Contours and Strokes to a Portrait of Sociology

Contours and Strokes to a Portrait of Sociology


Fetisov V.Ya.

Dr. Sci. (Philos.), Prof., Scholarly Consultant, System Initiatives Center, St. Petersburg, Russia acooper2002@mail.ru

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For citation:

Fetisov V.Ya. Contours and Strokes to a Portrait of Sociology. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2022. No 9. P. 14-28




Abstract

An important reason for the crisis of sociology is lacking reflection on its content and structure as a discipline, lacking links between its main aspects. Poorly studied remain both influences from the object and subject onto methods and means, content – system of knowledge, epistemological and social functions, and vise-versa as well. Meanwhile, social functions largely determine specifics of sociology, for thanks to them it is able to influence practice and get impulses from it for own development. A complex and contradictory process of a new practice-type formation is going on in the world – that of a conscious, purposeful and socially oriented activity of society and its formations, a most important condition for which is achieving a certain degree of its integration. Only as a result of such activity it is possible to ensure sustainable development of society and, consequently, its preservation and reproduction. Therefore, at the present stage, sociology has, if it wants to be in demand, to transform into a theory of this activity, with the relations, forms of communication and respective behavior. The shift in emphasis from the analysis of society and its constituent units as objects to study them as emerging social subjects contributes to transformation of sociology into a modern fullfledged science possessing theoretical coherence and practical significance. The offered interpretation of sociology is a hypothesis to explain and resolve contradictions, problems and paradoxes thus accumulated.


Keywords
subject of sociology; analysis; synthesis; coherence; content of science; system; functions of sociology; social subject; activity
Content No 9, 2022