IBA

Tahsina Akhter

Course Code: G103

Industrial Revolution:

More than 200 years ago, changes took place in industry that transformed society, and altered
the way goods were made. The changes, which began in Britain in about 1760, are known as the
Industrial Revolution. They include the use of water and steam power, the invention of new
machinery, increased coal and iron production, the introduction of factories, the growth of towns,
and a revolution in transport. Industrialization also created new types of work and new social
groups. By 1850, the Industrial Revolution was spreading to the rest of the world. [Family
Encyclopedia, pg. 453.]

French Revolution:

In 1789, Revolution broke out in France when people rose up against poverty and injustice. The
French Revolution swept away the power of the monarchy and ended the traditional social order.
When the revolution began, poverty was widespread, the king was unpopular, and people
resented the clergy and nobility. Following the formation of the National Assembly, France was
declared a republic, the king was executed, and for a while, terror reigned. In 1799, Napoleon
came to power, and the revolution ended. [ Illustrated Family Encyclopedia, pg. 361.]

The Origins of Sociology:

Although people have thought about society since the beginning of human history, sociology is
one of the youngest academic discipline – far younger than history, physics, or economics, for
example. It was only in 1838 that the French social thinker August Comte coined the term
sociology to describe a new way of looking at the world.

The nature of society constituted a major area of inquiry for the brilliant thinkers of the ancient
world, including the great philosophers Plato and Aristotle. Similarly, the Roman emperor
Marcus Aurelius, the medieval theologians Ibne Khaldun or St. Thomas Aquinas, the great
English play- write William Shakespeare, and a host of others reflected on human society in their
writings. Yet, none of those social thinkers approached society from a sociological point of view.
In other words, before the birth of sociology, philosophers and theologians concentrated their
energies on imagining the ‘ideal’ society. None attempted to analyze ‘real’ society, as it actually
was. In creating the disciplines of sociology, pioneers such as August Comte and Emile
Durkheim reversed these priorities. Although they were certainly concerned with how human
society could be improved, the major goal of early sociologist was to understand how society
actually operates.

August Comte and Social Physics:

Comte (1798-1857) wished to name the new discipline as Social Physics or Social engineering.
But later on, he termed the discipline as Sociology. He identified three historical stages in the
emergence of scientific sociology. During the earliest stages, encompassing the medieval period
in Europe, people’s view of the world around them was rooted in religion. Society was widely
held to be an expression of God’s will. Comte called this the theological stage in humanity’s
understanding of society.

With the Renaissance, this theological approach to society gave way to what Comte called the
metaphysical stage. During this period, people were less likely to see society as the work of
supernatural force and placed more emphasis on the forces of nature.

What Comte heralded as the final, scientific stage in the long quest to understand society began
with the work of natural scientists like the Polish astronomer Copernicus, the Italian astronomer
and physicist Galileo, and the English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton. Following
their lead, Comte applied this new scientific approach to the study of society itself.

This approach is often called positivism, meaning a path to understand the world based on
science. As a positivist Comte believed that society had an inherent, underlying order that could
be studied and understood, much as the physical world operates according to gravity and other
laws of nature.

When sociology became established as an academic discipline in the United States at the
beginning of this century, early sociologists such as Lester Ward were strongly influenced by
Comte’s ideas. Even today, most sociologists continue to view science as a crucial element of
sociology. But since Comte’s time, sociologists have learned that the causes of human behavior
are often far more complex than the causes of events in the natural world. In other words, human
beings are not just physical objects but creatures with considerable imagination and spontaneity.
Therefore, our behavior can never be fully explained by any rigid ‘laws of society.’

Science, Sociology and Commonsense:

Throughout history certain people have been respected for their knowledge of social customs and
the ways that human relationships work. But only in the modern age has the study of society
been carried out according to a carefully organized, systematic research method that reduces the
likelihood of overlooking facts or misunderstanding causes. This means that information is
collected, studied, and analyzed in accordance with the principles and procedures of modern
science.

Fundamental to the scientific method is the careful collection of data (facts, statistics, study -
results and other pieces of observable information). These data are recorded and made available
to other researchers so that their accuracy can be verified. Data are the raw materials of science.
It is from data that scientific theories are built.

A theory is a systematic and formal explanation of how two or more phenomena are related to
each other. Scientific theories usually try to indicate cause and effect. They say which factors are
causing others and which of the various causes are most important.

All theories must be systematically tested before they can be tentatively accepted. Such testing
involves conducting studies and seeing if the results are consistent with the theory’s predictions.
In this way unsubstantiated theories can be revised or discarded.

Because it is created using systematic, scientific procedures, sociological knowledge differs from
knowledge based on common sense. Commonsense views about society and social relationships
derive from people’s personal experiences. As such, they are always deeply biased by the limits
of that experience, for most people personally encounter only some of the social conditions and
forces that actually exist. Commonsense views are also limited in the sense that they are never
organized into systematic theories and so are never checked for accuracy against all the known
facts. Science, in contrast, goes beyond common sense by methodically amassing a large
quantity of data and rigorously testing all plausible explanations of the observed information.

Major steps of sociological Research:

The following ten steps can serve as guidelines for carrying out research projects in sociology:

1. Define the topic you wish to investigate.

2. Find out what has already been written about the topic.

3. Assess the requirements for carrying out the research.

5. Consider the ethical issues involved in the research.

6. Choose the research method.

7. Put the method to work to gather data.

8. Interpret the findings

9. State the conclusions based on your findings.

10. Publish your research.

What is Sociology:

Sociology is one of the significant subjects in the way of portraying human nature, Sociology is
the scientific study of social behavior and human group. It focuses primarily on influence of
social relationships, on people’s attitude and behavior and on how societies are established and
changed.

‘Sociology, the study of human society and behavior in social settings, is a science dedicated to
revealing social forces to people. Sociologists look beyond individual psychology and
idiosyncratic cases to the many recurring patterns in people’s attitudes and actions, and to how
these patterns vary across time, cultures and social groups.’---[ Light, Donald and others;
Sociology, 1994, pg. 6.]

End for the 1st chapter.