INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY

SO 111:  INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY

Bibliography:

1       Goldthhorpe E.J  An Introduction to Sociology, Cambridge University Press, 1971

2       Breger, LP (1971), Invitation to Sociology, A humanistic Perspective, Penguine  books,

3       Elshleman, J.R., Cashion B.G, Basirico L.A; Sociology; An Introduction, 4^th Ed., 1993,HarperCollins College Publishers, New York

4       Kendall D., Sociology in our times, 4^th ed., 2003, Thomson Learning Inc., Toronto.

5       Bhushan V.., Sachdeva D.R, An Introduction to Sociology, 33^rd Ed, Kitab Mahal, 2001, Allahabad, India

6       Hughes M, kroehler J.C; Zanden W.J: Sociology the Core, 6^th Ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, 2002.

1.0 MEANING OF SOCIOLOGY

        ETYMOLOGY:

Socius (Latin) – Companion/Associate

Logos (Greek) – word/study

Sociology refers to the study of society

In a broader sense, Sociology means the systematic or scientific study of human social behaviour, It studies the processes and patterns of individual and group interaction, the different forms of organizations of social groups, the relationship among them, and group influences on individual behaviour.

Sociology is interested in the social lives of human beings. It focuses on their modes of interactions, interrelations, social rules, and processes that govern groups, associations and institutions, of both local and global nature. Sociology studies not only rules that bind individuals and societies together, but also the reasons  which separates groups, societies and the probable measures to remedy of social disintegration.

Sociology has a wide range of coverage and scope. Its areas of concern include: Social Inequality, Social Inequality, Economic sociology, Environmental sociology, Economic development, Human ecology, Industrial sociology, Medical sociology , Political sociology,  Rural sociology ,Sociology of religion, Sociology of science and technology,  Sociology of Markets, Social demography , Sociology of disaster , Urban sociology , Computational sociology , Sociology of deviance

In a nut shell, sociology is concerned with human interactions  and interrelations, their conditions and consequences. It studies the whole social life or life of man in the society. Social life refers to all activities, rules, regulations, beliefs, habits, etc of men that defines their interpersonal relationship, individually or in groups, and all types of social organizations.

Social conditions and consequences: ways in which groups and organizations are interrelated, influence personal behaviour,  how they affect or are affected by the larger society, reasons for changes in social groups and organizations.

Society – a large social group that shares the same geographical territory, and is subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations.

A society has a feeling of unity, regards itself as a distinguished entity, has a structure of interrelated roles, it recruits its members partly by biological reproduction within the group and it has means to survive for a long period of time.

     

       DEFINITIONS:

Auguste Comte “ The science of social phenomena ‘subject to natural and invariable laws, the discovery of which is the object of investigation’”

Emile Durkheim “ The ‘Science of social institutions’”

Henry Fairchild “The study of man and his human environment in their relations to each other.”

Moris Ginsberg “ In the broadest sense, sociology is the study of human interactions and inter-relations, their conditions and consequences.”

The above definitions shows the divergent views of sociologists on the definition/meaning of sociology. However, they all reveal the fact that sociology is concerned with Man, his social relations and society.

        HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIOLOGY:

Sociology as a distinct body of knowledge with its own subject matter, name, scope and methods is of recent origin. It was Auguste Comte(1798 – 1857), a French Philosopher, who first expressed the need to have a science of society in order to develop it and counteract social evils. In 1839 in his renowned work Positive Philosophy he coined the word sociology which he had first called social Physics to represent a science of society. So, sociology was born in 19^th century and Auguste comte is its ‘father’.

The Greeks: Although sociology is a very recent science, the observation of human behaviour and interaction is an age-long fact found in all socities of the world. However, such observations were more speculative in nature than scientific.

The Systematic  analysis/thought of social life in western societies is found in the philosophies of early Greek thinkers such as Plato( 427 – 347 B.C) who in his work the Republic gave an analysis of the city community and Aristotle (384 – 322 B.C)/also called the ‘father of Political Science’ in his works Ethics and Politics gave an analysis of the law, society and the state.

