How Ideology Has Hindered Sociological Insight

Ideology, Sociological Theories, and Public Policy

Has 'obstruction' hindered our understanding of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy?

HCM is a disorder associated with significant morbidity and mortality and a propensity to cause sudden, often unexpected death. The similarity to the symptom complex of aortic stenosis and the presence of a pressure gradient justified the initial assumption that obstruction was of prime importance in HCM and that relief of obstruction was the focal point of rational therapy. However, it is our ...

Ideology and Knowledge-How: A Rylean Perspective1

In work culminating in Know How (2009), Jason Stanley argues, against Gilbert Ryle, that knowledge-how is a species of knowledge-that. In How Propaganda Works (2015), Stanley portrays this work as undermining a “flawed ideology” supporting elitist valuations of intellectual work and workers. However, the link between Stanley’s two philosophical projects is weak. Ryle’s distinction between knowl...

How Insight Emerges in

“How is Sociological Realism Possible ? Sociology after Cognitive Science”

This article explores the limits of social constructionism and criticizes the ‘demiurgic conception of society’ associated with it. It contemplates the possibility of sociological realism by investigating the intrinsic and objective properties of action, cognition and morality. The incorporation of intrinsic meanings and intentions in social actions, the objective information supporting cogniti...