{"id":7964,"date":"2020-05-15T19:55:01","date_gmt":"2020-05-15T14:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/?p=7964"},"modified":"2020-05-15T19:55:01","modified_gmt":"2020-05-15T14:25:01","slug":"sociology-and-common-sense-knowledge-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/sociology-and-common-sense-knowledge-2\/","title":{"rendered":"SOCIOLOGY AND COMMON SENSE KNOWLEDGE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Relevance: Sociology:\u00a0FUNDAMENTALS OF SOCIOLOGY\u00a01. Sociology &#8211; The Discipline:\u00a0(c) Sociology and common sense.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/slideplayer.com\/slide\/10614002\/36\/images\/22\/Sociology+vs.+Common+Sense.jpg\" alt=\"Sociology What is it anyway ?. - ppt download\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Sociology and common sense.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Sociological knowledge is<\/strong> different from theological and <strong>philosophical observations<\/strong>. Likewise sociology is different from common sense observation.<\/li>\n<li>Many a time we make certain statements which we have not to prove that they are true. They are <strong>based either on common sense or on practical observations and experiences<\/strong> on social life, though sometimes they may be based on wisdom too.\u00a0 However, often they are based on ignorance, prejudices and mistaken interpretation.<\/li>\n<li>Common sense knowledge, based on the accumulated experiences, prejudices and beliefs of the people,<strong> is often contradictory and inconsistent.<\/strong> On the other hand, <strong>scientific observations are based on verifiable evidence or systematic body of proof<\/strong> that can be cited. <strong>\u00a0For example,<\/strong> some common sense statements may be quoted here: <span style=\"color: #008080;\"><strong><em>man is more intelligent than women; married people remain happier than single people; high-caste people are more talented than low-caste people.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><strong><em>Contrary to this, the scientific research or scientific inquiry finds that woman is as intelligent as man; there is no association between happiness and remaining married or unmarried by a person; caste does not determine individual\u2019s efficiency.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li>Common sense observations result in widespread<strong> ignorance and rejection of a sociological perspective when<\/strong> people think about human behavior. Common-sense perspectives predominate in people\u2019s minds. They may, for instance, <strong>employ a biological perspective in attempting to explain family and marital arrangements<\/strong>; women rear children because they have a maternal instinct (biologically determined) for this task. Similarly, they may use <strong>pseudo-psychological perspective<\/strong> <strong>in explaining suicide<\/strong> (people commit suicide when they are mentally unbalanced), or a<strong> moralistic perspective in explaining crime<\/strong> (Criminals are people who have not developed a conscience regulating their actions). Because ordinary people are more familiar with these kinds of common-sense perspectives in their everyday lives a sociological approach does not come easily to them.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><strong>Commonsense observation is further compounded by a deeply held commitment to the idea that we are all individuals, unique beings with our own special qualities, which sociologists deny.<\/strong> <\/span>Sociology, however, insists on a willingness to reject what is obvious common-sense, natural and to go beneath the surface for understanding of the world. <strong>\u00a0<em>As Berger puts it<\/em><\/strong><em>: \u201cThe fascination of Sociology lies in the fact that its perspective makes us see in a new light the very world in which we have lived all our lives.\u00a0 It can be said that the first wisdom of Sociology is that things are not what they seem\u201d.<\/em> Sociologists emphasise, that what is <strong>\u2018common-sense\u2019 or \u2018natural\u2019 may be by no means universal or eternal,<\/strong> but is frequently relative to particular societies or to particular periods in time.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><strong>The common-sense view of differences in behaviour between men and women in the family in our society tends to assume that <em>because there are biological and physiological differences between men and women, certain aspects of their behavior are therefore \u2018natural\u2019.<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><strong>For example,<\/strong> it is often argued that it is common sense and natural that women will engage in child-rearing and domestic tasks and that men will make sexual advances and will work outside the home.\u00a0 <strong>Mead\u2019s study of New Guinea,<\/strong> \u2018Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies\u2019, revealed the partiality of such common-sense interpretations of behavior pattern.\u00a0 <strong>Among the Apache<\/strong>, she found very few \u2018natural differences\u2019 in men\u2019s and women\u2019s behavior with neither sex exhibiting aggression:\u00a0 Women did the heavy carrying (Men stayed at home with their wives during and after child birth, \u2018sharing\u2019 the pain and strain.\u00a0 <strong>Among the Munduracco<\/strong>, both sexes were aggressive, children were treated brutally by both parents and lovemaking was rather like a pitched battle.\u00a0 <strong>Among the Tchambuli,<\/strong> yet further variation occurred: men adorned themselves, gossiped, made things for trade, while women selected their partners, made the sexual advances, did all the trade, and were the more aggressive sex.