FUNDAMENTALS OF SOCIOLOGY: EPISTEMOLOGY, THEORY, METHOD AND TEACHING

Abstract

The text presents the work Fundamentals of Sociology: Epistemology, Theory, Method, and Social Formation, characterizing sociology as a unique scientific field, marked by a reflexive nature and a genesis linked to the profound transformations of industrial modernity. The book's central proposal is to offer an integrated analysis that breaks with the fragmentation of knowledge, establishing a necessary unity between epistemology, theory, and method. It argues that sociological practice is not limited to the use of neutral techniques, but constitutes a scientific endeavor permeated by ethical commitments, theoretical choices, and the constant problematization of its own foundations. The narrative traces the discipline's trajectory from the classical foundations of Marx, Durkheim, Weber, and Simmel—whose categories remain essential for understanding contemporary social dynamics—to the intense paradigmatic diversification of the second half of the 20th century, encompassing everything from systems theory to decolonial perspectives. A key distinguishing feature of this work is the emphasis given to Brazilian sociology, treated as an original and critical intellectual tradition capable of interpreting the specificities of peripheral modernity and the country's structural inequalities. Finally, the text reaffirms the role of sociology education as a practice of intellectual emancipation, essential for critical training and for the very renewal of the discipline as a plural and historically situated science.