Since its birth, sociology has struggled vainly to achieve an encompassing intellectual 'synthesis' as it has fought against the explosion of ideas about the social world. This volume considers an alternative response that has recently developed to conditions of intellectual fragmentation: 'the dialogical turn, ' a sociological approach that welcomes a plurality of orientations and perspectives as the essential basis for establishing productive dialogue. This volume explores this exciting approach, building on the ideas of Donald N. Levine, whose extensive writings on the forms and functions of intellectual dialogue provide the point of departure for an internationally renowned group of scholars. Their innovative chapters assess the role of sociology in the conversation across contemporary academic disciplines, exploring the fundamental structural and conceptual reconstructions now taking place in the social sciences

Chapter 1 1 The Dialogical Turn Part 2 I Sociology and the Dialogue across Academic Disciplines Chapter 3 2 A Regime of Disciplines: Toward a Historical Sociology of Disciplinary Knowledge Chapter 4 3 Interdisciplinarity in Theory and Practice Chapter 5 4 The Liberal Arts as a Dialogic Project Part 6 II Sociology and the Broader Intellectual Dialogue Chapter 7 5 Max Weber and Emile Durkheim in Dialogue: Classical Views on Contemporary Problems Chapter 8 6 Die Gesellschaft-An Early Transdisciplinary Project Chapter 9 7 Academic Intellectuals Part 10 III Sociological Reconstructions of Disciplinary Fields Chapter 11 8 The Maturity of Social Theory Chapter 12 9 Embracing Bodies: Sociology and the Sociology of Sex and Gender Chapter 13 10 Where Sociability Comes From: Neurosociological Foundations of Social Interaction Part 14 IV Dialogical Reconceptualizations within Sociology Chapter 15 11 Is There a Future for Sociology in the Bioglobal Age? Chapter 16 12 Rationalization, the Constitution of Meaning, and Institutional Development Chapter 17 13 Interdisciplinary Reflections on the Civilizational Dimensions of Modernity Part 18 Appendix Part 19 Index Part 20 About the Contributors

Charles Camic is the Martindale-Bascom Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Hans Joas is director of the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, Erfurt, Germany, and professor of sociology and social thought at the University of Chicago.