ABSTRACT
Reflexive modernization is having a subversive effect on sociology premised upon erroneous assumptions about nature. The strong emphasis of sociology on language, discourse, and conceptualization has to be balanced by a recognition of the significance of experience. The nature-skeptical perspective perceives only omnipotent humans engaging in discursive, social, and political relations with one another. Since humans have been created by nature and continue to be dependent on its processes, both externally and internally, the first definition of nature captures an important aspect of human existence. Nature also presents different faces, each of which can either be highlighted or downplayed, leading to two very distinct social and conceptual constructions. By conceiving of technology and machines as nothing but human constructions, sociology has obscured their character as the redeployment of the forces and materials of nature. Pre-industrial, pre-modern, traditional society was replaced by modern, industrial society in which the Enlightenment gave humanism its modern form.
