Sociology In Its Place

This book was originally published in 1970. In 'Sociology in its Place', the essay which gives the volume its title, Mr Runiman argues that sociology cannot usefully be distinguished in content from either anthropology or history; that it is not only an historical but an applied science in the sense that its explanations are parasitic on the laws of others; and that to talk to looking for distinctive 'sociological' theories is therefore misconceived. The papers in the volume are grouped under three headings: the first four are methodological, the second three contain some results of empirical research and the last four are philosophical. The collection as a whole lends support to some of the important arguments of the opening essay.