January 13th, 2021
SOCI2151H Week 1: Introduction to the Course
Reading: Chapter 1
Lecture
Sociology is based on 2 components (which is why and how its scientific)
1. Strict methodology
● To look into anything in society
● Called “epistemology” in science
○ How do you know? Where did you learn that?
2. Constructing theories
● To explain how society works, based solely on evidence discovered
through such methodological procedures
● Called “ontology” in science
○ What do you know?
- In all sciences this is known as “ontological empiricism”
Social theories do not offer subjective opinions, belief systems, agendas (from
corporations, politicians, or institutions)
● Learn them, because they will help you mature into a well-informed member of
society
● They are all based on empirical evidence, discovered through the application of
sound methodological procedures
SUM:
● The objective is to understand how society works
○ More precisely, how we are socially organized (in the scientific way of
knowing)
How is social theory objective (scientific)?
● Eliminates the political and economic agendas which underlie all other ways of
knowing
● To understand the actual way that society is organized
● This involves understanding…
○ Socialization
■ How society socializes us (teaches us how to act and behave)
○ Structures and Institutions (structures society creates)
■ These structures shape, encourage, and enforce our ways of
acting, thinking and behaving
● Institutions are all “agents of socialization”
● We must learn methods to learn how society actually works
SOCI2151H Week 1: Introduction to the Course
Reading: Chapter 1
Lecture
Sociology is based on 2 components (which is why and how its scientific)
1. Strict methodology
● To look into anything in society
● Called “epistemology” in science
○ How do you know? Where did you learn that?
2. Constructing theories
● To explain how society works, based solely on evidence discovered
through such methodological procedures
● Called “ontology” in science
○ What do you know?
- In all sciences this is known as “ontological empiricism”
Social theories do not offer subjective opinions, belief systems, agendas (from
corporations, politicians, or institutions)
● Learn them, because they will help you mature into a well-informed member of
society
● They are all based on empirical evidence, discovered through the application of
sound methodological procedures
SUM:
● The objective is to understand how society works
○ More precisely, how we are socially organized (in the scientific way of
knowing)
How is social theory objective (scientific)?
● Eliminates the political and economic agendas which underlie all other ways of
knowing
● To understand the actual way that society is organized
● This involves understanding…
○ Socialization
■ How society socializes us (teaches us how to act and behave)
○ Structures and Institutions (structures society creates)
■ These structures shape, encourage, and enforce our ways of
acting, thinking and behaving
● Institutions are all “agents of socialization”
● We must learn methods to learn how society actually works
