La sociologia di Merton: indeterminatezza dell'azione e delle strutture

In the paper I claim that the philosophical and scientific idea of indeterminacy is a leading – and not always explicit – theme of the thought of Merton. Some of the main contributions of Merton to sociology (his reflections on the concepts of unintended consequences of purposive social action, self-fulfilling prophecy, latent function, sociological ambivalence and serendipity; his definition and analysis of anomie) draw attention on several kinds of indeterminacy: that of intents in causing consequences; that of social conditions on behaviour; that of real world to scientific theory. In the last part of the paper I argue that the non-determinism of the thought of Merton has relevant implications at a meta-theoretical level, directing him to the construction / definition of concepts rather than of general theories about society.