Sociology an Introduction

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Sociology an Introduction
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A new awareness of Society

• Huge factories, exploding cities a new spirit of
  individualism-these changes combined to make
  people aware of their surroundings. As the social
  ground trembled under peoples feet, the new
  discipline of sociology was born in England,
  France, and Germany-precisely where the changes
  where the greatest

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France-Social thinker Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
Comtes Three-stage historical development 1-Theol
ogical-from the beginning of human history to the
end of the European Middles Ages about 1400,
people took a religious view of society, seeing
is as an expression of Gods will 2-Metaphysical-
people understood society as a natural rather
than a supernatural phenomenon.
3-Scientific-began with the work of scientists
such as Copernicus, Galileo and Newton, Comte
used the scientific approach to the world and
universe to study society
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The Sociological Perspective.

• A perspective can be broadly defined as "a way of
  looking at and seeing (or interpreting)
  something". To have a perspective, therefore,
  means to look at something (whatever that thing
  might be) in a particular way.
• For sociologists, the "thing" we are looking at
  is the social world and, in particular, the
  nature of the relationships people form in their
  everyday lives. Thus, when we talk about
  "society" or "the social world" as if it were
  something real and alive, what we are actually
  referring-to is our particular perception of the
  range and scope of the relationships that exist
  between people in any given society - which, if
  you're interested, is the real object of study
  for Sociologists.

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Examples of the Perspective in action

• Seeing the general in the particular
• Seek out general patterns in the behavior of
  particular people. Although every individual is
  unique, a society shapes the lives of its
  members.
• (People in the United States are much more likely
  to expect love to figure in marriage than, say,
  people living in a rural village in Pakistan)

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Examples of the Perspective in action

• Using the perspective means-challenging the
  familiar idea that we live our lives in terms of
  what we decide, consider instead that society
  shapes our experiences
• Read The perspective at work-Going to College

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The Sociological Perspective-cont

• This is not to say that all sociologists
  necessarily look at the social world from exactly
  the same perspective (or viewpoint if you
  prefer), nor that sociologists are always in
  complete agreement about what they are seeing,
  how behavior could or should be understood and so
  forth.

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