Sociological Theory and Human Nature

Abstract

This article critically considers the role which biologically oriented assumptions about man's innate nature have played in social theory. Two ideologically and historically divergent schools of social theory are compared—the conservative elite theorists of the early twentieth century and the more contemporary radical sociologists. The major theorists of both schools used biologically oriented concepts and assumptions about human nature in a determinate and causal fashion, but failed to provide any form of empirical verification. In this regard, it is argued that the determinate use of such assumptions by sociologists of diverse ideological viewpoints constitutes a central dynamic of social theory construction.