01 Sociology The Discipline

Early sociological records

• Republic by Plato
• De Officiis by Cicero
• Arthashastra by Kautilya

The Europe Connection

Enlightenment (17th - 18th century)

Philosophy

Positioned human being as the central figure of the universe, with rational thought at its core.

Irving Zeitlin

Early socio dev as a reaction to the Enlightenment.

• secular, scientific, humanistic attitudes
• rationalism, empiricism, change orientation
• rational & critical thinking
• Montesquieu, Rousseau, Darwin, French Revolution
• French sociologists: Alexis de Tocqueville, Clause Saint-Simon, Auguste Comte, Spencer, Emile Durkheim
  • Comte first to use the word Sociology
    • developed scientific view (positivism)
• French Revolution: liberty, equality, fraternity

Industrial Revolution

• massive production of goods & services
• replaced family as an institution
  • see also Industrial Society and Family Life
• factory system, emergence of =working class=
  • don’t know each other personally
• bureaucracy

French Revolution 1789

• liberty, equality, fraternity
  • even Indian society influenced
• Feudalism altered
• older 3 estates w/ diff status, privileges & restrictions dismantled & got uniformity in social structure

Commercial Revolution (15th century +)

• large scale, organized
• Portugal, Spain, Holland, England
• overseas discoveries, conquests
  • eg. Christopher Columbus
• discovery of new societies
• change in market economies led to change in social relationships

Scientific Revolution

• intellectuals questioned corrupt practices of the Church
  • eg. Martin Luther
• propagated scientific edu
• imbibed spirit of science
• questioned extravagant religious rituals developed by clergies
• inventions changed lifestyle and in turn social relationships
  • related article on Penn Today: How the appliance boom moved more women into the workforce

☝️ only some light humor; not for exam

Comparisons

Sociology vs Economics

Alfred Marshal

Eco $==$ study of how man earns & spends money

• eco activity also social activity
  • methods of earning money guided by social norms / values
    • eg robbery not legitimate
  • consumption behaviour affected by social / cultural values
• Pierre Bourdieu: economist takes into account even the cost of externalities
  • suicide, pollution, crimes etc
• Marxist: economic behaviour of man a key to understanding social behaviour of man
• Durkheim: rejected Division of Labour
• Recent studies by Gunnar Myrdal, Raymond Aron etc used in both socio & eco
• Economic Sociology
• gender budgeting, feminist economics

Economics	Sociology
narrow scope, related to production activities	wider scope, studies all aspects of human activity
emphasis on rel b/w pure economic variables	study prod enterprise as a social org (eg role of caste system in economy)
framework of ownership and relationship to means of production	crit eco theories $\to$ reductionist, ignoring social factors influencing eco behaviour
more systematized, scientific. Has laws which predict with fair accuracy	no technical solution. Only encouragement of a critical analytical perspective
more scope of building theory, laws eg demand supply	laws less universal

Sociology vs Psychology

• JS Mill: all laws are derived from laws of mind
• Sigmund Freud: imptance to inheritance over environment
  • sociology is merely an extension of social psychology
• Durkheim: theory of suicide from sociological pov
• Ginsberg: many sociological generalizations can be more firmly established by relating them to psychological laws
• Weber: better sociological explanations by enriching with underlying meanings
• Gerth & Mills: study of social psychology is interplay between individual character & social structure

Psychology	Sociology
study of individual human personality	study of individual + society
man’s experience, behaviour, basic instincts, sympathy, imitations, passions	social institutions, inter relationships, family, individual, religion, power
limited scope (man’s mental activity + basic behaviour)	general study of society, wider scope
more scientific, greater experimentation scope, psychological laboratories	multiple perspectives and claim of being scientific is contested

Sociology vs History

GE Howard

History is past Sociology; Sociology is present History.

• subject matter of socio & history overlap
• historians provide the material sociologists use
  • sociologists get crucial info abt past
  • Karl Marx, Durkheim used lot of historical data in their sociological discourse
• Radcliffe Brown: socio is nomothetic while history is idiographic
  • historian describes unique events
  • sociologist describes generalizations
• coming closer as now history also concerned w/ “how” of events
  • history is no longer purely descriptive

History	Sociology
study the past	study contemporary past & present
delineate actual events, how things happened	establishing casual rel. thru detached observations
descriptive	normative eg. feminist, marxist persp.
study concrete details w/ obj discussion of real events	generalize events to study phenomenon (not events)
looks at events from framework of time	looks at events, institutions from pov of nature of rel. involved

Sociology vs Political Science

• policies affect social parameters
  • eg China 1 child policy
  • Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao in India
  • American policies promotes values of openness & individual freedom
  • Pakistani policies advocate for religious codes
• MN Srinivas: Vote Bank Politics
• CW Mills: Power elite
• Marx: pol institutions & behaviours closely linked w/ eco system & social classes
• political parties, elite classes, voting behaviour, bureaucracy, political ideology

Political Science	Sociology
restricted to study of state & power	wider, study of all aspects of society
subject matter better codified	more open ended
attn. to processes within govt & rel. w/ ppl	interrelationships among a wide set of institutions incl. govt
provide laws that affect welfare of masses	data & basis for these laws & policies (eg. caste, kinship, demographics)

Sociology vs Anthropology

• study same matter: man
  • time and cultural elements separate them
• high convergence
• small primitive units which anthropologists study are fast disappearing
• MN Srinivas: distinction b/w industrialized & non industrialized society blurred due to interconnected economies

Anthropology	Sociology
curiosity of western scholars in primitive societies in non western countries	philosophy of history, political thought, +ve sciences in light of challenges posed by modernity and industrial societies
describe, analyze in clinically neutral terms (they are outsiders, not involved)	loaded w/ values, conclusions have ethical considerations
study simple societies in all aspects, without much historical records	study part of existing society (eg family, mobility) in context of historical records
live in community to observe and record	rely on statistics, questionnaires and give formal analysis
study physical aspects related to evolution, biology	focus on cultural, social aspects

Sociology vs Common Sense

Peter Berger

The fascination of Sociology lies in the fact that its perspective makes us see, in a new light, the very world in which we have lived our lives.

• Common Sense: routine knowledge ppl have of their everyday world and acitivties
  • based on naturalistic, individualistic explanations
  • prejudices, biases
  • not necessarily false, but is unexamined, unreflected, for granted
  • helps in hypothesis buliding
• Sociologist is a sceptic however
  • looking beyond what meets the eye
  • gives deeper insight into our very own routine lives which are ignored by common sense

Common Sense	Sociology
based on reinforced traditions	challenges these traditions
assumption based	evidence based
no empirical testing	has empirical orientation
not coherent or consistent	objective knowledge
very personal and individualistic	generalization & theory buliding
promotes status quoism	change oriented
unreflective	open to debates
personal judgement	has body of knowledge, methods, data