Ebook: Invitation to sociology: a humanistic perspective

Sociology as an individual pastime -- Sociology as a form of consciousness -- Excursus, alternation and biography, or, how to acquire a prefabricated past -- Sociological perspective, man in society -- Sociological perspective, society in man -- Sociological perspective, society as drama -- Excursus, sociological Machiavellianism and ethics, or, how to acquire scruples and keep on cheating -- Sociology as a humanistic discipline.;This ... book, punctuated with ... examples, is addressed both to the layman who wants to know what sociology is all about and to students and sociologists who are concerned about the larger implications and dimensions of their discipline. [The author] places sociology in the humanist tradition and recognizes it as a "peculiarly modern, peculiarly timely form of critical thought." Without underestimating the importance of scientific procedures in sociology, he points out its essential affinity with history and philosophy, and he shows how sociology in this sense can contribute to a fuller awareness of the human world. "Unlike puppets," he notes, "we have the possibility of stopping in our movements, looking up and perceiving the machinery by which we have been moved. In this act lies the first step towards freedom." [He] discusses this consciousness in detail, in relation to one's own biography, to the operations of social institutions, and to the makeup of an individual as a product of these institutions. In each instance, he outlines the major contributions to sociology of such classical sociologists as Weber, Pareto, and Durkheim in Europe; Beblen, Cooley, and Mead in the United States; and some of the most important names in the field today.-Back cover.