EMERGENCE OF SOCIOLOGY

Dr.NC VAMSHI KRISHNA

BDS, MA( Sociology)
sources
 Abhijit Kundu
 George Ritzer.
 INTRODUCTION
 Study of modern societies.
 Sociology is the study of social life, social change, and the social causes and
consequences of human behavior.
 It focuses on relations among people, groups, classes, organizations, and
cultures.
 Sociologists study all aspects and levels of society. Sociologists working from
the micro-level study small groups and individual interactions, while those
using macro-level analysis look at trends among and between large groups
and societies.
 EMERGENCE OF SOCIOLOGY
 Sociology is one of the newer of the academic disciplines, tracing its origins to the
middle of the nineteenth century.
 The word sociology is given by – Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes.
 The French philosopher, August Comte gave sociology and a programme for its
development.
 1838 Auguste Comte, a Frenchman, coined the term sociology, from the
Latin socius (companion or associate) and the Greek term logia (study of speech).
Comte believed sociology could unify other sciences and improve society.
 IS IT REALLY YOUNG?
 For thousands of years, society has been a subject for speculation and enquiry.
 The study of society, however, can be traced to the Greek philosophers, Plato and
Aristotle.
 Republic of Plato (427-347 B.C.) -Plato was the first Western philosopher
who attempted a systematic study of society.
 Politic and Ethics of Aristotle -systematic dealing of law, the society and State.
 Hobbes in his Levithan- a precise distinction was made between State and society.
 Machiavelli in his Prince analyses the system of statecraft and also put forward
conditions for success of State.
 All of them- “ Brought in Realistic Approach to study of society in general and
social problems in particular.”
 Montesquieu -The Spirit of Laws – covered law, social life
 Constitutional system of Government.
 Preservation of civil liberties- SOP, Appropriate laws
 Idea that political institutions should reflect social and geographical aspects
of the society.
 Rousseau’s social contract-Monarchs are not divinely ordained to legislate.
 Only people are sovereign.
 Both books not explicitly social but philosophical- However raised the conscious of
increased focus on society.
 With the passage of time various social sciences developed one after another
and began to pursue separate and independent path of their own.
 Political philosophers inquired into the evolution of State, the growth and
nature of State authority and various other problems of political nature.
 Economics as separate and independent science inquired into the problems
concerning production and distribution of commodities as well as the larger
question of economic growth.
 Finally August Comte created the new science of society and coined the name
sociology in 1839.
 “sociology has a long past and a short history”
CONDITIONS THAT GAVE RISE:
 “The conditions which gave rise to sociology were both intellectual and social”.
- T B Bottomore.
 Intellectual antecedents of sociology:
 political philosophy
 The philosophy of history
 Biological theories of evolution
 Movements for social and political reform
 Ginsberg- Four fold origin of sociology.
 Intellectual tradition described as the philosophy of history, which believed the
general idea of progress.
“ history, the thinkers of the
 To combat the influence of theology on
Enlightenments introduced the idea of causality into history of philosophy,
elaborated the theory of progress.
 The philosophical historians introduced the new conception of society as
something more than the political society’ or the State.
 They were concerned with the whole range of social institution and made a
distinction between the State and what they called ‘civil society’.- Gave rise to
Liberal Individualism.
 BIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF EVOLUTION
 This evolutionary view of social change was highly influenced by Charles Darwin's
theory of Organic Evolution.
 Evolutionary theories are based on the assumption that societies gradually change
from simple beginnings into even more complex forms.
 Early sociologists beginning with Auguste Comte believed that human societies
evolve in a unilinear way- that is in one line of development. According to them social
change meant progress toward something better.
 .L.H Morgan believed that there were three basic stages in the process: savagery,
barbarism and civilization.
 Auguste Comte's ideas relating to the three stages in the development of human
thought and also of society namely-the theological, the metaphysical and the positive
 Herbert Spencer a British sociologist carried this analogy to its extremity. He argued
that society itself is an organism.
 He even applied Darwin's principle of the survival of the fittest to human societies.
He said that society has been gradually progressing towards a better state.
 He argued that it has evolved from military society to the industrial society. He
claimed that western races, classes or societies had survived and evolved because
they were better adapted to face the conditions of life.
 The principle of “ Social Darwinism”.
 “A second important element in modern sociology is the Survey of social conditions”
-TB Bottomore
 The first was the growing conviction of the applicability of the methods of natural
sciences to the study of human affairs.
