ABSTRACT

Anyone who delves deeply into the literatures of theoretical sociology must eventually come to feel that the reach of our discipline exceeds its grasp.

On one hand, the relevance of many sociological concerns to key human values is unmistakable. Our work, at its best, aims at questions central to any rationale for the conduct of social life. Why do we have social stratifi­ cation? What accounts for variation in its forms and extent? How much of it is strictly necessary, or desirable? Where does deviance come from, and what are the best possibilities for coping with it? What makes organizations work, or fail to work, and how can we help them realize their best poten­ tials? What causes civil upheaval - riot, rebellion, civil war, and the like - and how might the destruction caused by such things be minimized? These questions are not just analytically profound. They are basic to any attempt to make sense of social experience, and to act intelligently in response to such interpretations. Answers to such questions, from the profound to the inane, play a pivotal role in eveiyday social practice. Most of us would like to imagine that we are helping, in some small way, to improve the quality of such answers - both for the benefit of sociological discourse, and ultimately for that of some greater public.