\u00a0 <strong>Obviously, we cannot explain these very striking variations in behavior via biology, <\/strong>since the people in the various societies were all the same biologically.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><strong><em>To the Hopi Indians of North America it is \u2018common-sense\u2019 view that rain-clouds are Gods and must therefore be made happy through exhibiting Rain dance.<\/em><\/strong> <\/span>This is a view not entirely consistent with that of the Meteorological office. <strong>The essential point, then, is that one person\u2019s common sense is somebody else\u2019s nonsense<\/strong> and there are many examples of sociological and anthropological investigation questioning and exploding many common-sense notions about behavior. Although the use of everyday common-sense beliefs is, usually not only unsystematic and inadequate but also often contradictory.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><strong>The common sense explanations are generally based on what may be called \u2018naturalistic\u2019 and\/or individualistic explanation.<\/strong><\/span> A naturalistic explanation for behavior rests on the assumption that one can really identify \u2018natural\u2019 reasons for behavior. An individualistic explanation of some event or phenomenon assumes that the event can be readily understood and explained solely through reference to the behavior of the individuals involved in it. <span style=\"color: #008080;\"><strong>There is no attempt to understand or explain the phenomenon in terms of wider social forces.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span> A naturalistic explanation of behavior rests on the assumptions that one can readily identify \u2018natural\u2019 (or sometimes \u2018God-given\u2019) reasons for behavior. <strong><em>For example,<\/em><\/strong><em> it is only natural, that two people should fall in love, get married, live together, and raise a family. <\/em>Such explanations are rejected as inadequate by the sociologist. The individualistic explanation is rejected<strong> because<\/strong> <em>it does not recognize the importance of wider social forces<\/em> acting on the individual that he or she cannot control. The naturalistic explanation is rejected <strong>because <\/strong><em>it fails to recognize that behavior patterns are not primarily biologically determined but rather reflect social conventions learned by individuals as members of social groups<\/em>, or, more generally, society.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><strong>Sociology thus breaks away from both common sense observations and ideas as well as from philosophical thought.<\/strong> <\/span>It does not always or even generally lead to spectacular results.\u00a0 But meaningful and unsuspected connections can be reached only by sitting through masses of connections.<\/li>\n<li>Great advances in sociological knowledge have been made, generally incrementally and only rarely by a dramatic breakthrough. <strong>Sociology has a body of concepts, methods and data, no matter how loosely coordinated. <\/strong>This cannot be substituted by common sense.\u00a0 <strong>Common sense is unreflective<\/strong> since it does not question its own origins.\u00a0 Or in other words it does not ask itself: \u201cWhy do I hold this view?\u201d<strong> The sociologist must be ready to ask of any of our beliefs, about ourselves-no matter how cherished-\u201dis this really so?\u201d<\/strong> The <strong>systematic and questioning approach of sociology is derived from a broader tradition of scientific investigation.<\/strong> This emphasis on scientific procedures can be understood only if we go back in time.\u00a0 And understand the context or social situation with which the sociological perspective merged as sociology was greatly influenced by the great developments in modern science.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Conclusion:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Thus, a statement made on common sense basis may be just a guess, a hunch, or a haphazard way of saying something, generally based on ignorance, bias, prejudice or mistaken interpretation, though occasionally it may be wise, true, and a useful bit of knowledge.\u00a0 At one time, common sense statements might have preserved folk wisdom but today, scientific method has become a common way of seeking truths about our social world.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>For more such notes, Articles, News &amp; Views Join our Telegram Channel.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Telegram Link\" href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/triumphias\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>https:\/\/t.me\/triumphias<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Click the link below to see the details about the UPSC \u2013Civils courses offered by Triumph IAS.<\/strong> <\/span><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" title=\"Courses available\" href=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/pages-all-courses.php\">https:\/\/triumphias.com\/pages-all-courses.php<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Relevance: Sociology:\u00a0FUNDAMENTALS OF SOCIOLOGY\u00a01. Sociology &#8211; The Discipline:\u00a0(c) Sociology and common sense. Sociology and common sense. Sociological knowledge is different<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114,116],"tags":[392],"class_list":["post-7964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sociology-optional","category-sociology-optional-paper-ii","tag-union-public-service-commission-upsc"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7965,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7964\/revisions\/7965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}