Blau, Peter. Abstract Expressionism and Formal Structuralism in Art and Sociology

7/28/2019 Blau, Peter. Abstract Expressionism and Formal Structuralism in Art and Sociology

1/24

A B S T R A C T E X P R E S S IO N I S M A N D FO R M A L S T R U C T U R A L I S M IN A R TAND SoaOLOGY

Peter M . BlauC O L U M B I A U N I V E R S I T Y

ABSTRACTBoth art and scien ce entail a high deeree o f abstraction, though o f entirely differentkind . Y et there i s a sug gest iv e parallel between tw o contrast ing forms of abstracta n and tw o of soc ia l tneory . A dramatic contrast in abstract art is that b etw eenabstract exp ressio nism and geom etric structuralism. Abstract m eans fo r the formerunfettered s p o n t a n e o u s e x p r e s s io n o f i m a g e s a n d m o o d s , as e x e m p l i fi e d byP o l l o c k or K line; but i t m eans for the latter abstract ing from the w elter ofimpr e s s ions pure geometr ic forms , as i l lusuated b y M o n i a n . T h e d i s t i n c t i o nbe tw een inteqH'etative and explanatory theories is soniew hat similar. Interpretationo f s oc ia l in s t i t u t ion s in vo lve s pr o v id ing a m e a n ing f u l u nde r s ta nd ing o f t h ennder l j ing s oc ia l va lu e s -W e b e r ' s Vers te&n. Exp lanation accoun ts for empiricalregularity, not in terms o f implic it meanings , but oy discover ing hypo theses fromwhich they can b e deduced.

Art and sc ien ce are of ten juxtapo sed in everyday usage . Artis the sphere of spontaneity and creativi ty, where imagination has af r e e r e i gn an d s ym b o l i c m e an i n gs f i n d un f e t t e r e d e xp r e s s i on .S c ien ce i s the realm o f rigorou s observation of em pir ical reali ty byproven research methods and the sys temat i c exp lanat ion o f theresults in terms of gen eral theoretical prin ciples . N otw ithstan din gth is c on tr ast , w h i c h i s p e r h ap s e x agg e r a te d b ut n o t e n t i r e lyincorrect, an and sc ien ce also share im portant characteristics.A fundamental s imilarity of art and sc ien ce is that both entaila h igh deg ree o f abs trac tion . M oreov er , a lthough not every on eagrees how to c las s i fy the great var i e ty o f ar t i s t i c s ty l e s and

sc ient if ic theo r ies , on e contrast that can be drawn betw een form ofabstract art i s som ew hat p aralle l to a d i s t inct ion betw een tw o typ es


2/24

70 / National Journal of Sociology I Spring 1988the abstract nature of art as we l l as of science and indicate th efundamental difference betw een the tw o form s of abstraction.

ABSTRACnON IN ART AND SCIENCEMany art historians and philosophers have emphasized theabstract character of art. M eyer Schapiro (1978:185 ) points out that

long before abstract art became an influential movement painterslooked with envy to m usic and architecture "as exam ples of pure artwhich did not have to imitate objects but derived its effects fromelements peculiar to itself." Even when a painting depicts objectsmore or less realistically , th e artist's aim is not a photographicrepresentation of these objects but an expression of her or hisinterpretation of them that inevitably goes beyond sense perceptions.Photography, to o, is an art form, but an artistic photograph of astreet scene or a tree differs from a snapshot of the same subject bycommunicating more than the ey e originally saw. I t conveys amood or feeling or meaning that was not evident in the object itselfbut produced by its interpretation, by the use of light and shapes andshadings and colors to ev dc e responses that we re not inherent in thecontent painted or photographed.

Schapiro argues that art has traditionally endeavored toescape from the restraints of the objec tive content in order to liberateartistic c reativity, but only m odem abstract art achiev ed th is goal b yrefusing to represent external objects and thus freeing painters tostrive for pure form-shapes and co lors -no longer masked b yextraneous content. In traditional art, painters and sculptors werelimited in giving expression to their aesthetic values by therequirement of having to present initially realistic images on whichthey had to su perim pose the ir artistic interpretations; abstract artremoves this limitation and thus enables artists directly to pursuetheir aesthetic aim s. Im pressionism , w ith it s strong brushstrokes


3/24

Blau / Abstract Expressionism / 71loses another aesthetic contribution that traditional artists make bytransfonning "aspects of nature and human life" and giving themnew meaning through aesthetic expression.

