Obhajoba realistického pojetí modernizace: Poznámky k článku prof. Árnasona a dalším polemikám

Abstract

A reply to Jan Keller (2007), Jaroslaw Kilias (2006), & Johann Arnason (2007) as critical reviewers of Machonin's Ceska spolecnost a sociologicke poznani. Problemy spolecenske transformace a modernizace od poloviny sedesatych let 20. stoleti do soucasnosti ([The Czech Society and Sociological Knowledge. Problems of Social Transformation and Modernization from the Mid 1960s to the Present] Prague: ISV, 2005). Keller's critique is found to be fed by his personal, 'hyperskeptical' & overly pessimistic, view of modernization. Kilias misreads the book in the context of his own theoretical-methodological conceptions. Arnason's criticism is discussed in more detail, addressing the following issues: (1) the variety & diversity of epistemological approaches in sociological research, (2) the liberal thought in classical Marxism & the notions of social liberalism & democratic socialism, (3) the theory of multiple modernities, & (4) the concept & term 'state socialism' & the question whether state socialism, as practiced in the Soviet bloc countries, qualifies as a special type of modernity.