Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes the German-American political theorist Hannah Arendt. It argues that Arendt has an original and sophisticated critique of sociology that should be treated seriously, and which, while it was intended to be primarily negative, can serve to strengthen the epistemological and ontological integrity of the discipline. The book focuses on sociology because it is a primary target of Arendt's criticisms, because its subject matter and methods are most similar to Arendt's own, and because it is best positioned to benefit from her insights. It explores the spirit of Gillian Rose's questioning, but through the prism of another thinker, opposed to the abstruse and abstract tenor of Hegel's thinking, but with no less a sophisticated worldview. The book argues that Arendt's criticisms of sociology, suitably reinterpreted, have considerable constructive potential for sociological theory and therefore for the field of sociology generally.