Soc 101=Lec=1=2=Aau=Summer2012

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ASM Amanullah PhD (Sydney)Professor, Department of Sociology

University of Dhaka

Visiting ProfessorNSU

[email protected]

North South University (NSU)Course SOC 101 (AAu)
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Lecture: 1

Definition, nature,

scope and importanceof sociology


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Sociology: The term Sociologywas invented by Auguste Comte

to designate the science ofhuman association.

The word Sociology has been derivedfrom the Latin word Sociusmeaning

associate or companion and the Greek

word Logusmeaning theory.

Thus the etymological meaning of

sociology is the theory or science of

human association or society.


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e n ons:

Lester Frank Ward and William Graham Sumner:Sociology is the science of society or of social

phenomena.

Emile Durkheim:The science of social

institutions.

George Simmel:Science that studies humanrelationship.

Kovalevsky:The science of social organizationand social change.

Max Weber:Study of social action.


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In brief:

Sociology is the science of society

Sociology is a study of social relationships

Sociology is a study of social organizations,institutions and groups

Social structure is one of the centralconcepts of sociology

Human society is always changing

Human relationships or the various elements

of social structure are causally related


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Nature of Sociology:

Holistic study of the society

Discusses about the construction of

society i.e., the elements of socialstructure

Provides scientific explanation of thesocial structure

Ethically neutral (Value free)


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Scope of Sociology:

Sociological theoryHistorical sociology

Sociology of family

Social demography

Rural sociology

Urban sociology

Industrial sociology

Medical sociology


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Sociology of religion

Political sociologySociology of law

Social psychology

Social statistics

Sociology of art

Military sociology

Sociology of war

Folk sociology, Sociology of Music etc.


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Text:

John J. Macionis (2009). Sociology. Pearson,USA.

Giddens, A. (2009). Sociology: A brief but

Critical Introduction. Macmillan, UK.

Tischler, H.L. (2010). Introduction to Sociology.

USA.


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Lecture: 2

Origin of Sociology

Relationship with other social sciences


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Sociology is the science of society and its

institutions. It is considered as one of theyoungest social sciences.

The conditions, which gave use tosociology, were both intellectual and social.Naturally, these were interwoven, and anadequate sociological history of sociology,

which has not yet been attempted, wouldhave to take account of these inter-connections.


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According to Ginsberg,Broadly it may be said thatsociology had a origin in political philosophy, thephilosophy of history, biological theories of evolution; andthe movements for social and political reform which found

it necessary to undertake surveys of social conditions.

In fact, literature concerning the subject matter of

sociology is not of recent origin. But the name to thissubject was not given beforeAuguste Comtewho, in hisworkPositive Philosophyclearly emphasized the needfor a distinct subject for studying the society and in hisendeavor, he first named it as social physicsbut laterrenamed it sociology which is universally accepted asproper title, and by virtue of thisAuguste Comteis calledas the father of Sociology.


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A brief description of emergence of the

subject from early times is given below:a) The Greeks:

Plato(427-347 B.C.) in his book Republicdiscussed about City Society and itsproblems

Aristotle(388-327 B.C.) in his booksPoliticsand Ethicsdiscussed aboutsystematic dealing of Law, the society andthe State.


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b) The Roman Thinkers:

Ciceromade the most outstandingcontributionin his book De Officus (On

Justice). In his book, Cicerodiscussedthe great Greek ideas in Philosophy,Politics, Sociology and Law in the

West.

c) The Scholastics


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c) The Scholastics:

The later period was over-cast with the scholasticthinking and ideology. The biblical thesis that thehuman being is a special creation of God wasforcefully advocated by these thinkers. Thehuman being was subject to only the laws of Godand the church was the earthly place where aman could come into contact with his creator the

God.

The scholastic philosophy, beyond all doubts wasconservative it its approach to human life and

quite mistakably it assigned theologicalinterpretations to social attitudes. It wasabsolutely impractical on the part of thescholastics to consider that nothing social can bechanged.


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d) Modern thinkers:

It was only in the sixteenth century that a precisedistinction was made between state and society.Thomas Hobbes and Machiavelliwere theoutstanding contributors of the realistic

approach to social problems.

