In R. Dahrendorf's HOMO SOCIOLOGICUS (See SA 6516), which attempts to present a broad conception of sociol, the point of departure is a value-judgment tending to the negative. Dahrendorf cultivates the characteristically German antithesis between `interior' & `exterior'; society compels man to play a variety of roles, which alienate him from his essential being. The `outer' man can always, however, fall back on a private domain which exists independently of society. The problem is that Dahrendorf considers man's freedom outside the sphere of sociol, yet simultaneously claims that freedom is ultimately destroyed by society's interference. This contradiction is the inevitable result of the marriage of sci'fic approaches & value judgments. Dahrendorf sees an incompatibility between mass & individual sociol. Yet, as J. Ortega y Gasset asserts, individuality is the basis of many soc relationships. Man, isolated from his self-created instit's, is like a 'fish out of water.' A. Chapman.
