Sociology

Fülszöveg

This book is about humán society. Of any social phenomenon there are a number of fundamental questions which we may ask. Thus we may ask: how did it come to be what it is? This is fundamentally an historical question. We may alsó ask: what is the relationship of this contemporary phenomenon to others? This I would call a sociological question. Of course we may instead ask: why does this person behave in the way he does? And this is basically a psychological question. To fully understand humán society we need to ask all three kinds of questions, for history, sociology, and psychology are not alternatives; they are complementary. The contribution of this book is a partial one, for it takes its point of departure from the second kind of question. It must not, however, be supposed that historians do not treat their material sociologically, for somé do, nor that sociologists eschew history, for somé of the most imposing achievements have been in the field of historical sociology.... Tovább

Fülszöveg

This book is about humán society. Of any social phenomenon there are a number of fundamental questions which we may ask. Thus we may ask: how did it come to be what it is? This is fundamentally an historical question. We may alsó ask: what is the relationship of this contemporary phenomenon to others? This I would call a sociological question. Of course we may instead ask: why does this person behave in the way he does? And this is basically a psychological question. To fully understand humán society we need to ask all three kinds of questions, for history, sociology, and psychology are not alternatives; they are complementary. The contribution of this book is a partial one, for it takes its point of departure from the second kind of question. It must not, however, be supposed that historians do not treat their material sociologically, for somé do, nor that sociologists eschew history, for somé of the most imposing achievements have been in the field of historical sociology. Moreover, numerous sociological studies have alsó been psychological ones too. These distinctions between fundamental kinds of questions are analytical distinctions. What I have attempted to do in this work is to outline concisely the hard core of a distinguishable discipline and to do so in terms of both subject and method. For this purpose I define sociology as a descriptive and analytical discipline concerned with the structural aspects of humán society. In particular I emphasise the idea of society as a social system or a number of social systems. Many sociologists, however, are alsó interested in making use of the comparative method, and in so far as this may be used, sociology tries to be a generalising discipline. Whilst the main intention of this book is to provide a useful introduction to those undertaking the academic study of sociology, it is hoped that it will have a wider appeal. This is a reasonable hope because, in as much as it is both an analytical and generalising discipline, sociology should have somé practical application. People concerned with practical social matters, such as the administrator, the social worker, and the educationist should find in this discipline much to help them. Such people as these are the products of their society, but they alsó are the instruments whereby changes are brought about in it. The study of sociology may help them to understand more fully the Vissza