Sociological Research in France

As a science of human social facts and groups, sociology aims to comprehend and explain the impact of society on human thinking and behavior. The wide variety of sociology’s applications make it a major force in contemporary research in the humanities and social sciences. French sociologists—whose work often extends into or overlaps with disciplines such as philosophy, anthropology, and ethnology—have achieved international renown. Prominent examples include Marcel Mauss, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Raymond Aron, Pierre Bourdieu, Edgard Morin, René Girard, Michel Crozier…
The term “sociology” acquired its modern meaning from the work of Auguste Comte (Système de politique positive, ou Traité de sociologie, instituant la religion de l’humanité, 1851–54), who is considered one of the founding fathers of the new discipline. Comte conceived of sociology as a discipline having as its main objective the discovery of the laws of social and historical evolution. As a science no less exact than physics or chemistry, sociology was also destined to become a modern philosophy reflecting its new stature in the contemporary world.
Auguste Comte influenced the great English sociologist Herbert Spencer (1820–1903), who also conceived of sociology as a positive science based on the methodical collection and analysis of observed facts and taking as its chief objective the study of the evolution of societies. Comte’s influence was less important in Germany than in England, and the word “sociology” did not take hold there until the end of the nineteenth century, with the work of Max Weber (1864–1920). In the minds of the founding German sociologists, sociology was not destined to become a substitute for philosophy. More...