Problem
In the reading "Sociology as Scientific Discourse," you learned that Jeffrey Alexander argues that "science is a discourse based on reason." Alexander then points out that "discourse is ratiocinative." He maintains that discourse "focuses on the process of reasoning rather than the results of immediate experience." In a sentence or two, note what, according to Alexander, the persuasiveness of discourse is based upon-what makes a discourse persuasive?
Now think of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, or Max Weber. Using one of them and the discourses that they developed, provide an example of a ratiocinative discourse that one of them would make about sociology or the dynamics of social life.