What Is Humanistic Sociology?

This article discusses the meaning of humanistic sociology. Humanistic sociology is not a difficult idea to define. For the humanistic sociologist, sociology is the study of how to make a better world. The key commitment is that people matter. Humanistic sociology is not only an academic discipline, it is the merging of personal and professional identities. It is a methodology/theoretical perspective that is inter-disciplinary in its delivery. Ernest Becker's The Structure of Evil: An Essay on the Unification of the Science of Man provides a ready summary of the ground on which to trace the history of humanistic sociology. In the volume, Becker talks of two sociologies. Humanism in sociology is not new. Sociology has a history of do-gooders. Many early U.S. sociologists were actually ministers who came to sociology to perfect the art of implementing a Social Gospel. Social amelioration was the goal of most sociologists in the late 1880s. To the layperson, the term humanistic sociology would seem redundant. It would seem obvious that sociology is concerned with the person and human needs. But sociology drifted from its original intent and purpose and it became necessary to specify a specially humanistic sociology.