The Elimination of Rupture: Social Authority's Attempt to Transcend Binary Distinctions

Reading Coleman's "The Foundations of Social Theory"

Abstract

As a representative work of Coleman's theory of rational action, "Foundations of Social Theory" contains Coleman's ideological intention of building a bridge between the macro and the micro, in which the theory of social authority, as an integral part of the theory of rational action, is also an attempt to construct the micro-macro dichotomy in the generation of its authority relationship and authority system. Therefore, based on the methodology and research framework of Coleman's rational action theory system, we select the authority idea of the book "The Foundations of Social Theory" as the object of exposition, and try to comprehensively discuss Coleman's social authority idea through analyzing its middle-level theory of social authority from the aspects of foundation of social authority theory, the granting of authority, the social performance of authority and the overall characteristics of Coleman's social authority thoughts. It seeks to reveal Coleman's attempt to transcend the binary distinction between micro and macro at the authority level.