Editing Alcoholics Anonymous (section)

== Philosophical and sociological dimensions ==
AA shares the view that acceptance of one's inherent limitations is critical to finding one's proper place among other humans and God. Such ideas are described as "[[Counter-Enlightenment]]" because they are contrary to the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]]'s ideal that humans have the capacity to make their lives and societies a heaven on Earth using their own power and reason.<ref name="HUMPHREYS1995" />

After evaluating AA's literature and observing AA meetings for sixteen months, sociologists David R. Rudy and Arthur L. Greil found that for an AA member to remain sober, a high level of commitment is necessary. This commitment is facilitated by a change in the member's [[world view|worldview]]. They argue that to help members stay sober, AA must provide an all-encompassing worldview while creating and sustaining an atmosphere of [[Transcendence (religion)|transcendence]] in the organization. To be all-encompassing, AA's ideology emphasizes tolerance rather than a narrow religious worldview that may make the organization unpalatable to potential members and thereby limit its effectiveness. AA's emphasis on the spiritual nature of its program, however, is necessary to institutionalize a feeling of transcendence. A tension results from the risk that the necessity of transcendence, if taken too literally, would compromise AA's efforts to maintain a broad appeal. As this tension is an integral part of AA, Rudy and Greil argue that AA is best described as a ''quasi-religious organization''.<ref name="RUDY1989">{{cite journal |last1=Rudy |first1=David R. |last2=Greil |first2=Arthur L. |year=1989 |title=Is Alcoholics Anonymous a Religious Organization?: Meditations on Marginality |journal=Sociological Analysis |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=41–51 |doi=10.2307/3710917 |jstor=3710917}}</ref>