The philosopher Susanne Langer (1957: 196-7) emphasizesthat "the aim of art is insight, understanding of the essential life offeeling. But all understanding requires abstraction." Art, likelanguage and like science, abstracts from human experience selectedaspects. In the process, it creates new forms, for example, a pictureout of pigment and canvas. The picture is a new creation, which didnot exist in the paint and canvas. It differs from science (as well asfrom imitation) by the nature of the abstraction, lt transformsnameless feelings into symbolic expressions of these feelings, asillustrated perhaps in purest form by music, but also by other formsof art"by dance, poetry, and, indeed, all art because what makessomething art is that it goes beyond mere representation of externalobjects. Art abstracts from reality by capturing its essencesymbolically in a metaphor which simultaneously describes uniqueevents and evokes prevalent if not universal experiences andfeelings, like Hamlet, the Kreutzer Sonata, or, at least for ourgeneration, Guernica. It creates a vision that is distinctive yetsymbolizes generic feelings or moods.Thus, art expands our understanding of human experience

by abstracting essential elements from it, and so does science, butthe naure of their abstractions is basically different An abstracts theessence of a certain type of sense experience and distills it in adistinctive symbol, a figure of speech or metaphor presenting aunique image or constellation-of shapes and colors, tones andrhythms, events and actions, depending on the medium-yet thisparticular symbol conveys virtually universal emotions andtendencies with profound meaning to many or to all people. Howcould the silly story of the son of a king who kills his father in aquarrel on a road and then marries his mother by mistake have


4/24

72 / National Journal of Sociology I Spring 1988artistic symbols refer to distinct particular experiences or events ,s c i en t i f i c s ymbo l s ( c oncept s ) are the bas i s fo r makinggeneralizations. This is the ca se in empirical research, and it is afortiori the case in theorizing. System atic research invo lv esclassifying people or communit ie s on the basis o f having somecharacteristic in common-persons' marital status or communities'ethnic he te rogene ity -in order to esta blish em pirical generalizations;and theories reclassify empirical variables into more abstractconcepts--for example, Durkheim's anomie or Marx's productivefo rc e s -t o estab lish theoretical generalizations which can be tested infurther research. In brief, the fundam ental d istinction L anger ma kesis that bo th art and sc ience require abs tractions, but abstraction in artis qualitative, involv ing unique sy m bols that serve a s metaphors forw ide ly shared meaningful ex perience s, w hile ab straction in sc ienceis qu antitative and enta ils generalizations that can ex plain em piricalobservations.

Both Schapiro and Langer stress that art is not merely arepresentation o f objec ts bu t necessarily transforms them. T heaesthetician Danto makes this principle the core o f his book TheTransfiguration ofthe Commonplace (1981). A ny object can be apiece o f art, but for it to be s o the artist who produced it mus tcommunicate something more than is immediately apparent to thesenses . Art is not a property o f objects but a set o f relationships o ftheir properties that sym bolize s the obje ct and thereby transfonns i tB y providing an artistic interpretation o f an o b je ct -in w ords or paintor steel and gla ss -t he ob ject is transform ed into an art object ev en ifit is originally a very c om m onplac e ob ject. T his transfiguration o feveryday reality is the result o f the artist's distinctive sty le and o f therhetoric through w hich the art is conununicated to the au dience.

A DICHOTOMY OF ABSTRACT ART


5/24

Blau / Abstract Expressionism / 7 3D I V E R SI T Y O F A B S T R A C T S T Y L ES

Three ear ly movements in pa int ing may be cons ideredtransitions from im pre ssionism to abstract form s of painting. O new as F auv ism , with its w ild colors, w hich are already evident in theworks by Vincent van Gogh but deve loped in to more extremejuxtaposit ions of strong colors, as i l lustrated by the pictures ofM aurice Vlam inck and the early Henri M atisse. A m ost im portantdeparture from impressionism which inf luenced the emergingabstract art is C ubism , w ith its rectangular distortions o ft h e hum anfigure and other rounded objects, such as guitars or jug s. G eor gesBraq ue, P ablo P icass o (for a short period ), and Juan Gris are m ajorrepresentat ive of C ubism . T hird, an early abstract m ovem ent inRussia was Supremat ism, major examples of which are KasimirM alevich and die brothers Anton Pevsner and Naum G abo. T heSoviet government initially welcomed this revolutionary departurefrom traditional art before violen tly suppressing it, wh ich led to theem igration of G abo , Pevsner, and Kan dinsky.

