The Essential Wisdom of Sociology

Although the introductory sociology course typically conveys some information about society (primarily American society), I think most sociology instructors would agree that it is more important for students to grasp some fundamental sociological concepts: role, interaction, structure, conflict, socialization, and so on. I am not so naive, however, as to imagine that we would ever agree on precisely what the most important concepts are. In my own teaching and writing, I have found it even more important to ground students in some basic principles or metaconcepts that distinguish the sociological view of things and that make sense of the concepts we weave together in the sociological construction of society. Below I will identify and describe briefly ten basic principles, not in the hope of reaching agreement with my colleagues, but with the idea that our disagreement might be productive.