Discuss the historical antecedents of the emergence of Sociology as a discipline. (UPSC CSE Mains 2019 - Sociology, Paper 1)
- Having grown up during the aftermath of the French Revolution, Auguste Comte was the first to use the term sociology as a way of studying the world in terms of society. Along with the industrial revolution in England during the 18th century and the rise of urbanisation and mass social change, thinkers such as Comte, Durkheim and Marx began to realise the need to study society in all its dynamic nature. This period of history is often described as ‘the great transformation’, which led to the emergence of sociology. Around the late 18th century an intellectual period known as ‘the Enlightenment’ challenged many of the established orders of society from an analytical and scientific perspective. Following French revolution, the citizens of France were granted new legal rights, a broad centralised education system and a new system of inheritance. These changes all challenged a previous traditional model, and hence gave individual citizens a different perspective of society.
- It could be argued that the intellectual revolution known as ‘the Enlightenment’ laid the foundation for the French revolution which created significant social change. It brought about an ideology which believed that scientific and historical study should be looked at and incorporated into a philosophical perspective. Enlightenment figures such as Charles Montesquieu, one of the pioneers of social science, saw humanity as something that develops from infancy to maturity with conflict in between the different stages. He also believed that the Enlightenment could be the beginning of a great period of human development, as science was being applied to humanity. This could be described as the birth of sociology and of social scientific thought.
- The Enlightenment period coincided with the increase in knowledge in other scientific fields such as life sciences. Darwin’s studies on evolution challenged the old established ideas of the church. The concept of ‘Social Darwinism’ was based on the ideology that society will gradually improve on the basis that the ‘fittest’ will be the most successful and therefore ‘survive’. The period of the late 18th century and early 19th century contributed significantly to the emergence of sociology due to the significant revolutions that occurred during this time.
- The Enlightenment was in many respects a renaissance of scientific thought and signalled the beginning of sociology as a discipline. It changed the way philosophers looked at the world by giving a scientific and analytical approach to their theories. This intellectual revolution made way for the French revolution, and is thought by some to be the most important political event of modern times. It granted citizens individual freedoms and removed old established orders such as the church and crown, and gave people a new perspective of the world and the society in which they live. The French revolution also led to the emergence of Nationalism which changed the way many people viewed the state as whole.
- The industrial revolution saw massive changes in society by the destruction of the feudal system and the establishment of capitalism, which is a key area of discussion within sociology. Urbanisation and industrialisation led to the emergence of the working class as a large and powerful body, which led to the birth of Marxism, and gave people a new perspective and relationship with the society they lived in. Thus French revolution and Industrial revolution were events integral to the emergence of sociology and social sciences.
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