HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY

• Sociology is a fast-growing discipline, expanding to study almost all aspects of man’s social life.
• It tends to break down into an endless list of specialized areas, each employing its own approach and techniques.
• Historical sociology has emerged as one of these branches.
• All sociological research is somewhat historical, as it often involves examining records of past events.
• The term historical sociology is typically applied to the study of social facts more than fifty years old.
• In practice, historical sociology becomes a comparative study of social groups, their composition, interrelationships, and the social conditions that support or undermine them.
• Social anthropologists examine contemporary simple societies, while historical sociologists compare them with the records of earlier societies and cultures.
• Social history deals with human relations, social patterns, mores, customs, and institutions beyond monarchy and the military.
• Social history is often described as “the history of people with politics left out,” focusing on social relationships and groupings.
• Social history has not yet fully established itself as a separate discipline, with only a few practitioners in British Universities.
• However, social history has gained significant acceptance among sociologists, who recognize its importance in interpreting the present.
• Social history is now acknowledged as historical sociology and is considered one of the standard special fields in sociology.
• Prominent contemporary practitioners of historical sociology include Sigmund Diamond, Robert Bellah, and Norman Brinbaum.

SOCIOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE

• Sociology of knowledge is a recently emerged branch of sociology.
• It presupposes that knowledge is in some measure a social product.
• Thinkers have long recognized the importance of economic, religious, political, and other interests in shaping human beliefs and ideas.
• The view that human society and its structure can influence knowledge has gained recognition, with the history of Greece and Rome supporting this view.
• In his book “New Science” (1725), Vico showed how heroic literature constituted the thought mode of a specific society.
• Marxism raised the issue of the relationship between society and knowledge, offering a solution: according to Marx and Engels, all knowledge is distorted and conditioned by the conflicting interests of exploited and exploiting classes.
• Contemporary sociological information suggests that Marx’s view is untenable as a total sociology of knowledge.
• Durkheim approached this problem by arguing that our perception and experience are derived from and constitute part of the social structure.
• This view may be applicable to simpler societies, but not to more complex societies.
• Comte’s three stages of social evolution were seen as stages of forms of thought, with the positivist stage being considered the most objective.
• The foundations of sociology of knowledge are found in Karl Mannheim’s works: “Ideology and Utopia” (1936)and “Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge” (1952).
• Mannheim faced the problem of sociology of knowledge with great philosophical learning and methodological ingenuity.
• Despite interest from several sociologists, the problems of sociology of knowledge remain unsolved.