First Published in 1998. This is Volume XI of twenty-two in a series on Social Theory and Methodology. Notions are widespread that sociological theory is either an industrious activity on the drawing boards of the architects of fantasy or a branch of esoterics operating in a shadowy realm of semi-darkness. The present study holds neither of these conceptions of sociological. The present study's function is to illuminate the difference between one theory and another. The power and reliability of a theory are not always evident all at once. A theory may have a power to explain what was not originally anticipated; it may also disclose the existence of problems it cannot explain.

Part 1 Sociology and the Sciences; Chapter 1 The Road to Sociology; Chapter 2 The Birth of the Social Sciences; Part 2 Positivistic Organicism; Chapter 3 The Social and Philosophical Origins of Positivistic Organicism; Chapter 4 The Classical Period of Positivistic Organicism; Chapter 5 The Transformation and Eventual Disintegration of Positivistic Organicism; Part 3 Conflict Theory: The Paradox of Maturity; Chapter 6 The Foundations of Conflict Theory; Chapter 7 Major Conflict Ideologies of the Nineteenth Century; Chapter 8 Sociological Conflict Theories; Part 4 The Formal School of Sociological Theory; Chapter 9 The Philosophical Foundations of Sociological Formalism; Chapter 10 The Neo-Kantian Branch of Sociological Formalism; Chapter 11 The Phenomenological Branch of Sociological Formalism; Part 5 Social Behaviorism; Chapter 12 The Conceptual Foundations of Social Behaviorism; Chapter 13 The Pluralistic Behavioral Branch of Social Behaviorism; Chapter 14 Symbolic Interactionism; Chapter 15 The Social-Action Branch of Social Behaviorism; Chapter 16 Further Developments in Social-Action Theory; Part 6 Sociological Functional; Chapter 17 The Nature and Origins of Sociological Functionalism; Chapter 18 Macro-Functionalism in Contemporary Sociology; Chapter 19 Micro-Functionalism: Group Dynamics; Part 7 Conclusion; Chapter 20 Toward Theoretical Integration;