Situated in the field of metatheory, the present paper aims to discuss one of the main premisses underlying contemporary sociology: the idea of historicity. As opposed to the sociological theory produced being the 1940s and 1970s, the new sociologies have sought to overcome the dominant epistemological premise of that period - overdeterminantion by theory. In their effort, they have granted the idea of historicity a central role in the understanding of human action. Action is not a blind process: as an opening to the future (component of liberty), it reveals both its grounding on the social and physical situation and its possibility of transcending that situation.
sociological theory; contemporary sociology; social action; historicity; metatheory