RUNNING FROM MADNESS? Sociology’s Dread of the Irrational

Alan Sica

doi:10.4324/9781003193517-10

RUNNING FROM MADNESS? Sociology’s Dread of the Irrational

Alan Sica

Sociology and Criminology

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

Abstract

Rationally anchored social action has been a standard feature of social theory since Jeremy Bentham’s “hedonic calculus” (1780), and was institutionalized in Max Weber’s four types of social action (1922). Directly connected with these ideas is “rational choice theory,” most fully developed in the 1980s. Yet the idea that human behavior could accurately be tracked or predicted by a rational model has met with criticisms ever since it was first broached. Karl Mannheim pursued the roots of politically motivated social action along a rationality—irrationality continuum in the 1920s, as had Vilfredo Pareto even earlier.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	The Future of Sociology
Subtitle of host publication	Ideology or Objective Social Science?
Publisher	Taylor and Francis
Pages	116-134
Number of pages	19
ISBN (Electronic)	9781000630190
ISBN (Print)	9781032045047
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003193517-10
State	Published - Jan 1 2022

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

General Social Sciences

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abstract = "Rationally anchored social action has been a standard feature of social theory since Jeremy Bentham{\textquoteright}s “hedonic calculus” (1780), and was institutionalized in Max Weber{\textquoteright}s four types of social action (1922). Directly connected with these ideas is “rational choice theory,” most fully developed in the 1980s. Yet the idea that human behavior could accurately be tracked or predicted by a rational model has met with criticisms ever since it was first broached. Karl Mannheim pursued the roots of politically motivated social action along a rationality—irrationality continuum in the 1920s, as had Vilfredo Pareto even earlier.",

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RUNNING FROM MADNESS? Sociology’s Dread of the Irrational

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