The earl iest phases of express ionism occurred at least asearly if not earlier than the three styles just discussed, notably inGermany, but express ionism blossomed later , lasted longer , andexerted m ore influenc e on the subsequent forms of abstract art. T hep a i n t e r w h o i s so me t i me s c a l l e d " t h e f a t h e r o f G e r ma nexpress ionism" (Amason 1969: 154) i s . s trangely enough, not aGerman but a No rw egian, Edvard M unch, wh ose famous o i l "TheScream " is a haunting im age o f fear and lonel iness. T w o groups ofGerm an painters established associat ions to further exp ressionism .O n e w a s Die Bruecke , two important m ember of wh ich w ere Em ilN olde and Ernst L udw ig Kirchner. T he other w as Der Blaue Rei ter ,which became the most inf luent ia l express ionist associat ion inGermany, in part because of the outstanding artistic importance ofon e of i ts founders and dom inant m em bers, V asi ly K andinsky. O fcourse , express ion ism w as not conf ined to Germany. A famous


6/24

74 / National Journal of Sociology I Spring 1988painters, sculptors, and artists in several other media would worktogether on developing new forms of modem art and where studentswould be taught contemporary styles. To mention only a few of themost famous painters assembled there in the twenties: Kandinsky,Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, and Joseph Albers, The influence of"the Bauhaus has been greatest in architecture. The IntemationalStyle, which emanated there, virtually dominated architecture forhalf a century. Most major architects of this century were stronglyinfluenced by it, including such dominant figures as Eero Saarinen,Le dtorbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer, I. M. Pei, PhilipJohnson, and Richard Neutra. The influence of the Bauhaus wasworldwide but it was particularly pronounced in the United States,and it niay well have contributed to the emergence of New York asthe center of modem art.

Abstract art encompasses many other styles and admixturesof several of them, particularly inasmuch as artists prize originalityand endeavor to be innovative by developing a distinctive personalstyle. Let me merely mention some of the best-known styles thathave not yet been noted. One is primitivism, with its naive,deliberately childlike pictures, often involving fantasy subjects ofwild life, as exemplified by Henri Rousseau. Another is futurism,the Italian art movement rebelling against the dead weight of the pastand fascinated by modern technology, which later supportedMussolini. Some forms of art encompass under a single label quitea variety of different styles. One is dadaism, which includes MarcelDuchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase" and his Mona Lisa withmustache and beard, deliberately affronting the traditionalists; aswell as George Grosz's quite different political caricatures, thoughthey, too, were designed to shock the bourgeois mentality.Surrealism is another art form that includes rather diverse abstractstyles: undoubtedly the most important is the dramatic distortion ofthe human figure outstandingly illustrated by many of Picasso'spaintings, such as "The Three Musicians"; a very different style


7/24

Blau / Abstract Expressionism / 75THE U N D E R L Y I N G D IC H O T O M Y

The welter of diverse forms of abstract art, which is furtherconfounded by the dist inct ive imprint every original art ist seeks toach ieve , m akes it difficult to see the forest for the trees and disco verany fundam ental dist inct ion. H ow ever, in a m agazine article HiltonKram er (19 85 ) has drawn a bas ic contrast between two op po s i tep ole s of abstract art in terms of w hich m ost styles can be class if ied,althoug h there are som e styles and certainly som e individual artistsand indiv idual pictures and sculptures -which would be borderl ineca ses that d o not f it into either polar type . Th e contrast Kramerdraws is not entirely original . A s a m atter of fact , i t is im plicit inmany discussions of various styles of abstract art , but disscussionsof specif ic s tyles , although they m ay refer to the polar types , d o not ,in m y o pin ion , bring ou t as clearly as Kramer's essa y d oe s that thereis a gen eric distinction that is app licab le to m ost abstract art.

Kramer's two fundamental opposite types of abstract art ,which subsume most of i ts specif ic forms and styles , are abstractexpressionism and geometric abstraction, the latter being also calledconstructivism or structural formalism or formal structuralism.T he se tw o typ es are not m erely different styles, varying in relativelyminor preferences or manners , but manifes t complete ly di f ferenti n t e r p r e t a t io n s - e n t i r e l y d iff er e n t u n d e r s t a n d i n g s - o f w h a tabstraction in art inv olv es . In on e instance, abstraction m ean s notonly liberation from th e requirement to r e p r e s e n ta sub ject matter butalso l iberation from confinem ent by exp licit artistic procedures andaesthet ic con ven t ions , wh ich permits spontaneous exp ress ion ful lyto reign . In the other ca se, abstraction m ean s being freed fromhav ing to imitate external objects to m ake it po ss ible to design pureforms and structures in strict accordance with rigorous art ist icstandards, without the concentration on strict aesthetic forms beingdistracted by any co ncern w ith con tent.

