Sociology has roots dating back to ancient times, but modern sociological theory and practice emerged in the 19th century with the application of scientific ideas to the study of society. Karl Marx and Max Weber were early practitioners, and the Chicago School used statistics and social theory to make sense of them. After World War II, sociology became more diverse, with schools of thought influenced by postmodernism and a focus on marginalized groups.
The History of Sociology chronicles the emergence of sociology as a modern and clearly defined field of study within the social sciences. This discipline has roots dating back to classical antiquity. Modern sociological theory and practice emerged in the 19th century when scientific ideas and practices were applied to the study of society and social interactions. Sociology became a much more diverse field during the 20th century, and new schools of sociological thought emerged that emphasized particular experimental theories and practices.
Human society has been studied since the earliest days of civilization. The history of sociology begins with scholars of the ancient world, such as Aristotle or Thucydides. While these writers lacked a scientific framework, they attempted to trace key characteristics of social formations and identify areas of strength or weakness in the process by paying attention to issues of class, status, and wealth that are of great interest to modern sociologists.
Sociology as a modern academic discipline requires both a curiosity about problems of social structure and organization and the use of rigorous scientific practices to gather and analyze information about society. This became possible in the years following the spread of the Enlightenment in Europe. The Enlightenment emphasized the use of science and reason to solve social problems, and the history of sociology as a modern discipline begins with the first attempts to use scientific methods to address questions about social organization.
Karl Marx is perhaps the most famous of the early practitioners of sociology. Scholars have widely debated the theoretical validity of his work, but generally agree that Marx attempted to use scientific methodology to study society. He believed that this use of scientific reasoning to support his work was an important advance over the work of the early utopian socialists, but his work lacked the rigorous theoretical basis of modern sociology.
During the early part of the 20th century, several schools of sociological thought emerged. Max Weber is perhaps the most famous figure in the history of sociology of this period. He has sought to examine and understand key features of the modern world with an emphasis on social structures related to politics and economics. Weber argued, for example, that Protestantism’s strict moral code fostered a very strict work ethic and encouraged the personal accumulation of wealth, and in turn led to the rise of modern capitalism. This kind of theory could not be objectively proven, but Weber attempted to defend his claims through rigorous argumentation.
Sociologists working later in the 20th century turned more often to the use of concrete statistics and concrete examples. The Chicago School, for example, used the city of Chicago as a kind of laboratory in which to carry out analytical work in the field of sociology. They combined the careful collection of statistics with the use of social theory to make sense of those statistics.
After World War II, sociology featured many divergent schools of thought. In the Soviet Union, the field of sociology tended to be limited to problems that weren’t ideologically sensitive. In the West, sociology has been influenced by the rise of postmodernism and often turns a more lenient eye to marginal or deviant groups in society, groups that older sociologists would have seen as social problems in need of solutions.
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