Follow-Up to "What Good (or Use) is Sociological Theory Anyway?"

It is presently 12:15PM, Wed. Feb., 17th, and Natalie and John have yet to submit your comments for this exercise. The deadline was this past Monday. Please do so ASAP. 5 points are at stake.

Regarding those who have submitted your comments, I'd like to follow-up on the blog with some general comments of my own. Let me stress that none of the points I am going to make are intended as real criticisms of anyone's comments. I was not asking for much with this exercise, just a reflection on the relevance of some theories or theorists you have already encountered. But I will say a couple submissions were weak and really did not address the question of relevance very well or at all in one case.

In general, what did these various theorists and their interpretations of social reality help us to do? Basically, better understand how individuals and/or societies behave or function, and knowing this may help us adapt better to certain social situations. Several focused on this social psychological dimension (eg., Goffman, Festinger, Mead, Sapir/Whorf being a bit broader). Some others cited theorists' ideas that offered some critical perspective on society or an aspect of society (eg., Weber, Marx, Freud, Becker, King).

But whether your observations were more social psychological or sociological (focusing on the larger society or some aspect of it), one can say that these theories, ideas, concepts helped you interpret and understand some aspect of social reality. Of course, we could pursue this further by raising questions about the validity of these ideas, about how narrowly or broadly applicable they may be. Our goal, of course, is trying to understand society and social life in all of its complexity, which, ultimately, is the only basis for improving the quality of life for individuals and society as a whole.

PLEASE INCORPORATE THESE BRIEF COMMENTS IN YOUR CLASS NOTES. I BELIEVE THEY ARE PERTINENT TO WHAT I TALKED ABOUT IN MY FIRST CLASS LECTURE.