在自然科学通过量子力学、基本粒子学、固态物理学和宇宙大爆炸模型获得了统一之际，社会科学，或者说人类行为科学却在很长的一段时间内呈现出分崩离析，相互冲突的态势。这显然不符合科学的逻辑性要求，也为学科之间的深入交叉平添了许多障蔽。 基于近年来深化博奕理论、理性人模型的可控实验方面的进展，我们似乎可以尝试着勾勒普世化的个体行为模型，搭建初步的统一框架，为整个社会科学确立基本的中心原则。

"The best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life," writes Malcolm Gladwell, "is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do." Although anyone familiar with the theory of memetics will recognize this concept, Gladwell's The Tipping Point has quite a few interesting twists on the subject. For example, Paul Revere was able to galvanize the forces of resistance so effectively in part because he was what Gladwell calls a "Connector": he knew just about everybody, particularly the revolutionary leaders in each of the towns that he rode through. But Revere "wasn't just the man with the biggest Rolodex in colonial Boston," he was also a "Maven" who gathered extensive information about the British. He knew what was going on and he knew exactly whom to tell. The phenomenon continues to this day--think of how often you've received information in an e-mail message that had been forwarded at least half a dozen times before reaching you. Gladwell develops these and other concepts (such as the "stickiness" of ideas or the effect of population size on information dispersal) through simple, clear explanations and entertainingly illustrative anecdotes, such as comparing the pedagogical methods of Sesame Street and Blue's Clues, or explaining why it would be even easier to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with the actor Rod Steiger. Although some readers may find the transitional passages between chapters hold their hands a little too tightly, and Gladwell's closing invocation of the possibilities of social engineering sketchy, even chilling, The Tipping Point is one of the most effective books on science for a general audience in ages. It seems inevitable that "tipping point," like "future shock" or "chaos theory," will soon become one of those ideas that everybody knows--or at least knows by name. --Ron Hogan, Amazon.com

《社会科学方法论》而这种特点在相当大的程度上得益于他自己的方法方面的素养和方法论上的见解。

《社会学主要思潮》是思想大师雷蒙·阿隆的一部力作，汇集了1955年到1958年之间雷蒙·阿隆在索邦大学的讲义，代表了他在社会学领域潜心研究的最高成就。《社会学主要思潮》是西方高校普遍采用的哲学、社会学及普通文科教材，也被国内高校普遍列为社会学专业必读参考书。 《社会学主要思潮》作者按时间先后分章论述了孟德斯鸠、孔德、马克思、托克维尔、涂尔千、帕累托和韦伯等七位社会学家的思想及其主要著作，涵盖了社会学理论成果最丰富的时代，同时对这七位社会学家及其思想进行了极富创新的比较研究。整《社会学主要思潮》叙述脉络清晰、通俗易懂、引人入胜。此外，文中对各社会学理论家思想体系的批判也甚为精辟。