SOCI 1001H Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Sociological Inquiry, Social Order, Social Forces
8 Dec 2016
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Vs. direct knowledge, conventional wisdom, aesthetics/art, religious knowledge. Direct knowledge is gained through experience (one way of knowing the world) Art/aesthetics- illuminous thoughts from artist- writers, things that are said in books/poems- we can learn through writers and through art, musicians, Religious knowledge- based on faith, religious teachers, morals. All of these ways of knowing are limited, partial, personal. Two key assumptions: social beings and social patterns. Seeing the general in the particular (uncovering surface reality) Example of first sociological study: emile durkheim on suicide. Seeing the strange in the familiar (the taken-for-granted world) The value of a comparative approach (historically and cross-culturally) Founded on the principle that we must move beyond direct experience. Main ways through which sociology operates- by contextualizing individuals and events. What is going on that is shaping/influencing this life that we are living. Children, elderly, mentally and physically disabled, single mothers- most commonly on welfare.
