and so forth. The sociologist realizes that his or her view is partial, and we rely on
the perceptions and observations (research) of other social scientists to complete
our understanding of the whole picture.
Patience and humility are temperamental qualities that are in relatively short sup-
ply these days. But they are necessary. The alternatives are even less pleasant: a retreat
to idealized and nostalgic notions of moral certainty (which certainly never existed
as we romantically recall them now) or some uncritical embrace of the new that leads
to a frantic, headlong rush into an uncertain future.
Recall the way you may have argued with your parents. You try to persuade them
with what you consider to be reasoned logic (“it makes sense for me to have the keys
to the car”) or with social trends (“all the other parents let their kids have the keys to
the car”). If the argument seems to be going your way, they may retreat to
their parental authority as the only way to meet your arguments. “Because
I said so, that’s why,” or “Because I’m the dad.” When authority figures
retreat to such traditional arguments they may get their way—you may not
get to use the car—but you have also won a major ideological victory, forc-
ing them to rely on that tired and soon-to-be-outmoded form of authority
instead of meeting your logic with an equally compelling logic of their own.
But should you reply to their rational arguments with equally time-
oriented dismissals—such as “it’s just the way we do things now” or “that
may have worked in your day, but everything is different now”—you may
succeed in making them feel older than they actually are, but you’ve lost
the high ground, being unable to meet their idea of reason with reason
of your own.
As a sociology professor, I often hear a variant of these positions from
students. When presented with evidence of some social problem, they may
say, “Well, there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s always been that way.”
In the next minute, when confronted with some other evidence about
another problem, they’re just as likely to say, “Well, the data you have
are from 2002. That’s old. It’s completely different now.”
It’s not that the students are wrong half the time. It’s that we usethese
sorts of statements to avoid dealing with the issues that are presented to
us. They’re evasions, and we use both of them as the situation seems to
warrant. They enable us to avoid any genuine productive engagement
with the problem before us.
The sociological perspective accepts neither “timeless” truisms nor
constant flux as the grounds for the positions we take. Nor are they ade-
quate as the foundations for understanding social life.
Sociology and Science
Sociology is a social science. To some, this phrase is an oxymoron—a phrase where
the terms are opposites, sort of like “jumbo shrimp.” It’s true that the social sciences
cannot match the predictive power of natural science, because people don’t behave
as predictably as rocks or bacteria or planets. But that doesn’t mean that we cannot
test hypotheses to discern patterns of behaviors, clusters of attitudes, and structures
and institutions that make social life possible.
Some sociologists would not look out of place in a science department: They create
hypotheses based on empirical observations of social phenomena, then test them. In other
words, they are looking for scientific facts. Other sociologists would not look out of place
in a humanities department: They ask open-ended questions to find out what it feels like
to belong to a certain social group. In other words, they are looking for the human spirit.
DOING SOCIOLOGY 9When you say you are a psychology
major, people immediately think that you’re
going to start psychoanalyzing them. When
you say you are an English major, they
think you’re going to correct their grammar.
But when you say you are a sociology
major, they have no idea what you’re going
to do to them. They might get mixed up
and think that you are studying one of
these other popular subjects:Socialism A political system
Social studies A field of secondary
education
Socializing Hanging out with others
Sociometry A measure of attitudes
toward social groups
Social work A profession involved
with helping people who
are facing specific social
problems, such as child
abuse or alcoholismDidyouknow