sociology-1

ANJANI SRIKANTH KOKA

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Origins and Development of Sociology

Society, Sociology and its Method

The Social Sciences

LEARNING OUTCOMES

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“Study hard and you will do well in life.” “If you do this elective or set of electives

you will have a better chance of getting a good job in the future”.

“As a boy/girl this does not seem a correct choice of job”

“Your family needs you to get a job soon so why choose a profession that will take a very long time” or “You will join your family business so why do you wish to do this job?”

Some suggestions often made

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Sociology makes a scientific study of society: Prior to the emergence of sociology the study of society was carried on in an unscientific manner and society had never been the central concern of any science.

It is through the study of sociology that the truly scientific study of the society has been possible.

Importance of Sociology

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Sociology because of its bearing upon many of the problems of the present world has assumed such a great importance that it is considered to be the best approach to all the social sciences.

Importance of Sociology (contd.)

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Sociology studies role of the institutions in the development of the individuals: It is through sociology that scientific study of the great social institutions and the relation of the individual to each is being made.

The home and family ,the school and education, the church and religion, the state and government ,industry and work ,the community and association, these are institutions through which society functions.

Importance of Sociology (contd.)

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Sociology studies these institutions and their role in the development of the individual and suggests suitable measures for re strengthening them with a view to enable them to serve the individual better.

Importance of Sociology (contd.)

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Study of sociology is indispensable for understanding and planning of society: Society is a complex phenomenon with a multitude of intricacies.

It is impossible to understand and solve its numerous problems without support of sociology.

It is rightly said that we cannot understand and mend society without any knowledge of its mechanism and construction.

Importance of Sociology (contd.)

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Without the investigation carried out by sociology no real effective social planning would be possible.

It helps us to determine the most efficient means for reaching the goals agreed upon.

A certain amount of knowledge about society is necessary before any social policies can be carried out.

Importance of Sociology (contd.)

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Sociology is of great importance in the solution of social problems: The present world is suffering from many problems which can be solved through scientific study of the society.

It is the task of sociology to study the social problems through the methods of scientific research and to find out solution to them.

Importance of Sociology (contd.)

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The scientific study of human affairs will ultimately provide the body of knowledge and principles that will enable us to control the conditions of social life and improve them.

Importance of Sociology (contd.)

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Sociology has drawn our attention to the intrinsic worth and dignity of man: Sociology has been instrumental in changing our attitude towards human beings.

In a specialized society we are all limited as to the amount of the whole organization and culture that we can experience directly.

Importance of Sociology (contd.)

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We can hardly know the people of other areas intimately.

In order to have insight into and appreciation of the motives by which others live and the conditions under which they exist a knowledge of sociology is essential.

Importance of Sociology (contd.)

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Sociology has changed our outlook with regard to the problems of crime etc: It is through the study of sociology that our whole outlook on various aspects of crime has change. The criminals are now treated as human beings suffering from mental deficiencies and efforts are accordingly made to rehabilitate them as useful members of the society.

Importance of Sociology (contd.)

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Sociology has made great contribution to enrich human culture: Human culture has been made richer by the contribution of sociology. The social phenomenon is now understood in the light of scientific knowledge and enquiry. According to Lowie most of us harbor the comfortable delusion that our way of doing things is the only sensible if not only possible one.

Importance of Sociology (contd.)

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Sociology has given us training to have rational approach to questions concerning oneself, one's religion, customs, morals and institutions.

It has further taught us to be objective, critical and dispassionate.

It enables man to have better understanding both of himself and of others.

Importance of Sociology (contd.)

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By comparative study of societies and groups other than his existence ,his life becomes richer and fuller than it would otherwise be.

Sociology also impresses upon us the necessity of overcoming narrow personal prejudices, ambitions and class hatred.

Importance of Sociology (contd.)

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Sociology is of great importance in the solution of international problems: The progress made by physical sciences has brought the nations of the world nearer to each other. But in the social field the world has been left behind by the revolutionary progress of the science.

Importance of Sociology (contd.)

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The world is divided politically giving rise to stress and conflict. Men have failed to bring in peace. Sociology can help us in understanding the underlying causes and tensions.

Importance of Sociology (contd.)

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The value of sociology lies in the fact that it keeps us update on modern situations: It contributes to making good citizens and finding solutions to the community problems. It adds to the knowledge of the society. It helps the individual find his relation to society.

Importance of Sociology (contd.)

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The study of social phenomena and of the ways and means of promoting what Giddens calls social adequacy is one of the most urgent needs of the modern society.

Sociology has a strong appeal to all types of mind through its direct bearing upon many of the initial problems of the present world.

Importance of Sociology (contd.)

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West - Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Ethics and Politics ---

India – Upanishads, Sutras and the Puranas Special importance – Laws of Manu or

Manusmriti Sukracharya – Nitisastra Arthasastra by Chanakya or Kautilya is the

most famous work of ancient Indian literature on this subject

Persians - Zoroaster

Origins

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The term sociology was coined by French philosopher and sociologist Auguste Comte

Latin societas (society) and the Greek logos (study)

He defined sociology as the science of social phenomena

Modern Pioneers

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Herbert Spencer – His sociology is essentially evolutionistic

He asserted that society was like an organism or living body

Frederic Le Play – applied case-study method to his research; introduced the survey method and the concept of ‘participant observer’

Modern Pioneers (contd.)

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Karl Marx (economist)

Charles Durkheim (biologist)

Sigmund Freud (Psycho analyst)

Modern Pioneers (contd.)

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Emile Durkheim and Max Weber became prominent

Durkheim – ultimate social reality is the group, not the individual

Max Weber introduced interpretive understanding (Verstehen) in sociology

For him individual is the basic unit of society His approach is opposite to that of

Durkheim

Modern Pioneers (contd.)

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Verstehen refers to understanding the meaning of action from the actor's point of view.

It is entering into the shoes of the other, and adopting this research stance requires treating the actor as a subject, rather than an object of your observations.

Verstehen as said by Max Weber

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Evolutionary and organismic theories

Naturalist and analytical

Structural-functionalist

Theories and Movements

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In the simplest sense ,evolution means the slow process of change from a simple to a more complex structure.

Evolution assumes that all living things are inter-related.

Humans are supposed to have developed from some simpler forms.

Evolutionary Theory

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Most of the scientists today accept the basic principle of evolution but they have varying views regarding how evolution has taken place or how far it has gone.

The evolution of life began in the oceans. About four hundred million years ago the first land based creatures emerged.

Evolutionary Theory (contd.)

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Some of these gradually evolved into the large reptiles who were later displaced by mammals.

Mammals are warm-blooded creatures having greater capacity to learn from experience than other animals and this capacity has reached its highest development in the human species.

Evolutionary Theory (contd.)

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Our closest relatives are chimpanzee, gorilla and orangutan

Though similarities between man and other animal forms were discovered by Linnaeus who grouped men ,the great ape and monkeys in a single order, the main theory is Darwinism.

Survival of the fittest through struggle for existence

Evolutionary Theory (contd.)

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A further elaboration of the evolutionary theory

Darwin and Spencer

Those which conceive of society as a biological organism with nerves, tissues, cells etc.

Organismic Theory

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Naturalism or positivism: Attempts to equate the methods of sociology to those of the natural sciences such as physics, chemistry and biology by using external observation and measurement or quantification

Inspiration: Comte, Pareto

There is no qualitative difference between physical and social relations

Disown introspection, interpretation

Naturalistic and analytical

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Inspiration: Max Weber

Difference between natural and social sciences (contrast to naturalistic)

Introspection, interpretation techniques have their place in sociology

Analytical

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Widely followed in modern times

Inspiration: Comte, Spencer, Durkheim, and Pareto

All parts of a culture or group are integrated into the whole or are interdependent on each other and social phenomena are functions or effects of social structures such as class systems etc.

Structural-functional theory

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Sociology – Latin societas (society) and the Greek logos (study or science)

Reciprocal recognition and commonness are the characteristic features of every social relationship

Method – Greek meta (with, after) and hodos (way) --- an apt way of doing something, investigating or teaching with brevity, thoroughness and the like.

Method vs. technique

Society, Sociology & its method

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For convenience, I decide to take a side path instead of the high road in order to go to a village, I may do it by going on foot or on bicycle.

The following of the side path is the method and the use of the bicycle the technique.

Method vs. Technique

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Formulation of the Problem Observation (Spontaneous/Controlled) Classification Hypothesis Verification Prediction

THE SOCIOLOGICAL METHOD

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Juvenile delinquency refers to antisocial or illegal behavior by children or adolescents

Broken homes

Classification

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A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for an observable phenomenon

Chocolate may cause pimples. Salt in soil may affect plant growth. Plant growth may be affected by the color

of the light. Bacterial growth may be affected by

temperature. Ultra violet light may cause skin cancer. Taller people have larger handspans If I eat pizza everyday then I get fat.

Hypothesis

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When certain conditions obtain, broken homes are the main cause of juvenile delinquency

Working hypothesis

Scientific hypothesis If we give plant A more fertilizer than plant

B then plant A will grow faster than plant B.

Hypothesis (contd.)

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America --- broken homes are the main cause of juvenile delinquency

France, India, Brazil and other nations????

We cannot accept this hypothesis as general or universal

Verification

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Archimedes principle: ‘A body immersed in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the liquid it displaces’

Fluid – water, oil or any other liquid

This we can always predict without fear of being wrong. By prediction the law shows that it can act as such

Prediction

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Sociology and Economics Sociology and Political Science Sociology and History Sociology and Psychology Sociology and Anthropology Sociology and Ethics Other Social Sciences

The Social Sciences

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Economics is the study of production and distribution of goods and services.

As the economic process develops in society, it influences and is influenced by the social life of man; the relation between these two sciences is very intimate.

Many economists like Max Weber interpret economic change as an aspect of social change

Relation with Economics

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The study of economics would be misleading and incomplete apart from its social setting – an opinion that has gained considerable ground during the last few decades.

As the economic system is embedded in the social structure as a part of it, the study of the former cannot be undertaken but as a function of the latter; that’s why Economics must be the handmaid of sociology.

Relation with Economics (contd.)

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Economics deals with the production of goods and services and how they are distributed to people just like sociology which also consider how the goods are distributed to members of the society.

Relation with Economics (contd.)

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Political science deals with social groups organized under the sovereignty of the state

Law and freedom; legislative power etc.

Close affinity between sociology and political science but the view points are different; the former looks upon a state as a social institution; the latter as the supreme regulating power of the community and the source of political law

Relation with Political Science

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The correlation between these two branches as per Giddings: “To teach the theory of the state to men who have not learned the first principles of sociology, is like teaching astronomy or thermodynamics to men who have not learned Newton’s laws of motion.”

Relation - Political Science (contd.)

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Sociology and Political science are also related in the sense that they both concern the welfare of people in a society.

Political science basically deals with the distribution of power and the exercise of power, democracy, dictatorship, communism, how people vote etc.

Relation - Political Science (contd.)

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Ethics is concerned with the moral rightness or depravity of human actions

It investigates the laws of morality and formulates the principles and rules of morally desirable actions.

Relation with Ethics

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A peaceful strike directed to improve the condition of the working classes, when all other legal means have proved futile, is morally good, or at least not wrong; whereas the same strike, used as a piece of revolutionary strategy, with the object of spreading unrest in the population, is ethically wrong.

An example

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No ethical action is possible unless it is social

Not everything that is social is ethical

Relation with Ethics

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Do not furnish the image of competitors by unfair practices.

Do not deceive or cheat the customers by

selling substandard or defective products by under measurement or any other means.

Do not report to hoarding, black marketing or profiteering.

No ethical action is possible unless it is social

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Ensure payment of fair wages and fair treatment to the internal customers as well as external customers and share holders.

