Roberts J M
Department of Sociology, University of Manchester.
Br J Sociol. 2001 Dec;52(4):667-85. doi: 10.1080/00071310120084526.
A prominent strand within both sociological and social theory has been concerned to develop a 'systems approach' with which to explore social life. One of the most original contributions to a systems approach has arisen within critical realism. In particular critical realism demonstrates that it is possible to abstract the causal powers of different objects of analysis to examine their interaction within concrete and contingent 'open systems'. The recent dialectical turn of critical realism develops this systems approach in a much more rigorous manner. However, in this paper I argue that the (dialectical) critical realist mode of abstraction ultimately fails to embed concepts and categories internally within the specific ideological and historical forms of social relations. Or rather, critical realists do not seek to develop concepts that reflect the self-movement of a historical and contradictory essence. This self-movement is what I prefer to call a 'system'. Consequently critical realists are led to separate method from system in theory construction and such a separation leads to a problematic dualist mode of theorizing. I make these observations from a Hegelian-Marxist position.
社会学和社会理论中的一个重要脉络一直致力于发展一种“系统方法”，用以探索社会生活。对系统方法最具原创性的贡献之一源自批判实在论。具体而言，批判实在论表明，有可能抽象出不同分析对象的因果力量，以考察它们在具体且偶然的“开放系统”中的相互作用。批判实在论最近的辩证转向以一种更为严谨的方式发展了这种系统方法。然而，在本文中我认为，（辩证的）批判实在论的抽象模式最终未能将概念和范畴内在地嵌入社会关系的特定意识形态和历史形式之中。或者更确切地说，批判实在论者并不寻求发展反映历史的、矛盾的本质之自我运动的概念。这种自我运动就是我更愿意称之为“系统”的东西。因此，批判实在论者在理论构建中导致了方法与系统的分离，而这种分离导致了一种有问题的二元论理论化模式。我是从黑格尔主义 - 马克思主义的立场做出这些观察的。
