Early 20th-century social theorists, including Weber, Durkheim, Simmel, Mead, and others, revolutionized the way social reality was perceived. Rather than explaining social realities in terms of contracts between individuals, they viewed social reality as a historically evolved reality that structures present-day interactions. The implications of this perspective for our understanding of reality have been closely examined by late 20th-century social theorists, including Goffman, Foucault, Bourdieu, Habermas, Alexander, Bhaskar, Harré, Searle, and others.

Sociologically oriented thinkers have contributed to the field by combining classic soci…

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