Notes: The Discipline- 2 | Sociology Mains Optional for UPSC 2024 PDF Download

 Page 1


 
 
Chapter -1 
Sociology - The 
Discipline 
 
2. Scope of the subject 
and comparison with 
other social sciences. 
 
  
Page 2


 
 
Chapter -1 
Sociology - The 
Discipline 
 
2. Scope of the subject 
and comparison with 
other social sciences. 
 
  
 
 
Imagine it like this 
 
Scope ? 
Increased Across Places  
Increased Across Time Periods 
Discuss up to Present Day 
 
Let’s See How Scope Widened at Various Places 
  
Page 3


 
 
Chapter -1 
Sociology - The 
Discipline 
 
2. Scope of the subject 
and comparison with 
other social sciences. 
 
  
 
 
Imagine it like this 
 
Scope ? 
Increased Across Places  
Increased Across Time Periods 
Discuss up to Present Day 
 
Let’s See How Scope Widened at Various Places 
  
 
 
French Sociology 
 
Start of Sociology 
Saint Simon, Comte, Durkheim 
Positivism, Empiricism, Society as Supreme, Structuralism, Functionalism 
 
Later French Sociologists 
(that we ought to know) 
Pierre Bourdieu 
Cultural Capital, Social Capital 
 
Michel Foucault 
Discourses as a source of Power 
 
Jacques Derrida 
Deconstruction 
German Thinkers 
Hegel 
Dialectics (dynamic view, Thesis, Anti Thesis, Synthesis) 
Idealism (emphaises the importance of mind and mental products) 
 
Feuerbach 
Materialism, Real people and not abstract ideas shall be discussed and probed 
 
Marx 
Dialectical Materialism 
 
Weber 
Interpretivism, Improvements on Marxist Ideas, Bureaucracy,  
 
Simmel 
Symbolic Interactionism, Influenced American Sociology 
 
Habermas 
Critical School 
  
Page 4


 
 
Chapter -1 
Sociology - The 
Discipline 
 
2. Scope of the subject 
and comparison with 
other social sciences. 
 
  
 
 
Imagine it like this 
 
Scope ? 
Increased Across Places  
Increased Across Time Periods 
Discuss up to Present Day 
 
Let’s See How Scope Widened at Various Places 
  
 
 
French Sociology 
 
Start of Sociology 
Saint Simon, Comte, Durkheim 
Positivism, Empiricism, Society as Supreme, Structuralism, Functionalism 
 
Later French Sociologists 
(that we ought to know) 
Pierre Bourdieu 
Cultural Capital, Social Capital 
 
Michel Foucault 
Discourses as a source of Power 
 
Jacques Derrida 
Deconstruction 
German Thinkers 
Hegel 
Dialectics (dynamic view, Thesis, Anti Thesis, Synthesis) 
Idealism (emphaises the importance of mind and mental products) 
 
Feuerbach 
Materialism, Real people and not abstract ideas shall be discussed and probed 
 
Marx 
Dialectical Materialism 
 
Weber 
Interpretivism, Improvements on Marxist Ideas, Bureaucracy,  
 
Simmel 
Symbolic Interactionism, Influenced American Sociology 
 
Habermas 
Critical School 
  
 
 
British Thinkers 
 
Herbert Spencer 
How the idea of evolution applied to sociology, biology, psychology, and 
morality. 
Social Darwinism 
Organisimic Analogy 
 
Thomas Bottomore 
Marxism and its application on developing world 
 
Michael Mann 
Grand theory of Power 
 
Anthony Giddens 
Theory of Structuration 
Analysing creation and reproduction of social systems  
Analysis of both structure and agents (without giving primacy to either) 
 
 
Italian Thinkers 
 
Pareto 
Theories on Elites 
 
Mosca 
Theories on Elites 
 
Gramsci 
Marxist, Hegemony 
  
Page 5


 
 
Chapter -1 
Sociology - The 
Discipline 
 
2. Scope of the subject 
and comparison with 
other social sciences. 
 
  
 
 
Imagine it like this 
 
Scope ? 
Increased Across Places  
Increased Across Time Periods 
Discuss up to Present Day 
 
Let’s See How Scope Widened at Various Places 
  
 
 
French Sociology 
 
Start of Sociology 
Saint Simon, Comte, Durkheim 
Positivism, Empiricism, Society as Supreme, Structuralism, Functionalism 
 
Later French Sociologists 
(that we ought to know) 
Pierre Bourdieu 
Cultural Capital, Social Capital 
 
Michel Foucault 
Discourses as a source of Power 
 
Jacques Derrida 
Deconstruction 
German Thinkers 
Hegel 
Dialectics (dynamic view, Thesis, Anti Thesis, Synthesis) 
Idealism (emphaises the importance of mind and mental products) 
 
Feuerbach 
Materialism, Real people and not abstract ideas shall be discussed and probed 
 
Marx 
Dialectical Materialism 
 
Weber 
Interpretivism, Improvements on Marxist Ideas, Bureaucracy,  
 
Simmel 
Symbolic Interactionism, Influenced American Sociology 
 
Habermas 
Critical School 
  
 
 
British Thinkers 
 
Herbert Spencer 
How the idea of evolution applied to sociology, biology, psychology, and 
morality. 
Social Darwinism 
Organisimic Analogy 
 
Thomas Bottomore 
Marxism and its application on developing world 
 
Michael Mann 
Grand theory of Power 
 
Anthony Giddens 
Theory of Structuration 
Analysing creation and reproduction of social systems  
Analysis of both structure and agents (without giving primacy to either) 
 
 
Italian Thinkers 
 
Pareto 
Theories on Elites 
 
Mosca 
Theories on Elites 
 
Gramsci 
Marxist, Hegemony 
  
 
 
American Thinkers 
 
Albion Small, Robert Park 
Chicago School 
Problems/Solutions of Urbanisation 
 
Jane Addams 
How organisations alleviate  hunger, poverty and oppression, Nobel Peace Prize 
Winner in 1931 
 
Du Bois 
Essays on race relations, Blending Sociology and Economics 
 
GH Mead 
Symbolic Interactionism 
 
CW Mills 
Sociological Imagination 
It involves an individual developing a deep understanding of how their 
existence and daily lives are a result of historical process and occurs within a 
larger social context. 
 
Talcott Parsons 
Structural Functionalism, Bridge between Micro-Macro 
 
Robert K. Merton 
Middle Range Theories, Functionalism, Deviance, Reference Group - Relative 
Deprivation