Doing philosophical sociology in troubled times: a reply to Simon Susen

ABSTRACT

In this intervention, I reply to Simon Susen’s review of myDebating Humanity. Towards a Philosophical Sociology. I am thankful for his detailed reading but contend that this discussion is a missed opportunity. The main thrust of my margument is that sociology is at a critical crossroads: it either goes back to its philosophical roots and develops a more urgent sense of its role in understanding some pressing normative challenges of our times, or else it runs the risk of irrelevance. Yet Susen’s review focuses on taxonomic distinctions that revolve mostly around themselves and thus fails to raise substantive questions.

KEYWORDS:

• Epistemology of the social sciences
• humanism
• normativity
• philosophical sociology
• social theory

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Daniel Chernilo

Daniel Chernilo is a Professor of Sociology in the School of Government at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Santiago, Chile. Previously, he was a Professor of Social and Political Thought at Loughborough University. He is currently writing on questions of secularization and the relations of nationalism and cosmopolitanism.