ABSTRACT
It is important in discussing the general themes in Merton’s writ ings that we examine the frameworks put forward in Piotr Sztompka’s book-length study entitled Robert K. Merton: An Intellectual Portrait (1986). This is a very comprehensive study and any further analyses of Merton’s work must be aware of it and build on it. But it is not an easy book to grasp and summarize, as it involves several complex, multilayer and interwoven typologies. However, my purpose in pro viding a description of the book is, in part, that I can then raise some criticisms of it and suggest an alternative line of interpretation.
