Introduction to Sociology

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by Theodor Adorno,

Edited by Christoph Godde,

Translated by Edmund Jephcott

Stanford University Press

Due/Published June 2002, 208 pages, paper

ISBN 0804746834

New in paper (F02)

Introduction to Sociology consists of a course of seventeen lectures given by Theodor W. Adorno in May-July 1968, the last lecture series before his death in 1969. Captured by tape recorder, these lectures present a somewhat different, and more accessible, Adorno and allow us to follow Adorno's thought in the process of formation (he spoke from brief notes). The lectures form an introduction to Adorno's work, acclimatizing the reader to the greater density of thought and language of his classic texts.

Delivered at the time of the "positivist dispute" in sociology, Adorno defends the position of the "Frankfurt School" against criticism from mainstream positivist sociologists. He sets out a conception of sociology as a discipline going beyond the compilation and interpretation of empirical facts, its truth being inseparable from the essential structure of society itself. Adorno sees sociology not as one academic discipline among others, but as an over-arching discipline that impinges on all aspects of social life.

Tracing the history of the discipline and insisting that the historical context is constitutive of sociology itself, Adorno addresses a wide range of topics, including: the purpose of studying sociology; the relation of sociology and politics; the influence of Saint-Simon, Comte, Durkheim, Weber, Marx, and Freud; the contributions of ethnology and anthropology; the relationship of method to subject matter; the problems of quantitative analysis; the fetishization of science; and the separation of sociology and social philosophy.