Experience Versus Understanding: Understanding Yourself in Twenty-First Century Societies

Bringing into play a lifetime of sociological analysis, Harry Bredemeier here explores fundamental issues in epistemology and ethics—and how social research has altered traditional views on such major subjects as the play of physical force in social life, the distinction between the physical and moral universe, risk taking and life making, rights and obligations—in short the most basic questions posed for our times by the sociological tradition.

Bredemeier takes sharp issue with postmodern i...