However, these thinkers were concerned with how the society ought to be(depiction of ideal social order), and did not deal with explanations on how the society actually was (the causes of social problems).Furthermore, their view of society was directly linked with the state.

The Romans: The Roman thinker Cicero in his book De Officus ( on Justice) transmitted Greek philosophy to the west. But Roman thinkers were more interested on the issues of law than analysis of social life.

The Scholastic: This is the period when thinkers were occupied with theological issues. The emphasis was on the creation of man by God. Man has to respect and follow only God’s laws which are accurately interpreted by church authorities. Anyone in the society arguing against such a dogma was considered a heretic. Scholastic philosophy maintained that nothing social can be changed.

Modernists: From the 16^th century writers like Machiavelli in his work ‘the Prince’ gave clear distinction between the  state and society and wrote widely on principles for a successful state. Also Sir Thomas More in his ‘Utopia’ started addressing social problems.

Social change was given impetus and underwent a rapid change in the Renaissance ( 1350 -1600 B.C; period in 14th,15th 16thC when people in Europe were interested in the Roman and Greek ideas and culture)  and Enlightment Periods (17^th and 18th Centuries). The intellectual and political atmosphere(especially the twin revolutions in Europe) facilitated the development of social sciences.

Sociological thinking as viewed today can be traced in these periods. These periods were characterized by emphasis on individual reasoning, experience, criticism to the supremacy of religion as the source of knowledge and opposition to traditional authority.

The twin revolutions that occurred in these periods: The French Revolution(1789 - 1799 ) and the Industrial Revolution (1760 and 1850) brought out interesting ideologies such as individualism, socialism, utilitarianism, utopianism, which played an important role for the emergence and growth of sociology.

The industrial Revolution in particular brought massive economic, technological and social changes. New social classes emerged: the industrialists and workers; there were influx of people in cities because of rural-urban migration.

Moreover, Urbanization and industrialization created new social problems: housing, overcrowding, sanitary problems, poverty, pollusion, child labour, insecurity and crime.

The rise of such social problems facilitated the rise of new social thinkers who focused their attention on the changing society and the way to deal with its problems.

Thinkers in this time were inspired and influenced by the discoveries of the time: discoveries such as  Isaac Newton’s (1642-1727)  law of gravity and motions, development of calculus, etc., motivated social thinkers to work hard in the social field with the expectations of achieving similar results in the study of human behaviour. They started applying methods developed by natural scientists to discover the laws of human behaviour and apply these laws to solve social problems.

Early social thinkers such as Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim started analysing the social order for the purpose of establish stability in the society. Their contributions are valuable to sociology even today. Auguste Comte, in particular, coined the word ‘sociology’ to denote a distinct science of society. For him all aspects of social life are bound in a unity which has an evolutionary character. Man grows in 3 stages of development: theological, metaphysical and scientific.

Spencer, attracted by Dwarn’s theory of survival for the fittest(simple, survival, fittest) treated the society as a natural phenomenon. One of his theories is that social phenomena undergo organic evolutionary process from the simple, homogeneous to the complex and heterogenous.

Thus man has evolved from the primitive man. His theory was later integrated in psychology- evolution of society is dependent on evolution of human mind.

Durkheim, another French philosopher, emphasized on the reality of society. Sociology is based on social facts. He contributed much in industrial management.

Apart from French and English Philosophers of the 19^th century, there was a batch of German Philosophers whose contribution to sociology cannot be ignored. These are: Simmel, Max Weber, Karl Marx  and Talcott Parsons. Max Weber’s contribution to sociology are seen from him theory of Social action, Authority, Bureaucracy and ideal type.

Karl Marx, on the other hand, in his ‘communist Manifesto’ has contributed to sociology issues such as historical materialism, theory of private property, class struggle, and stateless society. Talcott Parsons has contributed his action frame of reference and the structural functional analysis.

The important ideologies of 18^th which played great role in the rise of sociology and growth of other social sciences are:

Positivism – an era where scientific methods were the measuring rods of almost everything. Auguste Comte used this philosphy to refer to the idea of scientific treatment of social behaviour. For him sociology will do for a social man what biology exactly does to the biological man.

Humanitarianism – Commitment to man’s or societal welfare. It insisted for efforts to improve the conditions for the poor and needy.

