{"product_id":"chaos-of-disciplines-9780226001012","title":"Chaos of Disciplines","description":"In this vital new study, Andrew Abbott presents a fresh and daring analysis of the evolution and development of the social sciences. \u003ci\u003eChaos of Disciplines\u003c\/i\u003e reconsiders how knowledge actually changes and advances. Challenging the accepted belief that social sciences are in a perpetual state of progress, Abbott contends that disciplines instead cycle around an inevitable pattern of core principles. New schools of thought, then, are less a reaction to an established order than they are a reinvention of fundamental concepts. \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChaos of Disciplines\u003c\/i\u003e uses fractals to explain the patterns of disciplines, and then applies them to key debates that surround the social sciences. Abbott argues that knowledge in different disciplines is organized by common oppositions that function at any level of theoretical or methodological scale. Opposing perspectives of thought and method, then, in fields ranging from history, sociology, and literature, are to the contrary, radically similar; much like fractals, they are each mutual reflections of their own distinctions.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAndrew Abbott\u003c\/b\u003e is the Ralph Lewis Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago. He is author of \u003ci\u003eDepartment and Discipline\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe System of Professions\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50318436598034,"sku":"9780226001012","price":37.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_a0d80999-fbad-49cf-aec2-6b5293b62ee5.jpg?v=1727555414","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/chaos-of-disciplines-9780226001012","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}