Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic PerspectiveThis lucid and lively book, punctuated with witty, incisive 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. Professor Berger 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." Professor Berger 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 this institutions. In each instance, he outlines the major contributions to sociology of such classical sociologists as Weber, Pareto, and Drukheim in Europe; Veblen, Cooley, and Mead in the United States; and some of the most important names in the field today. |
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academic actions American sociologists argument bad faith become biography called capital punishment ciety concept consciousness contemporary course debunking defined definition discipline economic Émile Durkheim Erving Goffman ethical example fact frame of reference freedom function Georg Simmel gist Helmut Schelsky human humanistic ideas identity ideology important individual intellectual interest interpretation least live logical look Machiavellianism matter Max Weber ment Middletown studies modern moral official ologist ology one's oneself ourselves perhaps person phenomenon play political possible Potemkin village precarious predefined problem psychoanalysis question racial reader reinterpretation religious role theory scientific scientists sense sexual soci social control social location social reality social situation social system socio sociological perspective sociological thought sociological understanding sociologist sociology of knowledge stratification studies Talcott Parsons things Thomas Luckmann tion University view of society Weber's words world view