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- Title
Soziale Zeit.
- Authors
Weidenhaus, Gunter
- Abstract
The book "Operation and Event. A Relativity Theory of Social Time" by Ferdinand Zehentreiter develops a general theory of social time based on the social theoretical considerations of pragmatism by G.H. Mead and the genetic epistemology of Jean Piaget. Zehentreiter shows that both Mead and Piaget refer to the fundamental principles of Einstein's general theory of relativity. The book deals with the principles of relativity theory, the understanding of events and operations, as well as a nonlinear development of sociological theory. Zehentreiter defines social time as nonlinear and open to the future, arising from cognitive operations and reciprocal perspective-taking. The article discusses the Lorentz transformation in relation to relativity theory and emphasizes that it only works if the spacetime interval between events can already be determined through measurements. It is argued that general relativity theory is deterministic and does not generate an open future. The article concludes that the book provides good approaches to a theory of social time, but a clearer formulation and less reference to relativity theory would be desirable.
- Subjects
GENERAL relativity (Physics); PIAGET, Jean, 1896-1980; EINSTEIN, Albert, 1879-1955; RELATIVITY (Physics); LORENTZ transformations; SPACETIME; SOCIAL theory
- Publication
Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie ( KZfSS), 2023, Vol 75, Issue 3, p365
- ISSN
0023-2653
- Publication type
Product Review
- DOI
10.1007/s11577-023-00916-0