Resumen: Desde una reflexión teórica, epistemológica y metodológica, este ensayo propone al “abordaje problemático” como metodología para investigar en teoría sociológica. Para esto, se retoman críticamente las postulaciones de Alexander sobre su multidimensionalidad y las de Ritzer acerca de su carácter multiparadigmático. Allí, se señalan ciertos reduccionismos en sus elaboraciones que interpretan a la teoría sociológica desde algunas dicotomías clásicas. En cambio, el abordaje problemático permite dar cuenta de la pluralidad de problemas, presupuestos y análisis que van transformando a la (...) teoría sociológica, la cual tampoco se recorta únicamente por conceptos. Así, se trazan dimensiones y niveles de un problema, que habilitan a comparar perspectivas. Tal trazado es el resultado de un análisis emergente, que las delimita desde los mismos planteos de las perspectivas, al evitar un estudio “interno”, clausurado en un autor, o “externo”, que las interpreta desde una supuesta perspectiva “superadora”. Asimismo, este abordaje y su análisis emergente se ponen a prueba con el problema de las clasificaciones sociales, en el cual se detectan dos dimensiones, atravesadas por dos niveles. El concepto de reclasificaciones sociológicas, como proceso que reclasifica clasificaciones sociales en general, permite una mirada reflexiva sobre la teoría y sus dicotomías.: This essay proposes the “problematic approach” as a methodology to sociological theory. It is based on a critic of Alexander’s multidimensionality and Ritzer’s multiparadigm. The problematic approach allows to account for a diversity of problems, presuppositions and analyses that have been changing sociological theory, which cannot be reduced to concepts. Such is the result of an emergent analysis, limited from the perspectives themselves, as opposed to an “internal” study around an author, and to an “external” one which interprets them from a supposed “superior” perspective. Also, this approach and its emergent analysis are tested through the problem of social classifications, in which two dimensions are crossed by two levels. The concept of sociological reclassifications, as the process that reclassifies general social classifications, allows a reflexive outlook on theory and its dichotomies. (shrink)

Chapter 1 (To know in order to survive) & Chapter 2 (A critique of evolved reason) explain human knowledge and its limits from an evolutionary point of view. Chapter 3 (Captured in our Cockpits) explains the evolution of consciousness, using value driven decision theory. Chapter 4-6 (Chapter 4 Sociobiology, Chapter 5 Culture: the Human Arena), Chapter 6, Genes, Memes, and the Environment) show that to understand culture you have at least to deal with 4 levels: genes, brains, the environment, culture. (...) Chapter 7-8 (Why some apes became humans) give a model of human evolution in which Alexander's concept of 'ecological dominace' plays a crucial role. (shrink)

The present work is immersed in the context of the contemporary philosophy of science, especially of the semanticist philosophy of the structuralist metatheory. Objectively, the work aims to reestablish the dialogue between the general philosophy of science and the special philosophy developed by scientists concerned with the fundamentals of their discipline, in this case, with sociologists. After presenting the Mertonian notion of middle range theory, the conception of theory that offers ME and, from that conception, a way of conceiving both (...) global intertheoretical relations and intertheoretical change will be presented. Finally, the analysis of the use of the notion of middle range theory in scientific practice will be made, analyzing the specific case of sociological research about organizations. (shrink)