Sociology. What Is It All About?: Electricity / Light Bulb

Chapter 1 Sociology. What is it all about?
EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN 18 & 19 CENTURY

• Absolut monarchy and feudal privileges for the aristocracy and the religious establishment vs. enlightening
ideals of the new bourgeoisie republic, citizens’ and human rights
• Development of trade with European colonies and development of industry, optics, printing, mechanics,
artillery, astronomy…
• Three major changes: 1) Beginning of industrialization; 2) Expansion of cities and urban population; 3)
Emerging of new ideas for democracy and political rights
• The era of enlightenment, humanism and scientific development, already started in the 17 cent., blossoming
in the 18 and 19 cent. (Adam Smith, Baruch Spinoza, Thomas Hobs, David Hume, John Lock, Isaac Newton,
Lessing…) – founding of the Paris’ Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society in London, a bit later the Berlin
and Petersburg’s academies, aiming at scientific exploration of natural, human and social phenomenon.
Establishment and development of the first scientific journals and other publications
• Development of civil class, formal education, need for progress…
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN XVIII/XIX CENTURYPIANO • COTTON GIN

• TERMOMETRE • PHOTOGRAPHY
• DIVING BELL • ELECTRICITY / LIGHT BULB
• PROTOTIPES OF STEAM ENGINE • IRONCLAD SHIPS
• SEXTANT • RIFLE
• FLUSH TOILETTE • INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE
• BI-FOCAL EYEGLASSES • TELEGRAPH
• HOT AIR BALOON & PARACHUTE • TELEPHONE
• STEAMBOAT • LOCOMOTIVE
• DIESEL ENGINE • STEAM ENGINE
• OIL DRILLING • TRANSATLANTIC CABLE
SOCIOLOGY AS A COGNITIVE DISCIPLINE

• SOCIUS/SOCIETAS (lat.: society, but also companionship, from socius) + LOGOS (Ancient Greek: principle of
reason and judgment) = SOCIOLOGIE (fra.) (Auguste Comte in 1838)
• Aristotle’s three methods of public persuasion: Ethos (ethical appeal = the orator is credible and with a
good character), Pathos (emotional appeal = the orator is emotive and seeks sympathy), Logos (logical
appeal = the orator needs you to thin rationally – the scientist is borne, normative sociological discourse of
critical thinking on society in which the human and his/her individual and group behavior – the humanist-
positivist approach – is in the center of interest)
• Sociology as a way of thinking, as a cognitive discipline, as a segment/level of reality
• SEMIOLOGY / SEMIOTICS – the study of signs and symbols, their use and explanation (interpretation)
• PHENOMENOLOGY – the science of the structure of experience and conscience.
THEORY OF COGNITION AND POSITIVISM

• The theory of cognition in philosophy is an epistemological discipline – epistemology is the theory of
knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction between justified
belief (that can be proved) and opinion (as an impression, instinct and/or perception). Epistemology is the
study of knowledge: what we know, how we know it, how we know we know it, and how to keep track of it
without driving ourselves crazy! It examines the dichotomy (confrontation) between the process of
cognition that occurs between the object (the reality) and the subject (one who cognates it). The result of
that analyses is positivism and positive cognition.
• This theory is social, because is a result od human performance.
• Three stages of human cognition (Comte): theological stage (imaginative method – “absolute truths” and
supernatural forces); metaphysical stage (abstract method – instead of God, events are determined by the
nature); scientific stage (positive method – Renѐ Descartes: “I think; therefore I am!” – lat.: Cogito, ergo
sum!).
• ONTOLOGY – the philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality, as well as the
basic categories of being and their relations in universe, opposite of phenomenology.
• EMPIRICAL – based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or
pure logic.
•
THREE MAIN THEORETICAL APPROACHES

• Structural-functionalist approach (Comte, Durkheim, Spenser…)
• Treats the society on a macro-level, as a complex system which different parts work together in
promoting social solidarity and stability. The society has its own structures with their own (obvious
and latent) and social functions (and dysfunctions).
• Social-conflict approach (Carl Marx…)
• Treats the society on a macro-level, as an arena of inequality that produces conflicts (racial, ethnic,
gender, class, generational, status…) and changes.
• Symbolic-interaction approach (Max Weber...)
• Treats society on a micro-level, as a number of everyday occurrences and experiences of individuals
who interact among themselves which creates a commonly shared reality.
• STEREOTYPS – a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or
thing.

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Chapter 1 Sociology. What is it all about?

EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN 18 & 19 CENTURY

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN XVIII/XIX CENTURYPIANO • COTTON GIN

SOCIOLOGY AS A COGNITIVE DISCIPLINE

THEORY OF COGNITION AND POSITIVISM

THREE MAIN THEORETICAL APPROACHES

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