Erkinboyeva Hulkar
Sociology (socius – society, knowledge, education, understanding) is the science of society as a whole system and of certain social orders, processes, social groups, individual and society relations. Sociology can draw general conclusions based on empirical (experience-based) data generated using scientific methods. Because of this, it provides a scientific basis for the development models of the society.
Attempts to explain the life of society appeared in antiquity (Plato, Aristotle, etc.) and continued in the philosophy of history. Central Asian thinkers (Farobi, Ibn Sina, Beruni) also expressed important ideas about society, its existence and development.
Sociological ideas and views rose to the level of a science in the first half of the 19th century as a result of the work of scientists such as O. Comte and G. Spencer, and have been developing for almost 200 years. The founder of sociology, the French thinker Auguste Comte, considers sociology to be a science based on the experience of society.
The essence of sociology in different periods was interpreted differently. At first it was understood as a general science of society. At the same time, it was also interpreted as social physics, referring to its specific scientific methods (L. Ketle).
Until the 19th century, sociology was a component of philosophy. Sociology, which first developed in Europe, began to present broad social problems in Western European countries with evidence and justification (M. Weber, E. Durkheim, G. Zimmel (1858-1918), V. Pareto (1848-1923), P. Sorokin (1889- 1968)). In this sense it was essentially macrosociology.
The development of sociology in America showed new aspects in the form of microsociology, which usually studies “small” social phenomena (J. Dewey (1859-1952), Ya. Moreno (1892-1974), J. Homans (1910), E. Mayo (1880). -1949)). Later, these macro and micro views of sociology were brought into a unified system in the theoretical works of T. Parsons (1902-1979), R. Merton (1910) and P. Lazersfeld’s (1901-1976) methodology of empirical research.
However, debates about the subject of sociology and its importance for social practice are still ongoing, and attempts to create a new sociology do not stop. In the classical period of its development, sociology developed as a comprehensive system of knowledge, then different currents and directions began to enter this science.
Supporters of mechanistic theory G. Ch. Carey (1798-1879), V. Ostwald (1853-1932), V. Pareto (1848-1923) considered sociology to be the physics of the social world. Biological theory, in particular, the organic direction (G. Spencer, L. Gumplovich), as well as representatives of social Darwinism (Ch. Darwin and others) interpreted society based on the laws of the biological world. In psychological views (D. S. Mill (1806-1873), MacDougall) events and processes in the life of society are psychologically explained on the basis of the theory of analysis and the theory of instinct.
In particular, Z. Freud (sexual orientation), Ya. Moreno’s (individual-psychological explanation of society) later led to collective-psychological theories. Social-psychological, behaviorist, symbolic interactionism, social movement theories were developed in this direction.
Author: Erkinboyeva Hulkar
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