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The concept of tradition, in early sociological research (around the turn of the 19th and 20th century), referred to that of the traditional society, as contrasted by the more modern industrial society.[12] This approach was most notably portrayed in Max Weber's concepts of traditional authority and modern rational-legal authority.[12] In more modern works, One hundred years later, sociology sees tradition as a social construct used to contrast past with the present and as a form of rationality used to justify certain course of action.[12] Traditional society is characterized by lack of distinction between family and business, division of labor influenced primarily by age, gender, and status, high position of custom in the system of values, self-sufficiency, preference to saving and accumulation of capital instead of productive investment, relative autarky.[12] Early theories positing the simple, unilineal evolution of societies from traditional to industrial model are now seen as too simplistic.[12] In 1981 Edward Shils in his book Tradition put forward a definition of tradition that became universally accepted.[12] According to Shils, tradition is anything which is transmitted or handed down from the past to the present.[12] Another important sociological aspect of tradition is the one that relates to rationality. It is also related to the works of Max Weber (see theories of rationality), and were popularized and redefined in 1992 by Raymond Boudon in his book Action.[12] In this context tradition refers to the mode of thinking and action justified as "it has always been that way".[12] This line of reasoning forms the basis of the logical flaw of the appeal to tradition (or argumentum ad antiquitatem),[31] which takes the form "this is right because we've always done it this way."[32] In most cases such an appeal can be refuted on the grounds that the "tradition" being advocated may no longer be desirable, or, indeed, may never have been despite its previous popularity. |
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