ABSTRACT
An oscillation between the psychological and the sociological, between the personal and the political, many examples of polarization in contemporary sociology itself prescribe equilibration between fundamental categorical principles to advance the discipline of sociology and its intellectual coherence. Durkheim, who perhaps more than any other sociologist threw in his lot with the belief in a reified social existence, also affirmed a sacred religious belief in individuality. Reinhardt Bendix, in his presidential address to the sixty-fifth annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, enjoined his sociological colleagues that they must demonstrate, to those willing to listen, that the great issues of the day can be examined with that combination of passionate concern and scholarly detachment which is the hallmark of reasoned enquiry in our field'. Only when the perspective is both personal and political can the sociological imagination make a difference in the quality of human life in our time.
