Sociology it is a science situated within the set of human sciences. The aim of sociology is to study, understand and classify social formations, communities and human groups, so that other sciences and techniques can present proposals for social intervention that result in improvements in society. In this sense, educators, doctors, psychologists, engineers, architects, urban planners, jurists, lawyers, advertisers, journalists, economists, in short, almost all professionals and researchers from almost all areas need the theories presented by sociology.
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How Sociology Arose
From the XV century, European society finds itself in a whirlwind of significant changes. First, we have the rise of capitalism in your form mercantilist — when the newly formed and unified States begin to draw trade agreements and establish new routes for the purchase and sale of products. Furthermore, we have a social class that had emerged at the end of the
Middle Ages and it was starting to get stronger, especially in some places in Europe, such as France and Italy, due to participation in the mercantilist trade: this class is the bourgeoisie.O strengthening of the bourgeoisie led to greater investment in navigation and the discovery of new trade routes across the oceans. This entire process culminated in the arrival and colonization of European peoples (especially Portuguese, Spanish and, later, English) in lands of the American continent, which until then were unknown by the peoples of Europe, Asia, India and Africa.
The white man's contact with the natives of America awakened in Europeans, holders of greater technology for the time in some aspects, the idea that they were culturally superior. At the same time, the European had curiosity about the culture and way of life of the American peoples, which led the first explorers of American lands to try to understand and classify the native culture.
This resulted in an extremely ethnocentric contact, as the European saw the native as inferior. However, this contact also served as the basis for the first signs of a knowledge that more later it will be part of the wide range of studies, which, together with sociology, is part of the social sciences: the anthropology.
Later, Europe experienced other revolutions, this time faster and more intense: the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. In England, the first industries, undertaken by a part of the bourgeoisie that had become very rich with trade and with the borrowing of money. At the beginning of the 19th century, the industrial production mode took over large European urban centers such as London and Paris.
Because of that, there was intense rural exodus in these places, which caused one population explosion, followed by several social problems resulting from the lack of employment for all: hunger, poverty, violence, poor sanitation conditions and, consequently, the spread of epidemics. Life in urban centers for the poorest population was chaotic. Even for those who managed to work in industries, life was difficult due to the inhuman exploitation of its labor by the bourgeoisie, which resulted in exhausting workdays and low remuneration.
At the end of the 18th century, the French Revolution caused a long period of instability policy for the French, who, after the end of the Ancien Régime (the monarchy), found themselves facing a political vacuum which resulted in several political experiences, many of which failed. The scenario was one of political and economic instability, hunger, violence and social disorder.
Given this, the French philosopher Augusto Comte conceived a social improvement and progress project based on a movement that became known as positivism. O positivism it aimed to bring progress to society through scientific, technological, social order and individual discipline.
To realize his project, Comte accepted as necessary the creation of a new science that, like the natural sciences, study and classify society in order to understand it and modify it. In the beginning, this science was named by Comte de social physics. Later, it would be named by the same thinker as sociology, which means: society science. Thus, Comte became known as the “father” of sociology.
Despite proposing the creation of the science of society, Comte's work, based on positivism, was unable to establish a precise methodit's unique for the correct functioning of sociology, as it has not advanced much beyond speculation and philosophical problematization. Given this, the French writer, teacher, psychologist and philosopher emileDurkheim, by rescuing and criticizing Comte's positivism, establishes the first method of sociological analysis, based on what the thinker called the recognition of social facts.
This achievement was considered the establishment of sociology as a well-structured science, which made Durkheim the first de facto sociologist. This one, who was a university professor, also introduced sociology as a discipline in higher education, in Law, Psychology and Pedagogy courses.
In addition to Durkheim, Karl Marx and Max Weber presented significant methods for sociological studies, which placed these three thinkers as the triad of classical sociology. For Marx, sociology should be based on the material production of society, seen by the thinker as a historical class struggle between exploiters and exploited, which gave rise to the dialectical historical materialist method. For weber, society was composed by set of individual human actions, which should be guided by ideal models for them to be analyzed and compared.
Through the first three classical methods, sociology developed and incorporated into itself the study of other sciences that, together, make up the set of social sciences. They are: anthropology, political science and economics. To go deeper into the topic, read the text: Emergence of sociology.
What is sociology for
The importance of sociology is understood based on its utility model, which differs from philosophy. While this presents itself as a set of knowledge not scientifically organized and which has a purpose in themselves, or a purpose in knowledge itself, that is a science. as a science, sociology has a purpose outside of you.
The sociologist's work serves to identify, classify and analyze the social organization as a whole. Starting from individual behavior (with elements of psychology) and social behavior, the sociologist tries to understand society in order to present theories that can allow social intervention through other sciences and techniques.
Sociology tries to understand society as a whole, but seeks elements in its areasalike, such as economy (which studies the general economic aspects of a society, such as production and financial relationship), the anthropology (which studies the human being through their culture and origins) and the sciencepolitics (which is dedicated to understanding political organizations and ways of organizing human beings in society, involving notions such as government, State, etc.).
The scientific results obtained by sociology will serve as basis for social intervention from other professionals from other areas of knowledge. A lawyer or a lawyer, for example, need to know this area well so that they have a vision larger and broader range of crimes and laws, understanding these elements as parts of a complex society. An architect urban planner needs to understand society and its organizations to establish the best means of designing homes and cities that best meet social needs.
When a doctor is faced with a possible epidemic or with the simple repetition of diseases and symptoms, he can combine studies of individual clinical diagnosis in patients to sociological knowledge, to try to understand a possible social origin of the problems of health.
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What sociology studies
The sociologist's mission is to study society as a whole organized by people in communities. The means for this are today the most varied, which allows the professional in question to try to understand various social aspects, such as violence, globalization, wars, consumption, Life expectancy, organization of cities, social exclusion etc.
The methods for this understanding are also varied. As sociology is a science, it needs methodological guarantees for its work to be reliable. Therefore, it is necessary for the sociologist to pay attention to patterns of repetition of phenomena, in order to establish a pattern of social behavior. In addition, the sociologist uses data provided by individual interviews with people from the same social group or from different groups and, as a tool for Comparation, uses a branch of mathematics called statistic.
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sociology and psychology
In some respects, we can say that sociology and the psychology walk together and that have similar methods, but with different amplitudes. While sociology seeks to understand the social, psychology seeks to understand the individual. While sociology seeks to understand a society through its individuals (and uses psychology to understand what is of the order of the individual), psychology seeks to understand the individual, often based on the society in which he is inserted (using sociology for this understanding).
sociology and philosophy
Many people think that sociology and philosophy are the same thing or are essentially similar. This belief, however, is the result of a generalization of the common sense. Like so many other sciences, sociology emerged thanks to a philosophical work initiated by the first western thinkers in the VI century; Ç. However, there are several specifications that make it a science and a branch of knowledge completely distinct from philosophy.
Oftentimes sociologists resort to philosophy to develop their studies. However, this alone is not enough to establish a bond of equality between the two areas of knowledge, including because, while the sociology is considered a science, philosophy is considered a theoretical set of knowledge that aim to produce and move theoretical knowledge and abstract.
by Francisco Porfirio
Sociology Professor