ABSTRACT
The eternal questions of social theory are analogous to the eternal questions of philosophy in that they continue to be asked by successive generations of thinkers without ever being definitively answered or even with any real expectation that they will ever be definitively answered. Social theory is therefore more than the handmaiden of empirical research limited in its scope to whatever research methods may be currently available. Like the empirical investigation of particulars qua particulars as well as the undeniable technological progress undergone by research methods, social theory has its own autonomy independently both of the findings of empirical research and the research techniques deployed in research. The source and nature of individual deviation from social norms can also be regarded as an eternal question of social theory. Generalizing social theory discussed in its own terms nevertheless presupposes a vast corpus of substantive knowledge of "the human variety".
