Grundlagen der soziologischen Theorie

The controversy between action theory and systems theory approaches marks one of the central dividing lines of the sociological theory discussion, which also includes the level of methods. Habermas has put this dividing line in a widely accepted formula: action theories thus rely primarily on hermeneutical understanding of meaning, systems theory approaches solely on functional analysis; bound to the perspective of the functionalist observer, systems theory cannot find an adequate approach to the problem of intersubjectivity. - The third volume of the successful textbook "Fundamentals of Sociological Theory" aims at revising this assessment and its premises.