ABSTRACT
Social investigation is, effectively, an institution of industrialised societies. Intellectual historians, especially those with a sociological outlook addressing a sociological subject-matter, appear frequently to become fascinated by the subjective attributes, the private clashes, and the more colourful personal acts of individual figures. This simply impedes analytical progress with annoying narrative incidentals, as in Martin Jay's history of the Frankfurt School, or David Caute's study of French communist intellectuals. It is banal to observe that the volume of criticism of sociological doctrines has expanded astonishingly; but it is unclear how much of it has served any positive critical purpose. The problem has rather been one of overfamiliarity with the products examined, accompanied by a lack of any critical equipment permitting the location of a doctrine in its broader socio-historical context. Sociology, uncritically reaffirms the categories of thought of dominant classes and underwrites established patterns of power and authority.