Evolutionism – development of human society was viewed in terms of social evolution. It was thought that the idea of evolution would hast the development of society as it had done in biology.

Major factors which contributed to the rise of sociology:

Industrial Revolution and industrialization

Inspiration from the growth of Natural Sciences in 19^th C

Inspiration from diverse societies –  exposure to other cultures and challenges to social scientists.

Sociology as compared to other  social science is of recent origin, born only in 19^th C.

However, the efforts of people like Comte to make Sociology replace other social sciences ended up making sociology one of the social sciences.

        IMPORTANCE OF SOCIOLOGY

After a study of important concepts used in sociology, it is now an opportune time to ask ourselves of the value or purpose of sociology in our lives:

1.       Scientific study of society: Sociology undertakes a scientific knowledge or study of the society. This is a remarkable milestone in the history as prior to the emergence of sociology society was studied in an unscientific manner. It also reflects upon many of the problems of the present world.

2.       Studies the role of the institutions in the development of the individual: In sociology the social institutions through which the society functions are studied. This study enables one to know the functions and the relationship which exists between these institutions and the individual, and also what suitable measure can be taken to strengthen them in order to enable these institutions to serve the individual better. These institutions include: the family, school, education, the church, the religion, the state, the government, the industry, work, the community, association.

3.       Understanding of social problems and making of future plans of the society: Knowledge obtained through sociology is necessary for understanding of social problems and for the plans of its solutions. Unless the parts are known it is difficult to know the whole. Sociology is also necessary for effective planning and implementation of social policies.

4.       Solution of social Problems: The present social problems in the world can be solved through the scientific study of the society. Therefore, it is the obligation of sociology to study these problems through scientific research and to find solutions for them.

5.       Knowledge of other cultures: Sociology has brought to us an insight and appreciation of the culture and conditions in which others exist.

6.       Solution of international problems: Conflicts and war between nations of the world signifies the functional disequilibrium of the political organizations of the state. The study of the sociology of war will help in understanding the underlying causes of war and remove all such causes which promote tensions between nations and ultimately lead to war.

7.       Sociology is a profession: The students of sociology can get employed in fields such as government or industrial labour welfare officers, human relations officers, personnel officers, social security schemes, probation officers, reformatory school teachers, superintendants of juvenile homes, rural welfare officers, social education officers, superintendents of welfare/old age homes, social workers, social researchers, etc.

Important sociological concepts:

1.       Positivism: Positivism is a philosophy which holds that knowledge can be derived only from sensual experiences or empirical evidences. The methods of the physical sciences are highly regarded as the only accurate means of obtaining knowledge, and therefore, the social sciences should be limited to the use of these methods and modeled after the physical sciences. Anything true must be verified through sensory experience. Therefore, metaphysical speculations, purely logical analysis, theological speculations, His stand that societies should be studied scientifically is the basis of social research. Comte is the founder of this belief.

This belief has dominated the sociological research, investigators apply scientific methods mentioned by Comte: observation, experimentation, and comparison. Social actions are governed by laws and principles. Comte termed modern scientific knowledge as the ‘religion of humanity’ and the scientists are the  priests of this positive religion. He called himself the High Priest of this religion.Thus he considered himself a prophet and founder of a new positive religion that brings salvation to all ailment of humankind.

2.       Utilitarianism: Belief that human actions are justified as long as they have benefits to a majority of people. The word was coined by Bethan Jeremy, an English philosopher(1748-1832)

3.       Collectivism: Subjugation of an individual to a group – class, caste, race, etc. It also refers to a political system in which all forms of business and industries are owned by the government or by all the people.

4.       Evolutionism: Development of society from simple to complex stages of development.

5.       Humanitarianism: An act of kindness or benevolence extended universally and impartially to all human beings. It refers to effects made by government and organizations to alleviate poverty and suffering after the occurance of major natural or man made catastrophes.

6.       Darwinism: an ideology  which insists on the importance of survival. There are people who will survive because they are able and there are others who cannot survive.

7.       Confucianism: derived from philosopher Conficius who established a school known as JU. Everyone  should

have according to the status of his or her name.

                                         source Mr Octavian Mahamba.