Is sociology the science of the irrational? Conceptions of rationality in sociological theory

This paper explores the role of the concept of rationality in (especially classical) sociological theory. This exploration is prompted by widely held views, especially among economists and rational choice theorists, that classical sociology is the science of the irrational lacking a conception of rationality. By using pertinent examples (mostly) from classical and post-classical (or early contemporary) sociological theory, the paper casts serious doubt on such claims. Specifically, classical sociological theory is characterized by the following features in analyzing rationality: conceptual and methodological pluralism, theoretical and empirical richness, treating rationality as a complex social phenomenon, differentiating economic and noneconomic rationality, acknowledging the social character and foundation of (economic) rationality, and contrasting epistemological or scientific rationality and ontological or reallife irrationality, including the revelation of the irrationality of extreme (economic) rationality.     

The Most Cherished Myth: Puritanism and Liberty Reconsidered and Revised

This paper revisits and reconsiders the prevailing assumption or conventional wisdom about the association or affinity between Puritanism and liberty in historically Puritan societies, especially America and to a lesser extent Great Britain. It argues and elaborates on that the “Puritanism and liberty” equation or link is a naïve assumption, speculative explanation or cherished liberal-democratic mythology analogous and related to, as well as even more enduring and prevalent than, what contemporary sociologists call the “beloved myth” of an elective affinity or connection between Calvinism and modern capitalism. The paper aims to fill in a void in the current sociological literature in which attempts to question and reveal the Puritanism and liberty equivalence as a myth are relatively infrequent. Overall, the paper aims to contribute to the existing literature on the relationships between Puritanism, Calvinism and other ascetic Protestantism on the one hand and modern democratic society on the other.     

Exact Likelihood Ratio Testing for Homogeneity of the Exponential Distribution

The aim of this article is to discuss homogeneity testing of the exponential distribution. We introduce the exact likelihood ratio test of homogeneity in the subpopulation model, ELR, and the exact likelihood ratio test of homogeneity against the two-components subpopulation alternative, ELR2. The ELR test is asymptotically optimal in the Bahadur sense when the alternative consists of sampling from a fixed number of components. Thus, in some setups the ELR is superior to frequently used tests for exponential homogeneity which are based on the EM algorithm (like the MLRT, ADDS, and D-tests). One important example of superiority of ELR and ELR2 tests is the case of lower contamination. We demonstrate this fact by both theoretical comparisons and simulations.     

Connecting Knowledge and Policy: The Promise of Community Indicators in the United States

There are over 200 identified community based indicator projects in the United States. This paper reviews the factors that contribute to the success and failure of community indicator projects and discusses the types of desired outcomes that communities are trying to achieve. Both organizational and political factors contributing to the success of community indicators projects are discussed. Appendices include information on many of the community indicator projects in the United States. Advice for communities seeking to launch an indicator project are outlined.     

On the inadequacy of the regression paradigm used in the study of human judgment

Although traditional instruments of research into human judgment - correlational statistics, the lens model, the ANOVA approach, etc. - are analytical, logical, and explicit tools of study, they might be inadequate, irrational and incorrect in their ultimate impact. In this short note a few examples are introduced to show that linear (in parameters) regression models could represent only a quasi-rational paradigm at best. Simple graphical diagrams are used to clarify three main difficulties with the linear model.