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The Disenchantment of the World and the Authority of Sociology: How the Queen of the Sciences Lost Her Throne

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Science under Siege

Part of the book series: Cultural Sociology ((CULTSOC))

Abstract

Skepticism about sociology’s capability of revealing the ‘real’ truth about society has since the 1960s eroded much of its former scientific authority. Concomitant with this the discipline’s ‘cultural turn’ has transformed culture from a shallow realm of ‘perceptions’ into one of socially significant myths situated at the heart of social life. This process entails a disenchantment of science (Weber), which brings out that disenchantment does not remain confined to the realm of religion and does not entail a shift in authority from religion to science either. It rather pushes sociology toward the same position that secularization theory has always envisaged for religion, i.e., that of a realm no longer capable of subjecting competing ones like politics to its authority.

The author gratefully acknowledges the other authors in this book as well as Steve Vallas for their constructive comments on earlier versions of this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Sociological Research, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Dick Houtman

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  1. Dick Houtman
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Correspondence to Dick Houtman .

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  1. Center for Sociological Research, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Dick Houtman

  2. Institute for Media Studies, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Stef Aupers

  3. Center for Sociological Research, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Rudi Laermans

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Houtman, D. (2021). The Disenchantment of the World and the Authority of Sociology: How the Queen of the Sciences Lost Her Throne. In: Houtman, D., Aupers, S., Laermans, R. (eds) Science under Siege. Cultural Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69649-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69649-8_2

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