T o be sure, this dichotomy ref lects a perennial con fl ict in an


8/24

76 / National Journal of Sociology I Spring 1988distinction between abstract expressionism and geometric abstractionin art.

ABSTO ACT EXPRESSIONISMReproduction-whether making a Xerox copy or a snapshot--is not an artistic creation. All an, traditional as well as modem,

seeks to express aesthetic values of one kind or another by goingbeyond the content of the subject matter being depicted andtransforming it into a piece of art with aesthetic meaning. At the endof the last century, there developed the increasing feeling andconviction among painters and sculptors that the requirement torepresent-to imitatethe content of some external subject matterimposes undue fetters on the artistic imagination and the artist'sfreedom to express aesthetic values in pure form. Painters wantedto escape from the conventional practice in academic art tocommunicate moods through the interpretation of a given externalsubject-say, a sunset-for the content of the subject to be depictednecessarily influences and restricts the mood that can be expressed.Abstract expressionism wanted to be free of these aestheticallyirrelevant limitations in order to create art that is an uncontaminatedexpression of moods and feelings.

The pioneers of abstract expressionism thought of it as thefinal full resJization of the aesthetic ideals of art's age-old mission.The emphasis is on spontaneity, improvisation, and the creation ofmoods or meanings through shapes, colors, and wild brushstrokes(or paint drippings) without representing realistic objects or anyrecognizable subject matter. Malevich's definition of suprematism,the pioneering abstract movement in Russia, illustrates thisemphasis: "By Suprematism I mean the supremacy of pure feelingor sensation in the pictorial art." He goes on to note his "desperatestruggle to free artfromthe ballast of the objective world" (quoted in


9/24

Blau / Abstract Expressionism / 77clear design. Unless the viewer is seeking to understand the artist'svision and empathize with the feelings expressed, the pictures ofabstract expressionism appear to be meaningless jumbles, which isprobably the source of the remaric, intended to denigrate such visualart, that any small child can do as well. Interestingly enough,people's political orientations, secular Weltanschauugen, andreligious convictions seem to have little to do with their attitudes toabstract expressionsim. Truman, Eisenhower, Stalin, andKhrushchev had widely different political values and were inagreement on little except that they apparently shared a stronglynegative opinion of abstract art.

Perhaps the three most famous contemporary representativesof abstract expresslonism-I do not include the undisputed giant oftwentieth century art, Picasso, who pioneered in virtually everyform of painting and sculpture-:ire Jackson Pollock, Willem deKooning, and Franz Kline, Other major abstract expressionists areJoan Miro (although his surrealist style is not a pure form of abstractexpressionism), Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, and HansHofmann.

GEOMETR IC FORMAL I SM

The firee-wheeling combinations of diverse shapes, and oftenviolent, colors in abstract expressionism and the rigid formalstructures of geometric construction appear to differ more sharplyfrom each other-except for both being non-representational-thaneither differs from preceding forms of visual art. One can hardlyimagine a sharper contrast than that between Frankenthaler andJoseph Albers.Abstraction from the sense perception of reality is the aim ofstructural formalism, just as it is the aim of abstract expressionism.


10/24

78 / National Journal of Sociology I Spring 1988aesthetic effects-a beautiful and interesting im age-w ith a minimumof lines and colors. Many modem artists are radical in politics aswell as art and aim to envisage a Utopian order by conveying theharmony of geometric forms. The clean lines increasingly used bygeometric abstraction have given a major form of it the name hard-edged style.

To be sure. Cubist paintings are not characterized by suchsimple lines and shapes but by very intricate designs of interwovenlines. But Cubism is a forerunner of abstract formalism, not atypical representative of its advanced stages. Mondrian's remark tothis effect has been frequently cited (for example, Russell 1981:232):

Cubism failed to accept the logical consequences of its owndiscoveries; it failed to develop toward the fulfillment of itsown ambition, the expression oi pure plasticity.

