Peter L. Berger: "Whatever Happened to Sociology?"

Howard Gabennesch sent me this short, interesting piece from First Things.

It's particularly interesting from the perspective of our discussions here because Berger argues that one of the main things leading to the decline of sociology has been the rise of leftist orthodoxy in the discipline. This is consistent with things I've argued here in the past. I know many liberals don't believe that leftist bias is a problem in academia, but I offer this piece up as yet another bit of evidence.

Note that Berger is not writing for a political audience, he's writing as a sociologist. His central claim is that two developments have been primarily responsible for the decline of sociology. He writes:

"The title question has been asked frequently in recent years, both within and outside the field. I think that it can be answered rather easily: sociology has fallen victim to two severe deformations. The first began in the 1950s; I would label it as methodological fetishism. The second was part of the cultural revolution that started in the late 1960s; it sought to transform sociology from a science into an instrument of ideological advocacy."

That last bit about the discipline becoming an instrument of ideological advocacy is, IMHO, pretty much right on. That doesn't describe the attitude of all sociologists, of course, but it seems to describe that of at leats a large minority of them.