 All intellectual fields are profoundly shaped by their social setting. This is particularly
true of sociology, which is not only derived from that setting but takes the social setting
as its basic subject matter.
 The upheaval of French revolution was a turning point in the history of thinking about
society. It was also largely responsible for the development of Sociology.
 Rise in new social currents
 Collapse of traditional authority
 New ideals of liberty and Individuality- NEW MAN.
 Citizen vs State
 The interest in the issue of social order was one of the major concern of August
Comte who created sociology as a separate science.
 He felt a need for a social science which is concerned with society as a whole or
with total social structure
 He was the first man to create a new science of society and to distinguish the
subject-matter of sociology from all other social sciences. Comte developed -the
first complete approach to the scientific study of society.
 INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF THE DISCIPLINE
 Sociology as a science of society originated with August Comte in the nineteenth
century. He worked out a general approach to the study of society.
 He called sociology the “queen of all sciences” and recommended that as the highest
of all sciences
 ‘positivist’ method of observation
 experimentation
 comparison to understand order and promote progress.
 The nineteenth century sociology was evolutionary because it attempted to identify
and account for the principal stages in the social evolution.
 European classical scientists, particularly Marx, Max Weber and Durkheim sought to
establish the scope and methods of sociology to show its value by investigation and
explanation of major social phenomena.
 Karl Marx sought to discover the objective laws of history and society and attempted
to show that the development of society is natural historical process in which various
social systems succeed each other.
 Weber focused on Micro theory.
 All the proponents of systematic sociology agree that abstract theory must be tested
by empirical research.
 In contrast to Spencer who accepted the significance of individuals and Durkheim
who stressed emphasis on the significance on the group, the systematic sociologists
seem to be in fundamental agreement about the relationship of society and
individual.
 The systematic sociologists mainly developed elaborate conceptual schemes.
 REFORMIST ORIENTATION
 Despite its European origins, sociology during the first half of the 20th century became
primarily an American subject due to works of W.I.Thomas, Mead, Florian Znaniecki,
Helen Lynd, Burgess, etc.
 American sociologists emphasized the practical aspects of the field, especially in terms of
initiating various social reforms. That is, they viewed sociology as an applied social
science (applying their knowledge to create practical solutions to societal problems).
 The emergence of the Chicago School in the early decades of the twentieth century proved
to be a kind of natural laboratory for qualitative, ethnographic-type research on urban
social processes and problems.
 American sociology emphasized the study of particular social problems such as crime,
marital discord, the acculturation of immigrants, race relation and urban sociology.
 American sociologist like Parson, Merton, etc who emphasized on developing pragmatic
solutions to the real life problems especially after American civil war and WW1&2.
 Gunnar Myrdal where the contradictions between high democratic ideals of
America and the way they treat the black race and its tensions were underlined.
 Further Marxist Sociology influenced capitalist America to take the Socialistic
turn which focused on social reforms. Hence, these studies are a manifestation
of the social reformist orientation of Sociology which flourished in America.
EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL POLICY
 Jane Addams (1860–1935) was a preeminent founder of American sociology.
She set up her Chicago‐based “Hull House” as a center for sociological research.
 Most of the sociologists at Hull House were women who enjoyed applying
sociological knowledge to solve social problems such as unfair labour policies,
exploitation of children and workers, poverty, juvenile delinquency, and
discrimination against women, minorities, and the elderly.
 These sociologists also used a research technique known as mapping, in which
they collected demographic data such as age, gender, and socioeconomic
status, geographically distributed this information, and then analyzed the
distribution.
 After identifying problems and devising a social‐action policy based on
available data, they would organize community members and lobby political
leaders to solve the problem.
 They played a major part in establishing government safety and health standards
and regulations, as well as founding important government programs, including
Social Security, Workers' Compensation, and the Children's Bureau.
 Between 1940 and 1960, sociologists developed and applied rigorous and
sophisticated scientific methods to the study of social behaviour and societies
 In the 1960s, however, people began to challenge sociology's objective and
value‐free approach to social knowledge.
 An increased awareness of and interest in such social ills as racial unrest, gender
inequity, poverty, and controversy over the Vietnam War led society once again
to look for the practical solutions associated with sociology as an applied
science.
 Today sociology is a social science that is both applied and basic, subjective and
objective.
 In addition, the discipline has divided into many specialties and subspecialties—
from
 Industrial sociology,
 Rural sociology in India
 Urban sociology
 Economic sociology etc.