Reading and speaking

Pre-reading task

1. Comment on the following: “I think and think; for months, for years, 99 times the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.” (A. Einstein)

2. What do you think the object of sociological theory is?

3. Do you agree that sociology grows from the everyday human activity and thus is closely connected with daily occurrence?

4. How do you understand the term “empirical generalizations”?

5. Read the text.

Empirical generalizations in sociology

Not infrequently it is said that the object of sociological theory is to arrive at statements of social uniformities. This is an elliptical assertion and hence requires clarification. For there are two types of statements of sociological uniformities which differ significantly in their bearing on theory. The first of these is the empirical generalization: an isolated proposition summarizing observed uniformities of relationships between two or more variables. The sociological literature abounds with such generalizations which have not been assimilated to sociological theory. Thus, Engel's "laws" of consumption may be cited as examples. So, too, the Halbwachs finding that laborers spend more per adult unit for food than white-collar employees of the same income class. Such generali­zations may be of greater or less precision, but this does not affect their logical place in the structure of inquiry. The Groves-Ogburn finding, for a sample of American cities, that "cities with a larger percentage engaged in manufacturing also have, on the average, slightly larger percentages of young persons married" has been expressed in an equation indicating the degree of this relationship. Although propositions of this order are essential in empirical research, a miscellany of such propositions only provides the raw materials for sociology as a discipline. The theoretic task, and the orientation of empirical research toward theory, first begins when the bearing of such uniformities on a set of interrelated proposi­tions is tentatively established. The notion of directed research implies that, in part, empirical inquiry is so organized that if and when em­pirical uniformities are discovered, they have direct consequences for a theoretic system. In so far as the research is directed, the rationale of findings is set forth before the findings are obtained.

Answer the following questions

1. What is empirical generalization?

2. Give examples of generalizations from the text.

3. What does the notion of directed research imply?

4. What do you think might inspire a scientist?

Reading and translation

1. Read the text about young years of Pitirim Sorokin and answer the following questions:

1. What was Pitirim’s father?

2. Where did P. Sorokin get his education?

3. What role did the seminary play in his life?

4. Why was he arrested and put into prison?

5. How did a peasant youth turn into an urban agnostic?

6. What specialization did the prison help him to choose? How?