Principles for periodising the history of sociology

The Main Stages in the Development of Sociological Thought and the Principles for Periodising the History of Sociology.

Outline:

1. The subject of the history of sociology and its significance
2. Principles for periodising the history of sociology
3. Paradigms in sociology
4. The intellectual preconditions for the emergence of sociology

There are 2 approaches to the emergence and concept of society:

1. Society – a natural product of human interaction, similar to social life in the animal world
2. Society – the result of a social contract among people

The problem of the “beginning” of sociology

1. The history of sociology studies the stages of the formation and development of sociology as a science. A distinctive feature of the history of sociology is the fact that old knowledge, theories and methods are not displaced by new ones or abolished completely and forever. On the contrary, they accumulate, develop and are updated. The history of sociology is sociology itself.

2. Principles for studying the history of sociology:

1. Chronological (pre-sociological, early sociological, industrial, post-industrial)
2. Problem-based (familiarisation with schools, currents)
3. national-religious
4. Personal
5. Paradigmatic

Criteria for periodising sociology

Chronological: There are 2 views –

1. Sociology arose from ancient times (Aristotle). Sociology is replaced by social philosophy. In Russia this led to the fact that during the Soviet period sociology was studied by philosophy under the heading of historical materialism.
2. Sociology arose at the beginning of the 19th century at the intersection of certain conditions (social, economic, political). The first sociologist – Auguste Comte. In this view stages are distinguished:
   • Positivist (1st half of the 19th century). The essence – reliance on natural-scientific knowledge, explaining society as an organism.
   • Formation of the psychological school in sociology (2nd half of the 19th century). The essence – understanding the behaviour of the individual and the masses on the basis of human nature.
   • Formation of empirical sociology (1st half of the 20th century). The essence – the spread of applied sociology on the basis of the development of methods for specific sociological research.
   • Development of theoretical sociology (the 1940s–1970s). The essence – the development of a general systems theory of sociology (T. Parsons) and middle-range theories (R. Merton).
   • The current stage in the development of sociology (the last quarter of the 20th century – the 21st century). The essence – sociology’s striving to escape the crisis by developing humanistic (qualitative) sociology and a unifying paradigm.

The problem-based principle: allows sociology to be studied from the angle of the emergence of various social problems (evolution, revolution).

National-religious: takes into account the factors, traditions and rational features in the development of sociology in a given country. This principle is built on the basis of national schools that existed up to the middle of the 20th century: the French, Chicago, Russian, Italian and American schools.

Personal: gives an idea of the leading theorists, a holistic characterisation of their work, their contribution to sociology, and knowledge of their lives.

Comte, Spencer, Durkheim, Marx, Tarde, Simmel, Pareto, Weber, Giddings, Small, Sumner, Park, Mead, Parsons, Merton. Russian sociology: P. Sorokin, Lavrov, Mikhailovsky, Kovalevsky, Danilevsky, De Roberty, Kareev.

3.Paradigmatic: Paradigm – is a system of knowledge recognised by certain scholarly circles, giving its own model for understanding a problem and its own method for solving it (Kuhn).

Each paradigm is characterised by its own particular terminology.

Reasons for the change in worldviews: new discoveries in the world; profound changes in society that alter the foundations of life, making it impossible to describe the new with old methods.

There are 7 paradigms: 2 cognitive and 5 substantive.

Cognitive paradigms determine the relationship between subject and object, where the sociologist acts as the subject and society as the object.

1. Objectivist: S O. The sociologist observes society from the outside using natural-scientific methods.
2. Subjectivist: the sociologist is inside society. It is taken into account that it is impossible to obtain objective knowledge about society: S

Substantive paradigms differ in what is taken as the basis for studying social reality.

1. Structural-functional (can be assigned to the objectivist paradigm): subject – society, structure, functions. The primary basis – social institutions. Comte, Spencer, Durkheim, Merton.
2. Conflict: subject – conflict in society. Marx
3. Socio-deterministic: subject – this or that factor of development. Single-factor schools: geographical, organicist, bioorganic, racial-anthropological, socio-deterministic.
4. Phenomenological (can be assigned to the subjectivist paradigm): subject – social action and its meaning. Weber’s interpretive (understanding) sociology.
5. The paradigm of social behaviour: subject – human behaviour.
6. Unifying: subject – society and the individual
7. Humanistic: subject – the individual inner world of the person. This paradigm belongs to qualitative sociology: gender studies, ethnomethodology, sociolinguistics.

4. Intellectual preconditions. 4 postulates influence the emergence of sociology :

1. The idea of society
2. The idea of social law
3. The law of progress
4. the method of sociology

The idea of society: in antiquity society was understood as:

1. A natural formation, since man by his nature is a social, communal being. Just as in nature many animal species live in groups, so too man, who cannot exist outside society (Aristotle).
2. Society as an artificial formation. Man strives to separate himself from society, without which he is better off. The artificial creation of society has as its aim the satisfaction of fundamental needs and survival (Plato).

Antiquity: society – family, friends, communes, brotherhoods, property associations.

The Middle Ages: society – the Catholic Church and its adherents, the rural community, the guild, corporations.

The 18th century: society – the nation.

The idea of social law: the existence of laws in social reality and the ability to know them served as the main arguments in favour of sociology being possible and necessary as a science. Sociology grew out of the establishment of 3 laws relating to social development:

1. Social development exists and is of a constant character.
2. Society is based on the growth of knowledge, above all scientific knowledge.
3. Society improves in the course of its development, i.e. the law of progress operates within it.

The law of progress:

Social development:

• At its basis – progress
• Regress
• Cyclical development
• Pendulum development

Regress: this was believed in antiquity. Horace, Seneca.

Cyclical development: social development is cyclical and follows the pendulum principle. Plato, Aristotle.

In the historical process – childhood, youth, maturity, old age.

Social development is progressive (Florsky): “world history – a successive change of the 3 absorbing members of the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.

The idea of method: arose because, in order for sociology to appear as a science. It was necessary to establish its methodological status.