Review essay: Sociology as a political project: Fuller's argument against bioliberalism

Kei Yoshida*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In his book, The New Sociological Imagination, Steve Fuller criticizes what he calls gbioliberalism.g According to him, the social sciences are challenged on two sides: humanistic and biological. In particular, Fuller finds the biological challenge serious. Fuller tries to reinvent sociology as a socialist project to counterattack bioliberalism as the biggest threat to the social sciences. First, the author will examine Fuller's argument against bioliberalism, referring to the so-called gliberal eugenics.g Then the author will criticize him. By reinventing sociology as a socialist project, Fuller seems to ignore the relation between value-freedom and education. One of the reasons Max Weber argued for value-freedom was to prevent sociology teachers from imposing their particular views on their students. We must consider this problem of teaching undergraduates sociology and other subjects in a better way if we are to have better social institutions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)99-106
Number of pages8
JournalPhilosophy of the Social Sciences
Volume39
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2009 Mar
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Bioliberalism
  • Liberal eugenics
  • Steve Fuller
  • Value-freedom

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Philosophy
  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)

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