Any science has its own subject, which is the result of theoretical abstraction, and which allows you to highlight certain patterns of development and functioning of the object. The specificity of sociology is that it studies society. So let's see how the founders defined the subject of sociology.
Auguste Comte, who coined the word "sociology", believed that the subject of science
is a holistic society based on universal consent. The latter is based on the unity of human history and directly human nature. Another founder of science, the English scientist Herbert Spencer, spent his whole life seeing a bourgeois society in front of him, which differentiated as it grew and maintained its integrity thanks to the latest social institutions. According to Spencer, the subject of sociology is society acting as a social organism, in which integrative processes are combined with differentiation due to the evolution of social institutions.
Karl Marx, who lived most of his life in England, was critical of the theory of Comte and Spencer. This was due to the fact that Marx believed that bourgeois society was in a deep crisis and was being replaced by a socialist one. Soon he created his own teaching, which was defined as a materialistic understanding of history. According to him, society develops not at the expense of ideas, but at the expense of material productive forces. Following this theory, the subject of sociology is society as an organic system developing towards unity and integrity through class struggle and revolution.
Thus, the founders of science agreed that its subject is society as a single reality. Socio-philosophical and value-political approaches played a direct role in the formation of different approaches.
The second stage of the formation of this science is connected with its development in unity with the methodology. The representative of this period is the early theoretical and methodological classics. At this time (the 80s of the 19th century - before the First World War), the basic methodological principles of social research were being developed, the approaches to the object and ways of obtaining empirical information about it were being realized. An important contribution to this direction was made by the German sociologist F. Tennis.
In the course of his scientific work, he analyzed social statistics, conducted empirical research on the lower class of Hamburg, investigated the state of crime andsuicidal tendencies. As a result of the work, empirical sociology emerged as a descriptive discipline.
According to Tennis, the subject of sociology is formed by types of sociality, society and community, which are based on will-driven interactions of people. However, the content and sources of the will remained unclear. During the same period, Adler actively studied the subject of the sociology of culture, namely the social factors in the formation of cultural values and basic norms. However, this theory was later criticized.
The next step was the development of mature theoretical and methodological classics. This period lasted from the First World War to the 70s of the 20th century. The subject and methodology of science become more closely connected. The representative of this stage is the Russian-American sociologist Pitirim Sorokin, he created the "System of Sociology", which was based on the theory and methodology for measuring social mobility. According to him, society is a real set of interacting people, where the status of the subject depends on his actions in the sectors of social mobility. This provision describes, first of all, the subject of sociology.
At present (at the end of the 20th century, at the beginning of the 21st century, a new understanding of this science has arisen, alternative to the classical one. According to it, the center was not society, but the subject of society as an active actor. Among the adherents of the approach - A Touraine and P. Bourdieu, the Englishmen M. Archer and E. Giddens. At present, they are faced with the following questions: is the classical understanding of the subject being rejected or simplyneeds development.
