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Consensus-Conflict Debate: Form and Content in Social Theories

NCJ Number
119420
Author(s)
T J Bernard
Date Published
1983
Length
229 pages
Annotation
In ten chapters this book analyzes the social theories of seven pairs of philosophers to determine their assumptions about human nature and their views of the good or ideal society. From this analysis, four types of conflict and consensus theory are developed: conservative consensus (held by Aristotle, Aquinas, and Locke), sociological consensus (held by Hobbes, Durkheim, and Parsons), radical conflict (held by Plato, Rousseau, and Marx), and sociological conflict (held by Machiavelli, Simmel, and Dahrendorf).
Abstract
The debate between the consensus and conflict theories has been clouded by differences in what is good or ideal, thus causing one group of theorists to attack another group's social arrangements as undesirable and illegitimate. Sociological analysis can avoid unproductive debate by aiming for value neutrality and dealing in clear theoretical statements about human nature. Until sociologists achieve this precision, the consensus-conflict debate will rage on.

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