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2 - “What Is a Classic?”

Variations on an Ancient Theme

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 December 2020

By
Alan Sica
Edited by
Peter Kivisto
Peter Kivisto
Affiliation:
Augustana College, Illinois
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Summary

This article interrogates the idea of a classic, locating its significance in sociology in terms of its understanding in far-ranging fields of human inquiry and exploration, particularly philosophy, art, and literature. It explores the question: Why do “classics” remain important whenever social scientists, novices or veterans, reconsider their discipline’s history and likely future?

Alan Sica is a Professor of Sociology at Pennsylvania State University, where he is the Founder and Director of the Social Thought Program. He has served as Editor of Contemporary Sociology and Chair of the American Sociological Association’s Theory Section. He is the recipient of the ASA’s History of Sociology Section’s Distinguished Achievement Award. His books include Weber, Irrationality, and Social Order (1988), What Is Social Theory? The Philosophical Debates (1998), and The Disobedient Generation: Social Theorists in the Sixties (2005).

Keywords

Artclassichistoryphilosophysociology
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Social Theory , pp. 24 - 44
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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