Introduction to Sociology – SOC101
VU
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1
Lesson 1
THE ORIGINS OF SOCIOLOGY
Sociology is the scientific study of human social life, groups and societies. There was no sociology as a distinct discipline before the advent of 19
th
century. As a distinct discipline itemerged about the middle of the 19
th
century when European social observers began to use scientificmethods to test their ideas. It looks that three factors led to the development of sociology. The first was the Industrial revolution.
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By the mid 19
th
century Europe was changing from agriculture to factory production. There wasthe emergence of new occupations as well as new avenues of employment away from the land.
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Masses of people migrated to cities in search of jobs. Pull and push factors were instrumental insuch migrations. In the countryside, due to the nature of agricultural society, there were nooccupations that could be alternatives to agriculture. Hence people got pushed to look for new places whereas the urban/industrial places with new job opportunities provided a pull to the samepopulation.
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At the new places there was anonymity, crowding, filth, and poverty. Ties to the land, to thegenerations that had lived there before them, and to the ways of their life were abruptly broken.Eventually the urban life brought radical changes in the lives of people.
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The city greeted them with horrible working conditions: low pay; long and exhausting working hours; dangerous work; foul smoke; and much noise. To survive the vagaries of life, familieshad to permit their children to work in these uncongenial conditions.
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People in these industrial cities developed new ideas about democracy and political rights. They didnot want to remain tied to their rulers. Therefore the ideas about individual liberty, individualrights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness emerged, which actually laid the foundation to futurepolitical revolution. The second factor that stimulated the development of sociology was imperialism. Europeans successfully conquered many parts of the world. They were exposed to radically different cultures. Startled by thesecontrasting ways of life, they began to ask why cultures differed. The third impetus for the development of sociology was the success of the natural sciences. People movedto question fundamental aspects of their social world. They started using the
scientific method
(systematicobservation, objectivity) to the study of human behaviour.
Auguste Comte
The idea of applying the scientific method to the social world, known as
positivism
, was apparently firstproposed by Auguste Comte (1798-1857). He was French. He migrated from a small town to Paris. Thechanges he himself experienced, combined with those France underwent in the revolution, led Comte tobecome interested in the two interrelated issues: social order (social static) and social change (socialdynamics). What holds the society together (Why is there a social order)? And once the society is set then what causesit to change? Why its directions change?Comte concluded that the right way to answer such questions was to apply the scientific method to sociallife. There must be laws that underlie the society. Therefore we should discover these principles by applying scientific method to social world. Once these principles discovered then we could apply these for socialreform.
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