sociologism
- noun
- /ˌsoʊsiˈɑːlədʒɪzəm/
- Specialized
- Many critics argue that sociologism overlooks individual agency in favor of broad societal explanations.
Examples
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Tocqueville, too, rejects a radical sociologism, which would deny freedom of choice to citizens and statesmen.
Academic text (2000) -
For most Slavists, this politicism—the reduction of all things to politics—is as simplistic as psychologism, sociologism, historicism, or any other form of reductionism.
Academic text (1993) -
Tocqueville and Montesquieu rejected dogmatic historicism and sociologism and articulated the moral and social prerequisites of a free political order.
Academic text (2000) -
For them, it is not simply a question of modifying classical political philosophy by coming to terms with the new circumstance called "modernity." The two great French thinkers, to be sure, reject full-fledged "sociologism" and, in different ways, defend the autonomy of the political order.
Academic text (2000) -
What Regis Debray labels "sociologism" leads one to consider that what is of sociological interest should become the norm or a kind of value-free acceptance of societal phenomena.
Academic text (1997) -
The differences among thinkers such as Aristotle, Montesquieu, and Tocqueville are much greater than Caesar concedes, and their similarities are apparent chiefly in light of their common opposition to the radical sociologism of much contemporary thought.
Academic text (2000) -
In his latest book, the author emphasizes the dangers of sociologism, suggesting that it limits our understanding of human behavior.
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The idea of sociologism can lead to conclusions that ignore cultural and psychological influences, focusing solely on social factors.
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Sociologism comes from sociology ('study of society') and the ending -ism ('a belief or system'). A helpful way to remember it is to think of a social view that explains things mainly by groups and society rather than by individual choice, so sociologism means focusing on social causes more than personal ones.
