The Sociology of Philosophies
- Author
- Randall Collins
- Published
- 1998
- Pages
- 1,098
- Recommended
- Once
Randall Collins, The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change (1998).
Why it’s on the list: Collins’s 1,100-page attempt at the general theory the thread was asking for: that across Greece, China, India, Japan and Europe, major thinkers cluster in small rival networks within two or three degrees of each other, and that intellectual creativity is a property of those networks rather than of individuals.
Where I saw it: In the replies to Sarah Guo’s March 22, 2025 question on X — “is there a book / essay about environments that best support scientific discovery? Not about specifically bell labs, cavendish, xerox parc, los alamos - but why these places were so productive?” Kyle saved the link and reconstructed the full reply-thread list on 2026-09-17; the whole recovered list is on Is There a Book… (tweet).
Metadata checked: Open Library (1998; 1098 pages).
Connections
- Republic of Letters · Ideological Family Tree — the two portfolio ideas this is almost a founding text for.
- Scientific Research — the theory-side answer, where the rest of the list is case studies.
Not yet read.