Plasticity meant to Mondrian the quality of a picture's geometricstructure that needs neither descriptive title nor pictorialrcpresentation to communicated a meaningful experience to theviewer.Mondrian is probably the outstanding example of formal

structuralism, whose paintings represent geometric abstraction inpurest form. Perhaps the prototype is a picture consisting in itsentirety of a square of four black lines painted on a diagonal whitecanvas. At least, one's first impression is that this is all it is , butcloser scrutiny reveals unsuspected subtleties, as Schapiro (1978:233-58), who devotes several pages of his essay on Mondrian tothis apparently simple design, points out. He notes that the squareis incomplete, three of its comers extending into an imaginary spacebeyond the canvas; that the lines at the fourth comer cross, whichsuggests that the visible squarc is actually part of a larger grid; that


11/24

Blau / Ab stract Ex pressionism / 7 9forms unencum bered by any familiar content. B ut M ondrian sh ow sthat he can be c lo lr fu l and exuberant in h i s "Broadway Boog ie -W oogie" and severa l o ther p ic tures , in wh ich he used dramat iccontras t s o f co lors wi thout abandon ing the s t ra ight l ine s o f ageometric structure.

Mondrian's work is the prototype of formal s tructural ism.Other m ajor representatives of g eom etr ic abstraction , w ho se s ty lesare not in a l l respects a l ike , are Malevich , Kandinsky, Paul IQee ,M ark R othko , Frank Ste l la , and El lsworth K el ly .

INTERPRETATIVE SOCIAL THEORIESIn the remainder of the paper , I shal l examine the contrastbetw een tw o types of soc ia l theory w hich I consider to be som ewh atanalogous to the two contrast ing types of abstract art I have

discu ssed . So c ia l theory re fers to m ore or less system at icinterpretations or explan ations of em pirical ob servations of socialrelations and social structures, usually not of single events but ofrecurrent social phen om ena. The rigoro us philosopher o f scien ceRichard Braithwaite (1 95 3: 34 8-4 9) defines theoretical explanationin qu ite sim ple, d ow n-to-earth terms: It "is an answ er to a 'W hy?'question wh ich giv es som e intellectual satisfaction." H e con tinuesby indicating w hy h is abstract con cep tion of theoretical explan ationsat isf ies this s im ple def init ion in terms of giv ing intel lectualsatisfaction. I shall have m ore to say about this type of theorypresently.

T H E D I C H O T O M Y B E T W E E N I N T E R P R E T A T IV E A N D E X P L A N A T O R YT H E O R I E S

There is a great variety of social theories , and these can bec lass i f i ed in to two or a f ew under ly ing ca tegor ie s in numerous


12/24

80 / National Journal of Sociology I Spring 1988Parsons) and theories of conflict (Marx, Coser). Some theoriesanalyze a historical development and social change (Sorokin,Lenski, Skocpol), whereas many compare phenomena at one pointin time (dual-labor-market models, most organizational analysis,including Blau's). Some are philosophical and speculative(Spengler, Bell), others closely based on empirical research (relativedeprivation, status attainment). There are cultural theories of sociallife (Weber, Geertz) and structural ones (Simmel, Nadel).

The contrast I am trying to draw differs from these, though itis, of course, not entirely unrelated to all of them. It is more closelyrelated to Windelband's famous distinction between idiographic andnomothetic knowledge, though it is not identical with this dichotomyeither, because it does notreferto the difference between descriptionof unique historical events and explanation of general naturalpattems, as W indelband's dichotomy does, at least by implication.In my terms, both theoretical interpretation and theoreticalexplanation seek to provide new and better understanding of the realworld by going beyond sheer description of it. Empiricaldescription-whether qualitative or quantitative, historical or cross-sectional, cultural or structural-only raises the questions bothinterpretation and explanation are designed to answer, but the waythey answer them and thereby clarify the empirical observations

differ.Interpretation involves a search for the deeper meaning thatcan make sense out of the observed complex constellation of sociallife and institutions, the underlying social forces that make the,initially often incomprehensible, empirical social worldunderstandable. Interpretation does on a theoretical level what factoranalysis does on an empirical level, namely, trying to discover

beneath the diverse empirical phenomena a few latent conditions orprinciples that can account for them. Explanation proceeds in an


13/24

Blau / Abstract Expressionism / 81whereas it is often impossible to determine which one of two ormore meaningful but contradictory interpretations is correct.

Having briefly outlined the basic dichotomy, we shall nextexamine several interpretative theories before returning to a fullerdiscussion of explanatory theory.

