EMERGENCE OF SOCIOLOGY: Model Answer in English for WBCS Mains

 Analyze the factors that contributed to the emergence of Sociology. (2013)

Discuss the emergence of Sociology as an academic discipline. (2018)

Thoughts and contemplation on societies have been an age-old phenomena, but, Sociology as a subject for scientific and rational analysis of society is only as old as the modern world that emerged with the various revolutions. Sociology, thus, is referred as the ‘child of revolutions’. The emergence of sociology can be broadly accredited to two contexts:

1. Historical material context

2. Intellectual ideas

1. Historical material context: The era of Enlightenment in western Europe during the 17th to 18th century led to a flood of political, social, economic and scientific ideas by various philosophers of the time. Some of the leading philosophers of the time whose ideas went on to shape future events are as follows:

1. Voltaire emphasized on religious tolerance, individual rights and freedom of expression.

2. Montesquieu, in his book, ‘The spirit of law’, advocated the principle of decentralization of authority by the separation of power between the executive, legislative and judiciary.

3. Locke, was an English philosopher who advocated the rights to life, property and freedom as fundamental rights of an individual that no state should encroach upon.

4. Rousseau, argued that the people must have the right to choose their sovereign, in his book, ‘The social contract’.

5. Adam Smith, in his magnum opus, ‘Nature and causes of the wealth of nations’, postulated the principle of a free and fair economic structure where skill, entrepreneurship and capital thrives and the society prospers economically.

There were many mathematicians and scientists such as Leibniz and d'Alembert whose theories shaped modern science and technology.

With the era of Enlightenment in the background, two important revolutions took place in the two leading nations of Europe, namely, the French Revolution in France and the Industrial Revolution in England.

 

1. French Revolution (1789)

The society of medieval Europe was strictly stratified and feudal. The pre-revolution France was no exception, either. The French society was composed of the king and the royal family at the top followed by three segregated estates.

The king and the clergy lived a lavish life on the taxes from the nobility who in turn thrived on the exploitation of the commoners or the third estate.In the 1770s, France was faced with a situation of severe drought and economic crisis owing to humungous loan caused by perpetual wars with Britain all over the world in their zeal for colonization. The poors of the third estate were the worst hit. When all their efforts to get their concerns addressed, failed, the third estate and the members of the lower rungs of the nobility, assembled for protest and took the famous ‘Tennis Court oath’ and drafted the historic ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man’, at the centre of which, were the ideas of the philosophers and thinkers of the era of Enlightenment. The unfolding of subsequent events, protests and political upheavals led to the formation of nation-states. A ‘new world order’ emerged where individuals were either guaranteed or fought their way to liberty and some form of democracy and principles of equality.

2. Industrial Revolution (1760-1820)

While the French Revolution was a child of the political thoughts and social ideas of the Age of Enlightenment, the scientific thoughts provided the impetus to the Industrial Revolution of England. The invention of the steam engine transformed the industrial landscape of Britain and subsequently, that of the reset of Europe. It brought in an era of mass production of machine made goods. This was further accentuated by colonizations whereby the colonies provided cheap raw materials and also acted as consumers of the finished goods. 

The pre-industrial society of Europe was dependent on agriculture and textiles and was characterized by small closely knit feudal societies which were mostly rural. Industrial Revolution brought the following changes in the European society:

1. There was a degradation of labour, especially that of the skilled craftsman who was forced to run the very machine that took away his job.

2. There was an economic regimentation and synchronization of labour with clock-time.

3. The rapid urbanisation characterized by the rise of cities with polluting factories and unhygienic overcrowded slums.

4. A new industrial working class emerged.

5. The labour force was liberalized from the feudal society. According to Marx, the new industrial set-up provided an opportunity for collective functioning of the labour class.

The combined effects of the French and the Industrial Revolution led to the emergence of new and complex social orders which were so difficult to be deciphered by lay-men, that specialized and concerted efforts by new-age thinkers were required. Furthermore, the need to study and analyze these emergence and their effect became the need of the hour for all actions of the society to synchronize their behaviour, conduct and outlook, which in turn shaped the societies, thus making it organic and ever-transforming. Societies which had been largely static for over a thousand years were transforming at a pace that required specialized scientific analysis. Thinkers such as Comte, Durkheim, Weber and Marx concentrated their effort in studying the various aspects of these societies, thus leading to the emergence of Sociology as a subject.

2. Intellectual ideas: The following intellectual ideas went into the emergence of Sociology as a subject:

1. Finding of pre-modern societies by early travellers, colonial administrators, sociologists and anthropologists, led to the categorization of society as pre-modern and modern. The pre-modern societies, mostly associated with the colonized world were characterized by hunters and gatherers, pastoralists, agrarian and non-industrial ones. They were simple and primitive, compared to the modern, industrialized societies of the colonial European masters.

2. Darwin’s idea of organic evolution was extended to the societies as well, as an attempt to study society at par with natural science.

The combined effect of the historical experience, new social dynamics and the availability of the tools of rational scientific theories encouraged the thinkers of 18th and 19th century Europe to scientifically analyse the societies and present their studies and theories. One such thinker, Auguste Comte, in his book, ‘Law of three stages’, published in 1842, coined the term 'Sociology’, derived from the combination of the two words, ‘Socios’ form Latin meaning ‘associate’ or ‘society’ and ‘logos’ meaning ‘study’ in Greek. Thus, Sociology, the ‘child of revolution’ emerged and found its name.

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