This summary is a part of Peter Berger’s “Invitation toSociology”, chapter Sociology as an Individual Pastime
According to Peter Berger The sociologist is a person who is
interested in the intensity and consistency of human actions, he is in all the
places where people live together. Nothing related to a person's behavior will
be perceived as boring about him. He will examine both the routine and the
special events, and will not feel disgust even when he discovers phenomena that
we will define as perverts. In less academic language, we can claim that he is
the gossip among the gossipers, the neighborhood voyeur, the snooper who
intrudes on people's privacy. The sociologist will be interested in
interactions within the intellectual elite, but no less so in the relations
between the so-called "common people." The main focus of his interest
is not the certain meaning of what human beings do, but action itself, as
another example of the infinite richness of human behavior.
Along with the sociologist, there are other
"voyeuristic" passers-by - the economist, the ethnologist, the
psychologist and many others. All of these will study one phenomenon, however
the sociologist's research will be radically different from that of the
ethnologist. The sociologist's point of view is different - so he also does not
claim that his involvement in the study of the particular phenomenon would be
an exclusive right. Of all those passers-by, the sociologist very often
encounters a historian, and indeed - when the sociologist investigates
phenomena from the past, it is very difficult to distinguish between the two's
occupations.
The excitement from the sociologist's discoveries will be
somewhat different from the other scientists' discoveries, since most of the
time the sociologist walks in areas of experience known to him and most of the
people in his company, he researches institutions and communities that one can
read about in various dailies. It is not the excitement of the mishaps of the
completely unknown, but rather, the excitement of discovering the known when it
changes its meaning. The perspective of sociology forces us to see in a new
light the same world in which we have spent our entire lives. All this and
more, sociological discoveries affect our lives - and can not be detached from
the moment they are discovered - unlike other scientific discoveries - the
atomic scientist can marry and vote without thinking about the internal
composition of the atom, the geologist examines rocks only at designated times.
However, the sociologist lives in society even outside of working hours. Hence
for sociologists there is also a certain problem with separating professional
insights from their daily affairs.
In conclusion it can be said that according to Berger first
the wisdom of sociology is this: things are not what they seem. A built-in
social reality is made up of layers and layers. The discovery of each new layer
changes the perception of everything. Sociology will cause satisfaction, over time,
only to those who can think of nothing more captivating than looking at people
and understanding human affairs. Berger concludes that he strongly recommends
getting into the intricacies of interesting and exciting sociology, but at the
same time warns us that some of the revelations will not leave the viewer
indifferent to say the least.
Great books by Peter Berger and other invitations to sociology:
