The Basics of Sociology

spectives sociologists utilize are discussed in detail in chapter 2. The ways that
sociologists conduct scientific research are discussed in chapter 10.
Sociology is not just common sense. Results of sociological research
may be unexpected. They often show that things are not always, or even usually,
what they initially seem. People who like to avoid shocking discoveries, who
prefer to believe that society is just what they were taught in Sunday School, who
like the safety of the rules and maxims of what Alfred Schultz . . . has called the
world-taken-for-granted, should stay away from sociology (Berger 1963, 24).
This challenge means that sociological findings are often at odds with
so-called common sense, or those things that everybody knows. What we think
of as common sense, or something that everybody knows, is actually based on
our own experiences and the ideas and stereotypes we hold. This gives us a very
limited view of how the larger world actually is. Taking a sociological perspective requires that we look beyond our individual experiences to better understand
everyday life (Straus 1994). It allows us to look for the social forces that impact
our lives and form those experiences. Once we have a solid understanding of
these forces, we can better address them.
For example, a common perception is that suicide is an act of those with
individual psychological problems. However, an early sociological study of suicide by Emile Durkheim (18581917) revealed the importance of social factors,
including relationships within church and family, in suicide (Durkheim 1966).
(Durkheim is profiled in chapter 10, and his research on suicide is covered in
more detail there as well.) Another common perception is that crimes are always
committed by some criminal element, identifiable as troublemakers. In his
textbook on social problems, Thomas Sullivan (1973, 296) introduces the chapter on crime by arguing that this is a far too simplistic view of criminality. He
notes a study (Zimbardo 1973) in which researchers abandoned a car on a New
York City street and watched from a hidden position to see if it was vandalized
and by whom. The vandals discovered by the researchers included a family, a
person with a toddler in a stroller, and many people who were well dressed and
interacted with people who passed by during their activities.
HISTORY OF SOCIOLOGY
Sociology is rooted in the works of philosophers, including Plato
(427347 B.C.), Aristotle (384322 B.C.), and Confucius (551479 B.C.). Some
other early scholars also took perspectives that were sociological. Chinese historian Ma Tuan-Lin developed, in the thirteenth century, a sociological history by
looking at the social factors influencing history in his general-knowledge encyclopedia Wen Hsien Tung Kao (General Study of the Literary Remains). Ibn
Khaldun (13321406), profiled below, conducted studies of Arab society
(Restivo 1991, 1819).
Enlightenment thinkers also helped set the stage for the sociologists that
would follow. The Enlightenment was the first time in history that thinkers tried
to provide general explanations of the social world. They were able to detach
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Introduction

themselves, at least in principle, from expounding some existing ideology and to

attempt to lay down general principles that explained social life (Collins 1994,
17). Writers of this period included a range of well-known philosophers, such as
John Locke; David Hume; Voltaire (the pseudonym of Franois-Marie Arouet);
Immanuel Kant; Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brde et de Montesquieu; Thomas Hobbes; and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
As Macionis (1995, 12) explains to introductory students, scholars have
been interested in the nature of society throughout history. They typically focused on what the ideal society would be like. During the 1800s, however, scholars began studying how society actually is and how social arrangements actually
operate (how society works). Armed with this knowledge, they felt they could
better attack social problems and bring about social change (Collins 1994, 42).
These scholars became the first sociologists.
The term sociology was coined by French philosopher Auguste Comte
(17981857), who would become known as the Father of Sociology. Comte is
profiled below. He first publicly used the term in his work Positive Philosophy
(1896, orig. 1838; Abercrombie, Hill, and Turner 2000, 67). Originally an engineering student, Comte became secretary and pupil to French social philosopher
Claude Henri de Rouvroy Comte de Saint-Simon (17601825). Saint-Simon
was an advocate for scientific and social reform. He advocated applying scientific principles to learn how society is organized. Armed with this knowledge,
he believed he could ascertain how best to change, and govern, society to address social problems such as poverty.
Comte saw history as divided into three intellectual stages. The first, or
theological, stage included the medieval period in which society was seen as reflecting the will of a deity. The second, or metaphysical, stage arose during the
Enlightenment and focused on forces of nature, rather than God, to explain social events. Comte considered his own time period the third stage, which he
termed the positivistic, or scientific, stage.
During Comtes lifetime, scientists were learning more about the laws
that govern the physical world. For example, in the area of physics, Sir Isaac
Newton (16411727) had developed the law of gravity. Advances were also
being made in other natural sciences, such as biology. Comte felt that science
could also be used to study the social world. Just as there are testable facts regarding gravity and other natural laws, Comte thought that scientific analyses
could also discover the laws governing our social lives. It was in this context that
Comte introduced the concept of positivism to sociologya way to understand
the social world based on scientific facts. He believed that, with this new understanding, people could build a better future. He envisioned a process of social
change in which sociologists played crucial roles in guiding society.
Other events of that time period also influenced the development of sociology. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries were times of many social upheavals and changes in the social order that interested the early sociologists. As
George Ritzer (1988, 612) notes, the political revolutions sweeping Europe
during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries led to a focus on social change
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