That's
Interesting!: Towards a Phenomenology of Sociology and
a Sociology of Phenomenology
by
Murray Davis
[This is a synopsis of Davis's
article. You can find the entire article at Philosophy
of the Social Sciences, 1971, 1(4),
309-344.]
Davis sets up his paper by
stating: "It has long been thought that a theorist is considered great
because his theories are true, but this is false. A theorist is considered
great, not because his theories are true, but because they are interesting."
He suggests that it would
thus be interesting to ascertain what exactly it is that makes a theory
"interesting." He sets out to compare "interesting"
theories to "non-interesting" ones. Davis takes a theory to be
interesting" if it has been given 'wide circulation.'" (e.g., is
cited in textbooks, taught in courses).
In general terms, he finds
that, "A new theory will be noticed only when it denies an old truth,
proverb, platitude, maxim, adage, saying, commonplace, etc.)"
He adds, "All interesting
theories, at least all interesting social theories, then, constitute an
attack on the taken-for-granted world of their audience. … If it does not
challenge but merely confirms one of their taken-for-granted beliefs, [the
audience] will respond to it by rejecting its value while affirming its
truth."
"An interesting
proposition was always the negation of an accepted one."
The
difference between "seeming" and "being."
The Index of the Interesting
(Longer version, with examples; For points
only, see below)
A - The Characterization
of a single phenomenon
(i)
Organization
e.g., typical of younger developing disciplines. Embodied in Comte's assertion that "social phenomena in themselves, which were considered at the time he wrote to be unstructured (unlike natural phenomena) do in fact possess a coherent structure which can be grasped by science." Also in research areas like Le Bon's The Crowd -- taking a collection of individuals and recognizing them as something different in the context of the whole.
e.g., typical of stagnating discipline looking for rejuvenation; rather like a new shufling of the cards -- disaggregating and restructuring the units of the discipline. Embodied in things like Garfinkel' attack of sociology's methods, or Gouldner's attack on sociology's`policitcs.
(ii) Composition
e.g., Freud's assertion that seemingly diverse things like slips of the tongue, jokes, dreams, neuroses, and adult behaviour are all manifestations of the same instinctual drives; or people like Marx, Foucault, McLuhan, who bring it all down to economics, power, or communication.
e.g., any categorization scheme, like the one that Davis is offering here
(iii) Abstraction
e.g., Durkheim's assertion that suicide was not an individual phenomenon, but a culturally determined one.
e.g., Freud's assertion that war was not a social phenomenon but a psychological phenomenon.
(iv)
Generalization
e.g., any time a researcher who looks at one group, research site, or phenomenon shows or claims that the findings have broader generalizability (e.g., in Davis's article, he examines what defines an 'interesting' theory in the social sciences, but suggests that the same dynamics probably operate in the natural sciences as well.
e.g., Malinowski's anthropological research which indicated the Oedipal complex and its resolution -- which had been taken as a universal -- was in fact not common to all societies.
(v) Stabilization
e.g., Marx saying that the economic organization of a society, which was thought highly stable, was in fact subject to radical change in short periods of time.
e.g., Simmel's`view that conflict could go on forever.
(vi)
Function
e.g., Merton's assertion that the political machine, which was thought at the time to be an inefficient means of achieving community goals, was in actuality quite efficient.
e.g., Jails make people criminals, mental hospitals create mental illness.
(vii) Evaluation
a. What seems to be a bad phenomenon is in reality a good phenomenon.
e.g., RDLaing saying that schizophrenia was actually a good thing.
b. What seems to be a good phenomenon is in reality a bad phenomenon.
e.g., Goffman saying that asylums were like concentration camps.
B - The Relations Among Multiple Phenomena
(viii) Co-relation
e.g., The relation between cigarette smoking and various physical illnesses.
e.g., No relation between marijuana smoking and illness.
(ix) Co-existence
e.g., de Rougement's assertion that love and marriage are incompatible.
e.g., Freud's discussion of ambivalence in which he talks about the coexistence of love and hate.
(x) Co-variation
e.g., Caplovitz's observation in The Poor Pay More that expenditures for many goods and services, which were assumed to decrease at lower income levels, in fact increased at lower income levels.
e.g., de Toqueville's assertion that, while people assumed that the likelihood of revolution went down when living standards went up, in fact the likelihood went up.
(xi) Opposition
e.g., McLuhan's distinction between radio and TV as hot and cold media.
e.g., Hoffer's view in the True Believer that those who joined far left and far right movements were similar in their motivations.
(xii) Causation
e.g., Becker's view in Outsiders that it was not people's weird behaviour that caused them to be labelled deviant, but the label of deviant that cause their weird behaviour. Other examples are "The Supreme Court was on trial in Delgaamukkw", or "Schools disrupt childhood."
(b) What seems to be the dependent phenomenon (variable) in a causal relation is in reality the independent phenomenon (variable).
e.g., Weber's view that it was not the case that the economy of a country determined the religion of a country, but that the religion of the country determined its economy.
In terms of the
representation of "interesting" ideas, Davis suggests there is a
"standard form" that authors/theorists/researchers follow:
"The 'standard form'
of the books and articles in which the research is presented is the following:
The Index of the Interesting
A - The Characterization
of a single phenomenon
(i)
Organization
(ii) Composition
(iii) Abstraction
(iv)
Generalization
(v) Stabilization
(vi)
Function
(vii) Evaluation
B - The Relations Among Multiple Phenomena
(viii) Co-relation
(ix) Co-existence
(x) Co-variation
(xi) Opposition
(xii) Causation
"The 'standard form'
of the books and articles in which the research is presented is the following: