Emergence Of Sociology

Emergence Of Sociology

Pre-Sociological Influences (such as Plato)

and

Why did Sociology Emerge?

Read each of the following items.

(Denisoff, Callahan, & Levine 1974:1-7)

Denisoff, R. Serge, Orel Callahan, and Mark H. Levine. 1974. Theories and Paradigms in Contemporary Sociology. Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock Publichers, Incorporated.



An Introduction to Sociological Theory

"A science which hesitates to forget its founders is lost." Several prominent sociologists have used this quotation from philosopher Alfred North Whitehead to open their discussions of sociological theory. In spite of Whitehead’s admonition, however, it may be useful to look back to the period of genesis of sociology to enable the student to ferret out the basic suppositions which chart the evolution of the field. Because these fundamental assumptions are rarely restated once a science has matured, they tend to be taken for granted. The negative consequences of this practice for theory were forcefully pointed out by Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1970).

In discussing the evolution of the physical sciences, mainly physics and chemistry, Kuhn maintains that inquiry commences with random fact gathering in which all materials are treated as equally important and relevant. In the course of this nondirected activity, many conflicting facts and generalized statements surface. As this unstructured idea picking continues, debates, polemics, and arguments take place, in the best New England town-hall or Socratic tradition. With the passage of the time these initial diversities disappear as one of the schools of thought emerges as best able to integrate the vast pool of incoherent information.

The consolidation and integration of ideas create a paradigm, which Kuhn defines as "…law, theory, application, and instrumentation together [which] provide models from which spring particular traditions of scientific research" (1970:10). Paradigms, then, are taken-for-granted ideas and...