Sociology between the Past and the Future: Traditions and Prospects

The article by outstanding Czech sociologist Miloslav Petrusek (1936—2012) discusses a number of theoretical, methodological and practical issues of great importance for sociology today. In particular, the author touches upon various approaches to the classification of the Western sociological tradition (R. Collins, R. Boudon), raises the fundamental question of the specific nature of sociological cognition of social phenomena, characterizing its 'multi-paradigm' status, points out a number of difficulties connected with the peculiarities of teaching sociology in universities under the conditions of radical pluralization of intellectual life, typical of the 'post-modern epoch'.

the sociological tradition, structural functionalism, interpretative sociology, interactionism, critical sociology, sociology of conflict, the principle of complementation, sociology of knowledge, social conditionality of thought, a paradigm, a multi-paradigm structure, the subject and the object in social cognition, reflexive modernity, post-modernity, scientization, sociological education, the legacy of sociology classics