ABSTRACT
I take it as adequately shown by the history of science that the frameworks or models used by the scientist influence the kinds of problems he or she selects, the conceptual tools he or she favors, the data he or she attends to, and the answers he or she offers. Field theory and quantum theory in physics, for example, not only showed Newtonian mechanics to be a special case of a more general theory, but have led to a very different world view and ways of approaching an understanding of it. Though the problems of current sociological theory may not belong in such a lofty context, they are nevertheless subject to the same principle. Indeed, the particular theoretical perspective applied to the problem of social change has tended to give especially selective results.
