In his doctoral dissertation, Corrado Piroddi engages in theory-building by improving on existing theories and combining them in an innovative way. In this respect, his main aim is to address four specific issues that are pivotal for both the German critical theorist Axel Honneth and the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu: The study of the pre-rational and non-reflexive features of the social actions of human beings; the problem of social reproduction; the study of the relationship between social conflict and social transformation and amelioration; the formulation of a sharp conceptual distinction between "power" and "domination".
The relevance of the project is not only theoretical and philosophical. It tries to outline a critical and theoretical perspective that can be used by sociology, economics, and political theory as a background theory for specific empirical inquiries, and that can be used in social criticism.
The study aims to supply theoretical tools that can help social scientists to study and better understand social and political phenomena like the rise of populism and alt-right movements, the weakening of Western representative democracies, the changes in the labor market, the persistence of masculine and patriarchal cultures.
The doctoral dissertation of MA Corrado Piroddi in the field of philosophy titled Toward a Critical Social Ontology: A Study on Pierre Bourdieu and Axel Honneth will be publicly examined in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Tampere University at 12 o’clock on Friday 28 August 2020 in the Main building auditorium A1, Kalevantie 4, Tampere. The Opponent (via Teams) will be Professor Jean-Philippe Deranty (Macquarie University, Australia). The Custos will be Professor Arto Laitinen (Faculty of Social Science, Tampere University). At most 50 people are allowed at the auditorium.
The defence can be followed via remote connection, meeting ID: 622 1522 2186
The dissertation is available online at
http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-1658-7