School of Distance Education 
                                                  
             FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY 
                                        (SOC1C01) 
                                                  
                             
                                                  
                                                  
                                       STUDY MATERIAL 
                                                  
                                          I SEMESTER 
                                         CORE COURSE 
                                                  
                                       MA SOCIOLOGY                     
                                    (2019 Admission onwards) 
                                                   
                                                   
                          UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT 
                               SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION 
                                    CALICUT UNIVERSITY- P.O 
                                MALAPPURAM- 673635, KERALA  
                                             
                                             
                                             
                                             
                                                                     
                                            190351 
                                             
                                             
           SOC1C01-FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY 
                                                                                        
            
                                                  
                                                  
                                                  
                                                  
                                   School of Distance Education 
                                                  
           SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION 
           UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT 
            
           STUDY MATERIAL    
           FIRST SEMESTER 
            
           MA SOCIOLOGY (2019 ADMISSION ONWARDS)                            
           CORE COURSE:  
           SOC1C01: FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY 
                                                  
                                                  
                                                  
                                                  
                                          Prepared by: 
                                        Sri. Jawhar.C.T 
                       Assistant Professor on Contract (Sociology) 
                                 School of Distance Education 
                                    University of Calicut 
            
                                        Scrutinized By: 
                                                  
                                          Dr.Mahesh.C 
                                      Assistant Professor 
                                   Department of Sociology 
                        Zamorin's Guruvayurappan College, Calicut 
                                                         
                                                  
                                             
                      
                      
                      
                      
                      
                      
            
                                         Layout: ‘H’ Section, SDE 
                                                 © 
                                              Reserved 
                                                  
           SOC1C01-FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY 
                                                                                        
            
                                                 3
                                                
                             
                             
                FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY 
        
       Objectives 
            Traces out the history of sociology 
            Introduces the ideas of the pioneering sociological thinkers 
            Recognises the relevance of the classical theory in contemporary societies. 
             
       MODULE 1 THE ORIGINS OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY 
            1.1 Intellectual and Social forces in the development of Sociological Theory: 
              Renaissance, Enlightenment,French Revolution, Industrial Revolution 
            1.2 Early Social Philosophers: Montesquieu, Condorcet, Saint Simone 
            1.3 Auguste Comte: Positivism, Herbert Spencer: Organic Analogy 
            1.4 Emile Durkheim: Social Fact, Division of Labour, Suicide,  
            Elementary forms of Religious life 
       MODULE 2 KARL MARX 
            2.1 Karl Marx: Dialectical and Historical Materialism 
            2.2 Class and Class conflict 
            2.3 Theory of Alienation, Commodity Fetishism 
            2.4 Theory of Social Change 
       MODULE 3 MAX WEBER 
            3.1 Verstehen, Social Action, Ideal Type 
            3.2 Theory of Power and Authority, Bureaucracy 
            3.3 Rationality and Modernity- Rationalisation 
            3.4 The Protestant Ethics and Spirit of Capitalism 
       MODULE 4 GEORG SIMMEL 
            4.1 Formal Sociology, Sociation and Group formation 
            4.2 Relationships and Social types 
            4.3 Philosophy of Money 
            4.4 Modernity - Metropolis 
        
        
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                          Preface  
                             
          This book is an introductory reading for the 1stsemester MA Sociology students. In 
       2020 the Board of Studies in Sociology initiated the revision of the existing curriculum for 
       MA Degree Programme. This new initiative emphasized on the broadening the scope of 
       academic practices inSociology by including recent trends in the course. In this course we 
       have  four  theory  papers  starting  from  classical  sociological  theories  to  more  recent 
       developments in social theory. Each semester have a sociological theory paper which helps us 
       to get a panoramic view of the subject.  
          This paper, Foundations of Sociological Theory is an intellectual history of classical 
       sociology and it will map the development of Sociology as an independent discipline. As we 
       know,  classical  thinking  is  a  library's  worth  of  material  with  lot  of  historical  contexts, 
       individual theorist and their contributions. Here we are developing a theory textbook with 
       relativelyshort chapter for each theorist. Theoretical thinking is a difficult kind of thinking 
       and most difficult one as well. So, preparing a text book kind of reading is difficult academic 
       exercise, especially in a short period. Hence, I used different sources to understand and write 
       the theoretical concepts and perspective of classical thinkers.