Make accurate business records so that transparency to the share holders can be achieved.

Treasure sincerity and accuracy in advertising, labeling and packaging.

Some more ethical actions…

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Kidney transplantation in India has become most popular because of easy availability at low cost.

The doctors run into confusion when they come across the situation where a patient’s life can be saved by disturbing the health of others.

Not everything that is social is ethical

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The physical and cultural development of human beings from their origin to the present time is the object of the study of anthropology

Human Evolution, Physical anthropology, Archaeology, Cultural anthropology, Social anthropology

Relation with Anthropology

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Human evolution (study of fossil man) Physical anthropology (concerned with

bodily characteristics of racial groups) Archaeology (attempts to reconstruct the

social life of prehistoric man) Cultural anthropology (study of man’s

culture both material and non-material) Social anthropology (deals with man as a

social being, in which sense it would coincide with sociology)

Different parts of anthropology

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The non material aspects of any culture are its beliefs, customs, philosophy, patterns and ways of communication (verbal and non-verbal) and its government.

The material aspect of culture consists of the physical. These are houses, food items, factories, raw materials and technologies.

Every culture is the product of this interaction between its' material and non material aspects.

Material vs. Nonmaterial culture

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History primarily deals with past events.

Sociology on the other end will be concerned with how people interacted, how culture was affected etc.

History emphasizes particular historical occurrences; sociology deals in general.

Relation with History

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History primarily deals with past events and how they affected society e.g., how the colonization of Africa underdeveloped Africa.

Sociology on the other end will be concerned with how people interacted, how culture was affected etc during the colonization and the present.

Relation with History (contd.)

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The primary interest of the sociologist is the finding of the general laws of society and that of the historian the reconstruction of the order in which historical events have been taking place.

History deals with human events in so far as they are correlated in time, while sociology studies them from the viewpoint of the social relationships involved

Relation with History (contd.)

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While the historian describes the Napolean wars with all the circumstances accompanying them, a sociologist would study their impact on the lives of the people, the role that these wars had on the subsequent development of the nationalistic spirit in Europe and the part that convictions and propaganda played in arousing the spirits of patriots against the invader.

Relation with History (contd.)

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While the historian may deal with the development of the family in different civilizations, the sociologist’s task is to investigate into the various forms of this institution; to trace the morphological similarity between them; to find their correlations so as to be able to formulate the laws of change and causality that intervene among those traits and institutions.

Relation with History (contd.)

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As society is fundamentally a mental phenomenon, the relation between social psychology and sociology becomes at once obvious.

Relation with Psychology

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Social psychology deals with the mental processes of man considered as a social being. It studies particularly the influence of group life on the mental development of the individual; the effect of the individual mind on the group, and the development of the mental life of the groups within themselves and in their relations with one another.

Relation with Psychology (contd.)

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Psychology and Sociology link on that they deal with the behavior of people, psychology deals with the behavior of people and their mental process just like sociology which also seek to understand how people's behavior affect society.

The distinction is that the one studies society from the view point of the community element; the other from the viewpoint of psychological factors involved

Relation with Psychology (contd.)

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Demography Law Criminology Industrial sociology Religious Sociology Organizational Sociology Sociology of communication Prognostics or futurology (society of future).

“FASTEST GROWING SCIENCE”

Other social sciences

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Meeting point of sociology and philosophy

Its role is the study of the fundamental principles and concepts of social life in their epistemological and axiological aspects

Epistemological : philosophical study of knowledge

Axiological : philosophical study of values

SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY

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Ontological: fundamental principles and concepts of social life such as man, society, justice, happiness etc.

Criteriological: criticizes or inquires into the validity of the principles and conclusions of the social sciences

Synthetic: Seeks to bring together its results with those of the other sciences that deal with man

Epistemological aspect - functions

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In its axiological aspect social philosophy deals with the ultimate values of social life and the means of attaining them.

Its objective is, therefore, the attainment of the social good in itself and in its relations with ultimate moral values.

Axiological aspect

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