Sociology

1. The name sociology was first suggested in the 1830s by the French philosopher Auguste Comte, but for many years it remained only a suggestion. Comte urged others to study sociology.

2. It was not until late in the 19th century that we can identify people who called themselves sociologists and whose work contributed to the development of the field. Among these were Herbert Spencer in England who published the first of his three-volume “Principles of Sociology” in 1876 and Ferdinand Tonnies in Germany. A decade later, Emile Durkheim published “ Suicide. ’

3. The first sociologists studied mortal statistics. Their work proved so popular that it led to the rapid expansion of census questions. However, sociology as an academic speciality was imported from Germany. The progressive uncovering of social causes of individual behaviour - in response to the questions raised by moral statistics - produced the field called sociology.

4. Sociology is one of the related fields known as the social sciences. They share the same subject matter: human behaviour. But sociology is the study of social relations, and its primary subject matter is the group, not the individual.

5. There is a close connection between sociology and other disciplines such as psychology, economy, anthropology, criminology, political science, and history. But sociologists differ, for example, from psychologists because they are not concerned exclusively with the individual, they are interested in what goes on between people. They differ from economists by being less interested in commercial exchanges; they are interested in the exchange of intangibles such as love and affection.

6. Sociologists differ from anthropologists primarily because the latter specialize in the study of preliterate and primitive human groups, while sociologists are interested in modern industrial societies. Criminologists specialize in illegal behaviour, while sociologists are concerned with the whole range of human behaviour. Similarly, political scientists focus on political organization and activity, while sociologists survey all social organizations. Finally, sociologists share with historians an interest in the past but they are equally interested in the present and the future.

Примечания:

• It was not until … that we can - и только в ………. мы можем

• Goes on- происходит

1. Look through the text and answer the following questions:

1. Who was the first to suggest the name sociology?

2. What did the first sociologists mainly study?

3. What is the subject matter of sociology?

4. What other disciplines is sociology connected with?

5. What differs sociology from political science and criminology?

2. Complete the sentences below using words from the following list:

Society, suggestion, develop, cause, relation, to share, response, published

1. The company is spending $ 650 million to ……. new products.

2. She thinks that literature has no………………….to reality.

3. This book was first …………… in 1889. It is about the role of women in

Western…………………..

4. His comments met with an negative ………. from the participants.

5. There is only one copy left, so we’ll have to…………………

6. Nobody knew the………….. of his death.

7. I made a few ……………..about how we could spend the afternoon.

3. Use each of the following word combinations in sentences of your own:

Philosopher, suggestion, sociology, to identify, to contribute to sth, development, decade, moral, statistics, popular, rapid, expansion, census, academic speciality, uncovering of sth, behaviour, subject matter, social relations, connection, disciplines, psychology, economy, anthropology, criminology, political science, to be concerned with sth/smb, to be interested in sth/smb, to go on, exchange, society, illegal.