant and to fully come to terms with the thought of Hegel. In this article, I unpack and explain the substance of her criticisms, developing the necessary philosophical Hegelian background on which she founded them. I also argue that Rose’s attempted recuperation of ‘speculative reason’ for social theory remains of significant interest and relevance to contemporary debates concerning the nature and scope of sociological reason.

Author

• Brian Fuller