Sociology and commonsense

In broadest sense, commonsense is philosophy and rationality is science. Sociology stands in between these two. The question arises: Is sociology based on -

• Sociologist's commonsense or
• People's commonsense or
• absolute rationality

There is a lot of confusion and debate on this issue. Renaissance was mother of this debate. Earlier people were explaining creation of universe, life and death etc. based on culturally defined commonsense knowledge. This was challenged by Enlightenment scholars and scientists such as Galileo Galilei, Newton etc. These scholars emphasized on science i.e. rationality, objectivity and value neutrality in the pursuit of knowledge. Thus, they rejected the orthodox or commonsense based beliefs and believed that it was product of religious dogmas, superstitions and speculations. G E Moore and Thomas Reid believed that commonsense is result of dogma, superstition and myth. Sociology grew in the environment when science was being celebrated in every faculty of the knowledge. thus, naturally, sociology rejected commonsense, giving rise to positivist school of thought in sociological field of inquiry. The proponent of this school were Saint Simon, August Comte,  Emile Durkheim etc.This school was criticized and challenged by other streams of thought in later half of the 19th century. Hermeneutical school promoted by Dilthey argued that people's actions are guided by their own understanding and thus commonsense is guide to the social action. Therefore, it can not be ignored and must be respected by sociological research. Another school, the phenomenology, proposed by Edmund Husserl, argued that social life is unorganized and people have different opinion about it based on their own experience or commonsense which gives shape to real world. Thus, it gives absolute credence to commonsense, rejecting the positivists ideas. Max Weber was the first scholar who actually dealt with this subject in depth. He for the first time highlighted the distinction between sociologist's and people's commonsense. Sociologist's commonsense is to develop concepts, paradigms and theoretical model to understand essence of reality. Sociologist should not develop judgement about people's commonsense or motive behind their actions rather than study them objectivity from their own point of view. He believed that commonsense has same place in the field of sociological inquiry as scientific method. Thus, both are complementary to each other. Einstein believe that a lot of commonsense gets into the mind of an individual by the time he attends 18 years of age. Contemporary sociology is enriched with the contribution of reflexive sociologists, may that be feminists, postmodernists or critical theorists. They all consider that people make social life driven by different cognitive purposes at different points of time. So a sociologist must be given complete freedom to use his commonsense knowledge to understand the reality in distinct ways. Scientific method explains reality in mechanical mathematical perspective. 

Thus, sociology evolved as a discipline rejecting the commonsense in favor of science. It grew into a discipline by respecting the both and finally it is maturing by conceptualizing that commonsense is mother of science. Hence commonsense can't be replaced by science. 

Intellectual background of emergence of sociology

The history of sociology as a discipline is just one hundred seventy five years old. Understanding the history of a discipline helps us understand the discipline. Sociology compared to other sciences is new in its origin. It emerged as a response to the forces of change which took place during eighteen and nineteen centuries in Europe. Much of the early sociology was influences by the thinkers of the Enlightenment of the eighteen century. Earlier thinkers were influenced by the philosophy of the history i. e., society must have progressed through series of  the stages from simple to complex. Hegel, Adam Smith, Ferguson etc. tried to develop specific theories in their own time. Rousseau's theory of social contract and ideology liberty, equality and fraternity left indelible impression on the European society. Biological theory of evolution of Darwin, Spencer etc ultimately influenced the social thinkers to analyse the states of social evolution. As a result sociology moved towards evolutionary approach seeking to identify and account for the principal stages in the social evolution.  The work of Durkheim come under this category. Post industrial revolution survey of social conditions were conducted to understand poverty and its causes and other problems. Thinkers of this era like Marx, Weber etc. provided profound insight into the social milieu and gave impetus to the development of sociology.

Emergence of sociology

Society was earlier studied by religious and political philosophers. But sociology emerged as a distinct science in 19th century Europe. Europe was then passing through a period of immense change which had set in with French and Industrial revolutions. Indeed, sociology can be considered, above all a science of new industrial society.