IULU STR ATION S O F lNT ER P l^ T AlT V E THEOR IESThe prototype of an interpretative social theorist is one of thegreat pioneers of sociology-M ax Weber. His concept of Verstehenand his principle that sociological theories must not only bekausaladequat but also sinnadequat can be considered the core ofinterpretative sociology as I understand it S ince social life is humanlife, Weber emphasized that it cannot be interpreted without takingthe subjective meaning that social phenomena have for people into

account. But in contrast to Dilthey and R ickert, he did not employthe concept of Verstehen to conceive of the study of socialphenomena as social philosophy, nor did he consider it, likeWindelband, an idiographic discipline concerned with uniquehistorical condidions and not interested in generalizing, but he triedto integrate the two principles juxtaposed by Windelband in order tocircumscribe the newly emerging field of sociology. T o be sure,sociology seeks to establish general principles about historical andsocial conditions. However, demonstrating that such ageneralizations is causally adequate is never sufficient in sociologybut always must be supplemented by showing that it alsomeaningfully adequate-that it makes sense in tenns of the subjectiveexperiences of the people involved. T o let Webw (1978:12 [1922])speak for himself:

A correct causal interpretation of typical action means that theprocess which is claimed to be typical is shown to be bothadequately grasped on the level of meaning and at the same


14/24

82 / National Journal of Sociology I Spring 1988significance from a sociological point of view only insofar asthere is some kind of proof for the existence of a probabilitythat action in fact takes the course which has been held to bemeaningful.This quotation illustrated Weber's significance as a founderof modem sociology by cutting through Windelband's distinctionsbetween natural and historical disciplines and emphasi2dng that

sociology must be both based on empirically demonstrable causalgeneralizations, like the natural sicences and unlike history, and alsointerpret the observed regularities in terms of the underlyinghistorical meaning, unlike die natural sciences and like history. Hisstress on subjective meaning has sometimes been misinterpreted aspsychological reductionism, which I consider incorrect givenWeber's strong sociological orientation, as illustrated by hisattributing a primary influence on the development of capitalism tothe Reformation, a revolutionary transformation of cultural values,and not to the religious attitudes of individuals.

Generally, Weber considers the expressive significance ofcultural values orientations of prime importance in interpreting overtsocial institutions and historical developments. This is not entirelydifferent from the assumption of abstract expressionism that the bestway to communicate fundamental experiences and values is not byexplicitly representing them in realistic scenes but by communicatingthe underlying implicit meanings, feelings, and moods presumablyshared by artist and viewers.

Typically, an interpretation of social institutions in terms ofunderlying cultural values that find expression in them and givethem meaning is somewhat analogous to abstract expressionism,which also assumes that common moods and feelings are givenexpression and meaning in abstract combinations of shapes andcolors. But there are exceptions; it is not necessarily the underlying


15/24

Blau / Abstract Expressionism / 83to guide their developments. An important illustration is a theoryfrom a neighboring discipline, psychology. In analyzing humanbehavior, Freud largely dismisses the reasons to which peopleattribute their own conduct or that of others and interprets it on thebasis of underlying unconscious motives-rooted in repressedchildhood experiences-that induced the behavior without the actingindividuals being aware of it. Apparently entirely senselessexperiences, like dreams and slips of the tongue, can be mademeaningful by discovering the unconscious motives accounting forthem.

Several sociological theories are based on a formally similarscheme of interpreting overt action in terms of underlying drivingforces of which the actors are not aware. Thus, the well-knownItalian economist Pareto raised the question why people so often failto act in terms of strictly rational economic considerations. Hedeveloped a sociologicaltfieory(1935 [1916]) essentially to answerthis question. He first divided all human conduct in to logical andnon-logical action, and then discussed a great variety of non-logicalaction, which he called derivations. The reason for this termindicates the gist of his sociological theory. Pareto assumes that allnon-rational action derives from six basic drives of people, which hecalls the residues. The two most important ones are the "instinct ofinnovation" and the "persistance of agreggates," roughlycoiTesponding to a progressive and a conservative disposition. Thebest known aspect of his theory is his conception of the circulationof the elite, which assumes that the ruling group in a countryalternates between people with innovative and people withconservative residues.

