Fact-gathering sociology without critical theory becomes politically irrelevent

Evidence

Sociology’s abandonment of a critical theory of society is resignatory: one no longer dares to conceive of the whole since one must despair of changing it. But if sociology then desired to commit itself to the apprehension of facts and figures in the service of that which exists, then such progress under conditions of unfreedom would increasingly detract from the detailed insights through which sociology thinks it triumphs over theory and condemn them completely to irrelevance. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2413

Categorization

• SEED: Adorno’s dismissal of pure empiricism as resignatory despair contains a reusable critical move: asking what political resignation a method’s ‘neutrality’ conceals.
• XREF: connects to: Critical sociologists formed a decisive minority tradition in US sociology. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1493; Sociology attempts an exact positivist science of social facts — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1523; In social theory, recognition of facts is critique of facts — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 459 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• In social theory, recognition of facts is critique of facts #corroborates (0.82) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 459
• Empiricism’s atomism prevents followers from connecting facts into political conclusions #expands (0.82) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 12
• Sociology attempts an exact positivist science of social facts #qualifies (0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1523
• Empirical sociology’s operational methodology is itself ideological #corroborates (0.78) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 447