Een sociologie van de filosofie. Besprekingsartikel

Samenvatting

A Sociology of Philosophy. A review essay on a book by Randall Collins, The Sociology of Philosophies. A Global Theory of Intellectual Change (Cambridge, MA: Harvard U Press, 1998), in which philosophy functions as the subject of a comparative, longitudinal sociological study. In the book, Collins develops a theoretical framework centering around the notions of social network, cultural capital, interaction rituals, emotional energy, and the "law of small numbers" to determine why certain philosophers have gained a lasting reputation; all main historical Asian and European philosophical traditions are analyzed. The main tenet of the book is that intellectual life is characterized by conflict and disagreement, which lead to the search for support, which lead to intellectual cross-fertilization and the development of new ideas, followed by a new cycle of conflict. Though the analysis of "static" or synchronic aspects is deemed extremely fruitful, Collins's treatment of the "dynamic" or diachronic dimension is found slightly lacking; a more meta-philosophical arguments would have been preferred. Overall, the book is highly commended. 16 References. S. Paul