"Grand Theory"

In _The Sociological Imagination_, C. Wright Mills provided a scathing critique of "grand theory" - formal "theoretical" propositions that are almost completely unhinged from any social phenomenon or context. In the work of the classical sociologists, "theory" and empirical analysis were seamlessly conjoined such that they enriched and informed each other even as they provided insights about society and social change. Unlike the classical thinkers, practitioners of "grand theory" specialize in pitching their claims at such a level of vacuous generality that it has little relevance for understanding the social world.

Consider the infamous grand theoretical explanation of social inequality offered by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore:

"Social inequality is thus an unconsciously evolved device by which societies insure that the most important positions are conscientiously filled by the most qualified persons." (American Sociological Review, Vol. 10, 1945)

In responding to this absurdity masquerading as "theory", the Harvard sociologist George Homans quipped "this...statement is a good example of the lengths to which functionalism will lead otherwise intelligent men. As Dante would have said: Let's not talk about it, but look and pass by."

Seriously discussing such absurd claims would ironically legitimize the very ideas that one seeks to criticize.