COMMON SENSE SOCIOLOGY AND ANALYTIC SOCIOLOGY.

The intent of this article is to examine a continuing problem of sociological inquiry, the uncritical mixture of common sense and objective perspectives in the formulation of sociological concepts and theory. The issue has been noted and conceived in a variety of different ways by various sociologists. The current controversy over phenomenology and positivism reflects, in part, the effort to disentangle naive sociology from analytic sociology. For clarification, the article draws, first, upon some of the conceptions and controversies from behavioral and phenomenological psychology. Next, a comparison is made of the assumptions and methods of positivism and phenomenology in sociology. Finally, some substantive examples of common sense and of analytic sociology are also discussed in the article. The concern of this article has been with the influence of common sense sociology upon the theories and data of analytic sociology. Their relationship, it should be noted, is apt to be reciprocal and not merely unidirectional. Sociological interpretations, which are congruent with the conventional wisdom, are likely to be adapted into it. Such mutual influences are not self-limiting. Serving like feedback systems, they may become scientific justifications for social participants and self-confirming hypotheses for professional sociologists.