Roots of Sociology

Alex Law is Professor of Sociology at Abertay University, UK. He is co-editor of The Anthem Companion to Norbert Elias and Sociological Amnesia.

• Introduction: Sociology and Enlightenment Part I: Sociology and the Scottish Enlightenment 1. Sociogenesis of Sociology 2. Sociologists and the Scottish Enlightenment 3. Eighteenth-century Marxist Sociology 4. Political economy before Sociology 5. Adam Smith’s sociological ambivalence Part II: Sociology of the Scottish Enlightenment 6. Scottish Enlightenment and the civilising process 7. State formation as a civilising offensive 8. An enlightened figuration 9. Intellectuals and the field of power 10. Position-taking in the academic field 11. Symbolic exchange Conclusion: In the end, a beginning

'Intellectually, sociology has lost its way. In this scholarly book, Alex Law charts how it might regain its bearings. He does so by making a thorough re-evaluation of the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment, pointing the way forward to a sociology relevant to a broader understanding of the structure of processes in the turmoil we are living through – processes, as Norbert Elias put it, "From plans arising, yet unplanned / By purpose moved, yet purposeless".'Professor Stephen Mennell, University College Dublin, Ireland.'This book brilliantly argues the case for interpreting the intellectual corpus of the Scottish Enlightenment—most notably, Adam Ferguson, David Hume, John Millar and Adam Smith—as the collective precursors of classical sociology. Offering an abundance of historical detail, lucid analysis of Enlightenment works and a profoundly sociological approach to their thought, this is a particularly original contribution to the sociology of knowledge that combines the conceptual frameworks of both Norbert Elias and Pierre Bourdieu. Law undertakes a theoretically innovative departure into the lost intellectual microcosms of the last half of the 18th Century, illuminating both the Enlightenment’s achievements and, crucially, their social conditions of formation.'Professor Bridget Fowler, University of Glasgow, UK.