Sorokin's theory of Social and Cultural Dynamics (1937-41)also interprets overt social and cultural phenomena in terms ofdeeply underlying social forces. There are two polar extremes (witha third intermediate type), and the fluctuations back and forth


16/24


17/24


18/24

86 / National Journal of Sociology I Spring 1988empirical observations and fails to go beyond them to explain them.As Braithwaite (1953:76) puts it:

A theory which is hoped may be expanded in the future toexplain more generalizations than it was originally designedto explain must allow more freedom to its theoretical termsthan would be given them were they to be logicalconstructions out of observable entities.In short, no new predictions for testing are possible if all statementsinvolve merely empirical observations. Fourth, the lowest-levelgeneralizations, which are logically implied by higher-level ones,must contain only variables that can be empirically measured lestthey cannot be tested in research, and only testing them makes thetheory falsiflable.

Hypothetico-deductive theories explain empirical results inthe strictly logical sense that the theorems logically imply theempirical observations, which means that the empirical findings canbe subsumed under the theoretical generalizations and are, in effect,relatively specific manifestations of the theoretical generalizations.For the interpretative theorist, such demonstration that severalempirical generalizations-the research findings-are instances of thesame theoretical principles does not explain the empirical findings bymaking them understandable but needs to be supplemented by aninsightful interpretation that expresses a deeper understanding of thepurely quantitative relationships between observed variables,thereby endowing the empirical finding with meaning.

For the explanatory theorist, in sharp contrast, explainingalways means nothing but that a lower-level generalization-whetherempirical correlation or itself a theoremcan be subsumed under-that is, can be logically deduced from-one or several more generalprinciples. For such a theorist, insightful conjectures do not explain


19/24

Blau / Ab stract Exp ressionism / 87know n data it cou ld not m ake predictions about not yet know n data),and a theory's abil i ty to logically imply new predict ions is whatm akes it falsifiable, testable, and grounded in em pirical research.

I L L U S T R A T I O N S O F E X P L A N A T O R Y T H E O R Y

Except for ec on om ies , r igorou s explanatory theory is rare inthe soc ia i sc ienc es . H ow ever , rudim ents of i t can be discoveredeven among the pioneers of soc io logy nearly a century ago . andsome contemporary socio logis ts have moved toward this model oftheorizing.

Th e best exam ple fo an early explanatory theory in soc iolog yis Durkheim's Suicide. He seeks to explain empirical regularit iesabout differences in suicide rates among groups by developing twoa b str ac t c o n c e p t s - s o c i a l i n te g ra tio n a nd a n o m i e - a n d fo u rg e ne r a l i z a t i o ns i nv o l v i ng t he s e c o nc e pt s a s w e l l a s s e v e r a lsubs idiary propo s i tions . Th e great innovat ion is the next s tep,which he repeats again and again with di f ferent part icularexp lanation s. H e argues that i f the explanation of the differencebetween, for example , Cathol ic and Protes tant suic ide rates i sconect , i t fo l lows that one should observe a s imi lar di f ferencebetween s ingle and married people, because, although rel igion andmarital status are, of course, not at all the same, in terms of theabstract concept of social integration the difference in marital statusis equ ivalent to that in re l ig ion. Indeed , the data conf irm thepredict ion, and they do as wel l for numerous other predict ionsderivab le from Du rkheim's theory . N aturally , w e do not knowwhether D urkheim actually developed his explanations and m ade h ispred ictions before he had looked at all the data, wh ich is a generalproblem wh en a given m onograph both ad vances and tests a theory.The advancement of science is a collective enterprise. Genuine testso f explanatory theor ies require that the theor ies have been


20/24

/ National Journal of Sociology I Spring 1988an explanatory sociological theory can be built. For example, hispenetrating discussion of triads led to Caplow's (1956, 1968)pioneering explanatory social theory of coalition formation in triadsand Gamson's (1961) refinement of it. Another illustration is thatSimmel's concept and analysis of crosscutting social circles was amajor inspiration for my theory on social structure and intergrouprelations (1977; Blau and Schwartz, 1984).

The first systematic attempt to develop a comprehensiveexplanatory social theory in deductive terms was Homans* SocialBehavior: Its Elementary Form s (1974 [1961]), which is oftencriticized for its psychologicalrcducdonism(a criticism with which Iagree). Consistent with his metatheoretical assumption that socialtheories are "open at the top," Homans starts his theory with fivepsychological axioms, from which he dervies in more or less strictlogic many theoretical generalization and empirical predictions aboutsocial behavior. Blalock's (1967) monograph on minority-grouprelations and Collins' (1975) treatise on conflict illustrate twodifferent attempts to start with a general analysis of a particularsubject and then try to formulate the conclusions as a series ofpropositions on different levels of generality, thereby constructing asocial theory that approximates a deductive system, though itslower-level generalizations do not follow in strict logic from itshigher-level ones.

