The Aporia of Freedom systematizes social theories in a new manner, alternative both to the pluralistic concept, according to which social theories are incommensurable, and to the concept which postulates a theoretical synthesis in social sciences. Kaczmarczyk argues that famous social theories constitute interrelated attempts to solve the same problem, called the aporia of freedom. The problem concerns the relation between existential assumptions of social determinism and human freedom. Although these ideas turn out to be mutually exclusive, they seem to be necessary for the construction of a coherent and empirically convincing social theory.
Introduction
1Visions of Freedom
1.1Freedom as an Illusion: David Hume
1.2Freedom as Belonging: Baruch Spinoza
1.3Freedom as an Assumption: Immanuel Kant
2The Negated Aporia of Freedom
2.1Freedom as Social Belonging: Émile Durkheim
2.2Freedom as a Theoretical Problem: Talcott Parsons
2.3Freedom as a Practical Problem: Niklas Luhmann
3The Acknowledged Aporia of Freedom
3.1The Renaissance of Freedom: Rational Choice Theory
3.2Implications of the Subjective Perspective: Raymond Boudon
3.3The Choice of Values: Max Weber
4At the Source of Freedom
4.1Basic Anxiety: Social Phenomenology
4.2Freedom between People: Erving Goffman
4.3Reconstructions of Subjectivity: Paul Ricoeur, Michel Foucault
5Freedom by Belief
5.1Belief in Scientific Community: Charles Sanders Peirce
5.2Belief in God: William James
5.3Belief in the Act: George Herbert Mead
6Freedom as a Challenge
6.1The Human Reality: Karl Marx
6.2Theories of Practice: Pierre Bourdieu and Anthony Giddens
6.3Freedom and Democracy: Antonio Gramsci, Cornelius Castoriadis
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Michal Kaczmarczyk, Ph.D. (2004), is Professor of Sociology at the University of Gdansk. He has published many articles and books on sociology of law, including The Sociological Theory of Property (2006) and Civil Disobedience and the Idea of Law (2010).
