The Crisis in Sociology

Book excerpt: Crisis in Sociology presents a compelling portrait of sociology's current troubles and proposes a remedy that is likely to inspire controversy. In the authors' view sociology's crisis has deep roots, traceable to the over-ambitious sweep of the discipline's founders. Lopreato and Crippen argue that the most disabling flaw is the failure to discover even a single general law or principle necessary to systematically organize empirical observations, guide inquiry by suggesting falsifiable hypotheses, and form the core of a genuinely cumulative body of knowledge. Crisis in Sociology invites sociologists to consider that participation in the "new social science," exemplified by thriving new fields such as evolutionary psychology, may help to build a vigorous, scientific sociology.