CONCLUSIONSMy thesis has been that modem an and social theory have incommon not only that both entail abstractions from observed realitybut also that both involve two diametrically opposed forms ofabstraction, with the opposite poles not being entirely dissimilar in

abstract art and in social theory. Abstract expressionism--one form


21/24

Blau / A bstract E xpressionism / 89

The d i f ference between theoret ica l interpretat ion andtheoretical explanation is som ew hat sim ilar. A ll theory m ust abstractfrom empirica l contents to general ize , but interpretat ion andexplana tion abstract in op po site w ay s. Interpretation see ks to de lvebeneath the surface of empirical observations to capture the deeperm eaning that can make social l i fe understandable. Th e con cep ts oftheoretical interpretations are rich in meaning and pregnant withcon nota tions. B ut the conce pt of theoretical exp lanations are narrowanalytical properties abstracted from their substantive contents ,though contentless abstraction are devoid of substantive meaning.Th e purpose of such apparendy m eaningless abstract con cepts is toderive a sys tem of general propos i t ions that log ica l ly imply andthereby can a ccoun t for a great variety o f sub stantive ob serva tions indifferent areas. Interpretation accounts for social life and institutionsfrom b elow , s o to speak, by searching for their underlying m eaning,whereas explanation accounts for social relat ions and structuresfrom above, to use the same s imile , by advancing general izat ionsthat subsume empirica l observat ions as specia l ins tances of thehigher-order general c onc epts and principles.

B oth interpretation and explanation are app licable to eitherm i c r o s o c i o l o g i c a l o r m a c r o s o c i o lo g i c a l s tu d i e s. S y m b o l i cinteractionism and exchange analysis employ interpretation to clarifym i c r o s o c i o l o g i c a l d a t a , w h i l e n e t w o r k a n a l y s i s a n a l y z e sm icroso ciolog ical data in terms of an explanatory sch em e. Parsons'analysis of m acrosociological phenom ena in terms of cultural valuesinvo lves in terpreta t ion , but my ana lys i s o f macrosoc io log ica ldifferences in terms of s tructural condit ions involves explanation.H ow ev er, I think that the formal theoretical structure that is essen tialfor explanatory theory makes this type of theory particularly wellsuited for studying formal structures, which are the social systemsthat po se the major m acro sociological issues.


22/24

90 / National Journal of Sociology I Spring 1988. 1969. Theory Construction. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.

Blau, Peter M. 1977. Inequality and Heterogeneity. New York:Free Press.and Joseph E. Schwartz. 1984. Crosscutting Social Circles,Orlando, FL: Acadenuc Press.

Braithwaite, Richard B. 1953. Scientific Explanation. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.Caplow, Theodore. 1956. "A Theory of Coalitions in Triads."American Sociological Review 21: 489-93.

. 1968. Two Against One. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.Collins. Randall. 1975. Conflict Sociology. New York:Academic Press.Danto, Arthur C. 1981. The Transfiguration of the Com mon place.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,Gamson, William A. 1961. "A Theory of Coalition Formation."American Sociological Review 26: 565-73.Homans, George C. 1967. The Nature of Social Science. NewYork: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

. 1974 (1961). Social Behavior: Its Elementary Form s.New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.


23/24

Blau / Abstract Expressionism / 91Langer, Susanne K. 1957. Problems of Art, New York:

Scribner's.Pareto, Vilfredo. 1935(1916). The Mind and Society. New York:Harcourt, Brace.Popper, Karl R. 1959 (1934). The Logic of Scientific Discovery.New York: Basic Books.Russel, John. 1981. The Meanings of Modern Art. New York:Harper and Row.Schapiro, Meyer. 1978. Modern Art: 19th and 20th Centuries.New York: Braziller.Sorokin, Pitrim A. 1937-41. Social and Cultural Dynamics. NewYork: American Book.Weber, Max. 1978(1922). Economy and Society. Berkeley, CA:University of California Press.Zetterberg, Hans L. 1963. On Theory and Verification inSociology. Totowa, NJ: Bedminster Press.


24/24

Blau, Peter. Abstract Expressionism and Formal Structuralism in Art and Sociology

Documents

Transcript of Blau, Peter. Abstract Expressionism and Formal Structuralism in Art and Sociology