Be a man

Since sociology separated from philosophy, theory has its own specific
meaning in this discipline. In etymology, theory means "a looking at,
viewing, contemplation". Theory is a viewpoint, not a practice. In addition,
theory emphasizes the systemic and logical connection between concepts.
Theory is a coherent unity which explains the phenomena. On the other hand,
sociology is different from philosophy and psychology. While philosophy
focuses on the rule of a priori, sociology concentrates on history.
Psychology investigates human mind, whereas sociology tries to discover the
secret of human interaction, to focus on the relationship between humans.
However, sociological theory differs from sociology. Sociology assumes the
existence of the "society", which is considered an independent entity from
individuals, so sociology discusses the relatively stable elements inside the
"society". Nonetheless, the elements in it don't need to be strong connected.
For example, in a sociology textbook, we can often see one chapter of
"gender", and another chapter of "class", but it is not necessary to have an
association between gender and class. Instead, sociological theory doesn't
presume society as a real entity, which is a problem in the view of
sociological theory. The characteristic of sociological theory is logical and
systemic connection between concepts which is abstracted from history or
social phenomenon and stand on the position of relationalism, which is
focused on relationship and not individual.


In tradition, sociological theory can be divided into classical and
contemporary. However, it is not persuasive to divide by the criteria of
time. Actually, this classification of sociological theory is very arbitrary,
but it is pragmatic for the teachers of sociological theory. Those who teach
sociological theory can't help classify the sociological theory into two
parts because the time for their teaching is not sufficient. However, some
people defense for this classification. They suggest the more important
reason is that the object of the research is different. The dividing line is
often considered as Talcott Parson(1902-1979), an American sociologist who
emphasizes the problem of social order. Before Parsons, the question to
sociological theory is "how society is possible". After Parsons, the question
to sociological theory is "how social order is possible". Both questions have
their own historical origin.

In 18th and 19th century, even in early 20th century, the state and the civil
society were both forming, but this forming was not smooth. The French
Revolution brought chaos. Why a revolution claimed to bring freedom, equality
and love caused blood and fight. The Industrial Revolution brought
technological progress, but it doesn't bring correspondent happiness. On the
contrary, capitalists exploited worker and men oppressed women, adults
suppressed children exist everywhere. There must be some problems between
human interaction and human relations. Therefore, the sociologists, such as
Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, and George Simmel, problemized the
human existence. They considered the problem as a social problem, not a
problem of an individual, so they analyzed the society and endeavored to
describe "how society is possible". All sociologists believe the change of
the form of connection between humans is a very important factor, so Marx
analyzes the capitalism, Durkheim the labor division, Weber the social
action, and Simmel sociability. All these sociologists give their
explaination to the problem of "society". Thus, they are categorized into the
classical sociological theorists.

On the 20th century, there is an important transition. This transition is the
World War I and II. Many excellent thinkers died in the war and academic
focus shifted. After the war, the United States becomes the great Power in
the world and bears the mission of keeping the peace in the world. Benefited
from the war, the US grows stable everywhere, its economy, society and
politics. Everything seems in order, so the disorder become abnormal. In
other words, the sociologists in the US assume order is normal and disorder
is abnormal. Therefore, they bring forth the question "how social order is
possible"? They want to explain why there are deviances and crime and why
some people will be against the rule and break the order. Thus, Talcott
Parson puts forward the functionalism and AGIL model. In contrast to the
classical sociological theory, Parsons' theory and model is more static and
more general. Parsons' position of overlord was not challenged until 1950s.
Since class conflict and racial conflict reemerged in 1950s, Parsons' thought
was attacked by the critics. These critics invoked different traditions and
developed into various schools: the theory of conflict, the theory of
exchange, symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, and etc. All these
schools are categorized into contemporary sociological theory.

Although Parsons can be a dividing line to cut classical and contemporary, I
still have to emphasize this classification is valid only in the US
sociology. Sociologists in other countries don't necessarily need to follow
this classification and can have their own classification and development.
The importance of sociological theory is not in the name of the schools, but
the inspiration we received from the thought itself. So those theorists who
can inspire us to understand our situation today in sociological aspects we
call them "sociological theorist". Therefore, when we can see the syllabus of
sociological theory, we can see the names of Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile
Durkheim, Georg Simmel, Nobert Elias, Michael Foucault, Anthony Giddens,
Pierre Bourdieu and etc. So what is sociological theory ? Besides the
criteria of system and logic, my answer is those thoughts which can give us
sociological insights to our situation are all sociological theory.