社会学想象力的使命——对《社会学的想象力》的阐释

The Mission of Sociological Imagination: Reading of Sociological Imagination

美国社会学家赖特·米尔斯在他的《社会学的想象力》一书中提出了社会科学研究应具备的一种品质即"社会学的想象力",这不仅为人们理解社会科学提供了一个崭新的视角,更明确了社会科学的治学方向。然而,社会学想象力的诞生并没有使传统社会科学研究风格的偏颇得到彻底的更正,空洞的宏大理论和抽象的经验主义依然存续,并给社会学想象力的发挥带来危机。社会学想象力作为一种心智品质,应承担起纠正社会科学研究风气的文化责任和使命,实现社会科学的健康发展。

American sociologist Wright Mills puts forward sociological imagination, a kind of quality which is necessary in the research of social sciences, in his book The Sociological Imagination. It provides a new angle of view for people to understand social science, and gives a clear research direction of it. However, the birth of sociological imagination does not correct the bias of traditional social science research. Empty grand theory, abstract empiricism and so on are still alive, which bring a crisis to the development of socio- logical imagination. Sociological imagination, as a kind of mental quality, therefore, should take up the cultural responsibility and mission of correcting social scientific research atmosphere, to realize the healthy development of social sciences.