ABSTRACT
In this chapter I navigate the adjectivized world of sociologies from conflict and consensus theories to materialism, ecologism, physiologism and from bourgeois and Marxist sociologies to feminist and Black sociologies. I argue that we need to free ourselves from the myths of value-free, value-neutral science. We need to show a concern for people rather than profits, positions, rules and roles. Our objective should be to combat the fragmentation of persons that destroys the possibility of linking biographies, cultures, and histories in a network of empathy, compassion, and cooperation of human beings pursuing and creating liberating futures. Science should be viewed as a symbol for the best forms of inquiry we engage in. It should not be an object of adoration or worship, nor should it stand uncritically for modern science. Modern science has been an integral part of the cultural apparatus of political, economic, and military elites from its emergence in the seventeenth century to the present. Science in a variety of forms has, in general, always been a tool of ruling class interests. In this sense, adopting science uncritically means adopting a set of social and institutional trappings, such as hierarchical relationships, that serve established, elite, and ruling class interests.
