Beyond Cleopatra’s Nose: An Invitation to Dialectical Analysis

Simeon J. Newman, Max-Weber-Institut für Soziologie, Universität Heidelberg

Dialectical analysis is proposed as an alternative and complement to exogenous shocks and path dependence, on the one hand, and threshold models of endogenous tipping-point change, on the other. A dialectical analysis focuses on earlier and later phases of a given process, when the substantive nature of the social configuration that obtains during the latter phase contradicts that which obtains during the earlier one, insofar as both phases are related to one another—via “sublation”—as parts of a single sequence. Applying the method yields an “ironic” narrative wherein a single factor causes 1) the onset and 2) the demise of the social configuration in question. More or less closely influenced by Hegel, the main inspiration for such thinking, the three main classical social theorists (Marx, Weber, Durkheim) all rendered change in such terms. Important episodes of political development they did not address are also intelligible in these terms, suggesting one avenue by which grand theory can be revived. But the method’s chief advantage is epistemic in nature: dialectical analysis provides a way of solving the problem of infinite regress (“Cleopatra’s nose”): it allows one to employ substantive (rather than formal or conventional) criteria to identify the “beginning” and “end” of a given causal narrative.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 70. Theory and Method for Critical Studies II