The Freedom of Sociology. The Basic Concept of Modernity and the Construction of Sociological Theory

对于作为社会领域和现代社会科学的社会学来说，自由问题是核心和基础。这篇论文是在我的研究中提出的。一方面，自由归因于日常生活。另一方面，对新的和不断增长的自由领域的探测以及对“真正的”自由的需求处于现代性语义学的中心。这两种现象--自由的日常发生及其在现代性中的关键地位--都值得社会学解释。提交的工作旨在进行一项分析，填补当前社会学的一个空白。我没有专注于现有概念中的特定自由概念，也没有强调自由的属性和语义的具体工具功能，而是分析了构建自由社会学的一般可能性。作品的标题就是指这个选定的视角。“社会学的自由”这个短语暗示了这样一个事实，即存在着社会学特有的自由的概念化。同时，它也表明，不只有一种可能性可以用准元理论的方式来发现。不同的社会学描述不同的自由，或者赋予类似的自由概念不同的理论相关性。副标题《现代性的基本概念与社会学理论的建构》应指出社会学理论建构与自由概念化的密切关系。前者既不能忽视后者，后者也不能独立于前者。为了支持这些论断，我进行了四个详细而系统的理论分析。当考虑到于尔根·哈贝马斯和卡尔·波普尔的理论时，社会学理论建设与自由概念之间密切联系的假设可能并不令人惊讶。然而，关于卢曼和已故的米歇尔·福柯的理论，这是第一个有趣的结果。作为这项研究的一般科学收获，除了具体和比较的理论讨论、系统化和增强之外，我想强调三点：首先，本研究对四种自由社会学进行了系统化的重建，每一种自由社会学都属于一个理想类型(见第13页，表1.1)。这些分析是基于这样一个普遍命题，即从社会学角度分析自由基本上有四种可能性。其次，我指出了每一种自由理论的基本问题，这些问题源于对自由的反义词必然性、偶然性、承诺和胁迫的定义(见第21页，表1.2)。第三，对悖论一般分析方法的重构和系统化，有助于探索自由理论的基本问题及其解决方案。

For sociology as the science of the social sphere and of modern society the problem of freedom is central and basic. This thesis is put forward in my study. On the one hand, freedom is attributed in everyday life. On the other hand, the detection of new and growing spheres of freedom as well as the demand for "real" freedom are situated in the center of the semantics of modernity. Both phenomena - the everyday occurrence of freedom and its key position in modernity - deserve a sociological explanation. The submitted work aims at an analysis which fills a gap in current sociology. Instead of concentrating on a specific concept of freedom in the thicket of existing concepts and instead of emphasizing a specific, instrumental function of the attribution and semantics of freedom, I carried out an analysis of the general possibilities of constructing a sociology of freedom.The title of the work refers to this chosen perspective. The phrase "The Freedom of Sociology" hints at the fact, that there are conceptualizations of freedom specific to sociology. At the same time it makes clear, that there is not just one possibility which could be found in a quasi metatheoretical way. Different sociologies describe different liberties or give similar concepts of freedom a different theoretical relevance. The subtitle "The Basic Concept of Modernity and the Construction of Sociological Theory" shall point out the close relation between sociological theory building and the conceptualization of freedom. Neither can the first disregard the latter, nor is the latter independent from the first.To support these theses, I made four detailed and systematizing theory analyses. The hypothesis of the close relation between sociological theory building and the concept of freedom may not be surprising when considering the theories of Jürgen Habermas and Karl Popper. However, with regard to the theories of Niklas Luhmann and the late Michel Foucault, it is a first and interesting result.As general scientific gains of the study besides the specific and comparing theoretical discussions, systematizations, and enhancements, I want to stress three points: Firstly, the study delivers systematizing reconstructions of four sociologies of freedom, each of which belongs to an ideal type (see page 13, table 1.1). These analyses are based on the general proposition, that basically there are four possibilities to analyze freedom sociologically. Secondly, I point out basic problems of every theory of freedom which result from the definition of freedom by its antonyms necessity, contingency, commitment, and coercion (see page 21, table 1.2). Thirdly, the reconstruction and systematization of the general method of paradox analysis was very helpful to explore the basic problems of freedom theories and their solutions.