First, he suggests that maximum coher- ence in any scientific field “requires a central notion,” and second, he argues that control can be that concept for sociology and perhaps other social sciences. Gibbs addresses two points in his article. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. The Social Science Journal, Volume 27, Number 1, pages 5145. Gibbs reminds us of “an inescapable dilemma: *Direct all correspondence to Patricia MacCorquodale, Department of Sociology, University of Arizo- na, Tucson, Arizona 85721. I wholeheartedly concur that we need to develop consensus with respect to definitions of useful sociological concepts and to cease the endless hair-splitting and proliferation of “new” concepts. Is this any different than the varying usages of class that Gibbs discusses? Using the same central concept does not provide unification across major subfields as long as it is employed in different theoretical perspectives a Marxist feminist and a diplomatic historian would have divergent, fragmented approaches although both might by studying twentieth century China. In classical Newtonian mechanics, for example, the mass of an object is a fixed constant, but in Einstein’s relativity theory, mass is a function of velocity, and it can be transformed into different types of energy. In contemporary physics, the same notion is conceptualized differently depending upon the theory in which it is used. In the social sciences, time periods are central in history, but what about geographical region? Political science could be centered around politics, but what about the state? Nor does linking concepts to each other directly or indirectly (as Gibbs illustrates with power, class and social relation) end fragmentation insofar as these central concepts are embedded in divergent theoretical perspectives. Physics, for example, seems to have several concepts: space, time, and mass. The analogy between sociology and science must be used cautiously, however.’ I doubt that any field, or any major sub-field, can find a centralconcept, and equally unsure that one concept can be applied to all subject matter. That a concept could be used to “describe and think about all or virtually all of their subject matter” would certainly provide a degree to unification to the field. PATRICIA MAcCORQUODALE University of Arizona Gibbs addresses two points in his article.
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