Hobbesin his book Levithanand Machiavelliinhis the Princeanalyzed the system of statecraft

and also put forward conditions for successfulstate. Other contributors were Sir Thomas More,who in his book Utopia(1515) tried to deal withevery day social problems.


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Notably among those who madecontribution towards the specificinvestigation of social phenomena are the

Italian writer Vicoand French writer Baronde Montesquieu.

It was maintained by Vicoin his book TheNew Sciencethat society was subject todefinite laws which can be observedthrough objective observation and study.Montesquieuexplained in his The Spirit oflawsthat many external factors, particularlyclimate, play significant role in the life of

society.


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e) Auguste Comte:

Auguste Comtegave the proper name tothe subject embracing the totality of

human life and activities. In his time,humankind was on the threshold ofscientific stage.

f) Bi l i l S h l f Th ht


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f) Biological School of Thought:

Charles Darwins epoch making book the Origin ofSpecies by Means of Natural Selection(1859) and

the Descent of Man (1871) EASTABLISHED NEWTHEORY BY QUASHING THE OLD and maintainedthat all complete forms of life have evolved fromthe simple, and through the process of the

survival of the fittest.

Darwins theory of scientific evolution wasbrought into Sociology by Herbert Spencer(1820-

1903) in his book Principles of Sociology (1876).Spencerobserved that the study of sociology wasthe study of evolution in its most complex forms.


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g) The Psychologists:

The writings of Herbert Spencerhad aremarkable impact on the psychologistwho had displaced his biological

interpretation of social phenomena to thepsychological interpretation.

The notable among theme were: GrahamWallace and McDougall (England), WarseGiddings, Cooley, Mead and Deway(America), Freud.


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h) Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

French sociologist Emile Durkheimdisagreeing with Spencer interpreted thepositivist intellectual tradition in

beginning and later changed it.

Durkheimargued that there were other

factors than the psychological andbiological factors.

i) German Sociologists


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i) German Sociologists:

Significant contribution was made byGerman sociologistsVon Wiese Tonnies,Vier Kandt, George Simmel and Max Weber.

The formal school of sociology wasdeveloped by Simmel.

Max Weber (1864-1920) developed theconcept of Ideal Type and notion ofCausality.


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j) Parsons, Merton and Marx, Khaldun:

Talcott Parsonsdeveloped the system ofsociological studies whereas Robert K. Mertonlaid emphasis on the theoretical aspects ofsociological studies.

Karl Marx, a pioneer philosopher, economistand social thinker, revolutionized the whole

gamete of conventional understanding of thesocial structure and established himself as theleading sociologist of the last century.


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RELATION OF SOCIOLOGY WITH OTHER SOCIAL SCIENCES

Sociology is defined as a social science. It studies social life as awhole. But the social life is so complex that it is impossible to isolatesocial problems from the whole range of human experience.

The life of a human being is many-sided. There is economic aspect,legal aspect, an aesthetic aspect, a religious aspect, a political aspectand so forth. Sociology, therefore, can understand social life as awhole by taking help from other social sciences which studyexclusively one or the other aspects of human activities.

Sociology, for example, in order to understand a particular societyhas to take stock of its economic, political, and cultural factors, itsgeographical environment, its language, its religion, its morals, itslaws, and finally, its interaction with the rest of the world. That clearlyshows that sociology cannot have an existence independent of other

social sciences. But that does not mean that Sociology only borrows from other social

sciences and gives them nothing. As a matter of fact, the varioussocial sciences are very much dependent on sociology for the simplereason that no aspect of human life can be detached from its socialaspect.


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Furthermore, the various social sciences devotethemselves to the study of one aspect of human lifeand therefore are not in a position to give us a

complete survey of the social life. For example,Anthropology studies the primitive human beingsand their culture only as they existed in times longpast. Economics enquires into the relations ofwealth and welfare.

Psychology studies human being only as a behavingindividual. But sociology is a more comprehensivescience and includes all areas of social lives. It is,

therefore, quite apt to remark that Sociology is themother of all social sciences.


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Relationship with other social sciences:

Sociology and Political Science Sociology and Development Studies

Sociology and Economics

Sociology and Public Administration

Sociology and Anthropology

Sociology and History

Sociology and Social Psychology++


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Soc 101=Lec=1=2=Aau=Summer2012