This book explores the shift in sociology away from the shared aspiration of the classical transition, of transcending partiality through the construction of a 'science of society', in the face of challenges to the notion of objectivity.

Robert Leroux is Professor of Sociology at the University of Ottawa, Canada. He is the author of History and Sociology in France: From Scientific History to the Durkheimian School, French Liberalism in the 19th Century and Political Economy and Liberalism in France. He is the editor of The Anthem Companion to Gabriel Tarde and the co-editor of The Anthem Companion to Maurice Halbwachs.

Thierry Martin is Professor Emeritus at the University of Franche-Comté and a researcher at the Logiques de l¿agir laboratory and at the Institut d'histoire et de philosophie des scienceset des techniques, France.

Stephen Turner is Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Florida, USA. His recent books include Cognitive Science and the Social: A Primer, The Politics of Expertise, Understanding the Tacit, and American Sociology: From Pre-Disciplinary to Post-Normal.

Introduction

Part I: What is Sociology?

Chapter 1: Sociology: Before the Origin

Chapter 2: Sociology in Search of Grounded Knowledge

Chapter 3: Sociology Today and the Classical Legacy

Part II: Unity and Disunity

Chapter 4: Social Sciences and Natural Sciences: Which Unit?

Chapter 5: The Lessons of Rational Choice Theory

Chapter 6: Middle-Range Theories and the Unification Problem in Social Science

Chapter 7: Running from Madness?: Sociology's Dread of the Irrational

Part III: Objectivity or Ideology?

Chapter 8 : Sociology as a Profession in a Post-Truth World

Chapter 9: From Luhmann to Esser: On Changing Intellectual Dominance in German Mainstream Sociology

Chapter 10: Rationalization, Science, and Politics: A Sociological Fable

Chapter 11: The Two Parts of Sociological Objectivity