Human Action, History and Social Change: Reconstructions of Social Theory in Three Contexts
This text appeared in German in a Festschrift —a collection of essays written to honour and in celebration of an eminent Scholar— to Professor Hans Joas on the occasion of his 60th birthday in 2010. It compares Stuart Hughes’ (1958) monograph Consciousness and Society: The Reconstruction of European...
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| Formato: | Artículo revista |
| Lenguaje: | Español |
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EDUCC - Editorial de la Universidad Católica de Córdoba
2025
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| Acceso en línea: | https://revistas.bibdigital.uccor.edu.ar/index.php/SP/article/view/6140 |
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I38-R402-article-6140 |
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Universidad Católica de Córdoba |
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Studia Politicae |
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Español |
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Artículo revista |
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Hughes social theory action Joas naturalism Hughes teoría social acción Joas naturalismo |
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Hughes social theory action Joas naturalism Hughes teoría social acción Joas naturalismo Wittrock, Björn Human Action, History and Social Change: Reconstructions of Social Theory in Three Contexts |
| topic_facet |
Hughes social theory action Joas naturalism Hughes teoría social acción Joas naturalismo |
| author |
Wittrock, Björn |
| author_facet |
Wittrock, Björn |
| author_sort |
Wittrock, Björn |
| title |
Human Action, History and Social Change: Reconstructions of Social Theory in Three Contexts |
| title_short |
Human Action, History and Social Change: Reconstructions of Social Theory in Three Contexts |
| title_full |
Human Action, History and Social Change: Reconstructions of Social Theory in Three Contexts |
| title_fullStr |
Human Action, History and Social Change: Reconstructions of Social Theory in Three Contexts |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Human Action, History and Social Change: Reconstructions of Social Theory in Three Contexts |
| title_sort |
human action, history and social change: reconstructions of social theory in three contexts |
| description |
This text appeared in German in a Festschrift —a collection of essays written to honour and in celebration of an eminent Scholar— to Professor Hans Joas on the occasion of his 60th birthday in 2010. It compares Stuart Hughes’ (1958) monograph Consciousness and Society: The Reconstruction of European Social Thought, 1890-1930 with Die Kreativität des Handelns [The Creativity of Action] by Hans Joas (1992). Since Hughes’s development can be paralleled with Talcott Parsons's contributions (especially the conviction that the reflection on human action is fundamental for a new social theory) and given that Joas’s critique of Parsons is key to his view on social theory, this paper points out a promising dialogue between Joas and Hughes that is not straightforwardly developed in former’s work. It starts out by analysing the basic structure of two of the most outspoken and polemical versions of a naturalist and an anti-naturalist account of human action that appeared in the years Hughes published his book. It then moves on to consider how the dilemmas, which were identified in the wake of the debates at mid-century, stand out in our own era in two versions of social theorizing and thought that have emerged out of an analytical-empiricist and a linguistic-interpretive tradition respectively. It argues both these current orientations have successfully overcome several of the shortcomings characteristic of earlier positions. These present-day orientations mark genuine scholarly advances in elaborating an action-based social science. In this context, It also repeatedly calls attention to works by Hans Joas and tries to indicate that they are characterized by strategic choices that hold out the promise for a social science that will be more consistently action-based but also more consistently historically reflective than anything that has existed since the age of profound reconstruction of social thought that forms the subject of Hughes’s Consciousness and Society. |
| publisher |
EDUCC - Editorial de la Universidad Católica de Córdoba |
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2025 |
| url |
https://revistas.bibdigital.uccor.edu.ar/index.php/SP/article/view/6140 |
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2025-12-15T05:05:40Z |
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I38-R402-article-61402025-12-09T16:33:04Z Human Action, History and Social Change: Reconstructions of Social Theory in Three Contexts Acción humana, historia y cambio social: reconstrucciones de la teoría social desde tres contextos diferentes Wittrock, Björn Hughes social theory action Joas naturalism Hughes teoría social acción Joas naturalismo This text appeared in German in a Festschrift —a collection of essays written to honour and in celebration of an eminent Scholar— to Professor Hans Joas on the occasion of his 60th birthday in 2010. It compares Stuart Hughes’ (1958) monograph Consciousness and Society: The Reconstruction of European Social Thought, 1890-1930 with Die Kreativität des Handelns [The Creativity of Action] by Hans Joas (1992). Since Hughes’s development can be paralleled with Talcott Parsons's contributions (especially the conviction that the reflection on human action is fundamental for a new social theory) and given that Joas’s critique of Parsons is key to his view on social theory, this paper points out a promising dialogue between Joas and Hughes that is not straightforwardly developed in former’s work. It starts out by analysing the basic structure of two of the most outspoken and polemical versions of a naturalist and an anti-naturalist account of human action that appeared in the years Hughes published his book. It then moves on to consider how the dilemmas, which were identified in the wake of the debates at mid-century, stand out in our own era in two versions of social theorizing and thought that have emerged out of an analytical-empiricist and a linguistic-interpretive tradition respectively. It argues both these current orientations have successfully overcome several of the shortcomings characteristic of earlier positions. These present-day orientations mark genuine scholarly advances in elaborating an action-based social science. In this context, It also repeatedly calls attention to works by Hans Joas and tries to indicate that they are characterized by strategic choices that hold out the promise for a social science that will be more consistently action-based but also more consistently historically reflective than anything that has existed since the age of profound reconstruction of social thought that forms the subject of Hughes’s Consciousness and Society. Este texto apareció en alemán en un festschrift al profesor Hans Joas —una colección de ensayos escritos en honor y celebración de un investigador eminente— con motivo de su cumpleaños número sesenta, en 2010. Compara la monografía de Stuart Hughes (1958) Consciousness and Society: The Reconstruction of European Social Thought, 1890-1930 [Conciencia y sociedad: La reconstrucción del pensamiento social europeo, 1890-1930] con Die Kreativität des Handelns [La creatividad de la acción] de Hans Joas (1992). Dado que el desarrollo de Hughes puede equiparse con las aportaciones de Talcott Parsons (especialmente la convicción de que la reflexión sobre la acción humana es fundamental para una nueva teoría social) y dado que la crítica de Joas a Parsons es clave para su perspectiva teórico-social, este artículo señala un diálogo fructífero entre Joas y Hughes que no se desarrolla directamente en la obra de Joas. Comienza analizando la estructura básica de dos de las versiones más francas y polémicas de un relato naturalista y antinaturalista de la acción humana que aparecieron en los años en que Hughes publicó su libro. A continuación, pasa a considerar cómo los dilemas, que fueron identificados a raíz de los debates de mediados de siglo, se destacan en nuestra propia época en dos versiones de la teorización social y el pensamiento, que han surgido de una tradición analítico-empirista y lingüística-interpretativa, respectivamente. Sostiene que estas dos orientaciones actuales han superado con éxito varios de los defectos característicos de las posturas anteriores. Estas orientaciones actuales marcan auténticos avances académicos en la elaboración de una ciencia social basada en la acción. En este contexto también llama repetidamente la atención sobre los trabajos de Hans Joas y trata de indicar que se caracterizan por opciones estratégicas que prometen una ciencia social basada en la acción, pero que también abordarán la reflexión histórica con mayor profundidad, en relación a todo lo que ha existido desde la era de intensa reconstrucción del pensamiento social que constituye el tema de Consciousness and Society de Hughes. EDUCC - Editorial de la Universidad Católica de Córdoba 2025-12-09 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion application/pdf text/html application/epub+zip https://revistas.bibdigital.uccor.edu.ar/index.php/SP/article/view/6140 10.22529/ Studia Politicæ; Núm. 65 (2025): Otoño 2025; 126-158 2408-4182 1669-7405 spa https://revistas.bibdigital.uccor.edu.ar/index.php/SP/article/view/6140/8917 https://revistas.bibdigital.uccor.edu.ar/index.php/SP/article/view/6140/8918 https://revistas.bibdigital.uccor.edu.ar/index.php/SP/article/view/6140/8919 Derechos de autor 2025 Björn Wittrock https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 |