A Dream of Reason- I Opening into Opening, Personal Opening

Opening into Opening Personal Opening (2003) 1 This manuscript is dialogical: it is polyphonic. Every essay and numbered theme is both autonomous and interwoven. Any essay can be an entrance. Readers focused on “the crisis of our time” might enter through Plague Notes (p. 146) or Modernity and the Breakdown of this Order of Life […]

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A Dream of Reason I. Part 2 Opening through Direct Examination of Foundational Concepts

Opening through Direct Examination of Foundational Concepts  Sociology-Psychology In this exploration, sociology is a co-constitutive aspect of a unified “sociology-psychology.”[1] Sociology-psychology is a distinct species of theoretical reason (not a type of science). It will advance inquiry if an integrated discipline proves adequate to the interpretation of its “domain of inquiry,” or if there develops […]

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A Dream of Reason I. Part 3 Opening through the Author

Opening through Writing (1997) (The Author) 1 I never imagined that this task – and my isolation – would continue into a new millennium. I underestimated the inherent difficulty of the project, and the defenses protecting sociology’s and psychologies dominant professional identities as a “sciences.” An uncle told me the cautionary tale of Joe Gould. […]

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A Dream of Reason I. Part 4 -Opening through Projects

Entering through Projects (1996) 1 This inquiry developed from the theoretically guided interpretation of artifacts (e.g., Plato’s Republic) to sociology as a distinct “social science” to an open foundational struggle for disciplinary self-knowledge. 2 2.1 We began in 1960 with On Plato’s Republic: A Substantive Study in the Sociology of Knowledge. Karl Popper and Richard […]

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A Dream of Reason I. Part 5 Opening through “The Foundational Disciplinary Anatomy”…

Opening through “The Foundational Disciplinary Anatomy” of Sociology-Psychology[1] (2000) 1.Opening Disciplines are “lenses” … Not glass. Sapient…. Personal-interpersonal. There is a sense in which lenses not only discover but also invent “the world” they explore (without eyes no visual world). Our project is “discipline reconstruction.” We focus on “foundations.” Foundational inquiry is in direct dialogue […]

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A Dream of Reason I. Part 6 Methodological Notes on Autonomy and Influence

Opening with Others: Methodological Notes on Autonomy and Influence (2003) 1.Opening 1.1                “The social/behavioral sciences” and the humanities now require that authors comment on all literature that could conceivably “touch on” relevant disciplinary problems.We hold that forced commentary tends to discourage and distort foundational projects. A foundational project, […]

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Writings and Interviews by Avron Soyer

Reflections on life, paintings, theory, conversation.

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