Humanistic sociology is a domain of sociology which originated mainly from the work of the University of Chicago Polish philosopher-turned-sociologist, Florian Znaniecki. It is a methodology which treats its objects of study and its students, that is, humans, as composites of values and systems of values. In certain contexts, the term is related to other sociological domains such as antipositivism. Humanistic sociology seeks to shed light on questions such as, "What is the relationship between a man of principle and a man of opportunism?"
Origins
Humanistic sociology is a domain of sociology that grew from Anti positivism. It originated from the initial work of Florian Witold Znaniecki and W. I. Thomas who co-authored The Polish Peasant in Europe and America. Thomas, due to his multi-ethnic background, was fluent in Polish. He developed the life-history methodology, where data is obtained from letters and other materials, such as the archives of the Polish Emigrants Protective Association, of which Znaniecki was a director. Znaniecki was a philosopher who opposed idealism and naturalism, proposing instead a methodology for social research based around the "humanistic coefficient", sometimes known as the humanist principle. The outbreak of World War I led Znaniecki to join Thomas at Chicago.
Unfortunately for Thomas, he encountered political problems, ending his career as an academic. However, he went on to produce important works at the New School for Social Research, working with other notable scholars, such as Harold Laski. As a result, his role in the origins of Humanistic sociology is often understated.
Znaniecki went on to a distinguished academic career, taking the chair of sociology at the University of Poznan where he founded the Polish Sociological Institute. Fortunately for Znaniecki, at the outbreak of World War II, he was a visiting professor at Columbia University. Thus, he was spared the tragic history of his motherland. He became a professor at the University of Illinois, where he stayed until his death in 1958. His mantle passed to his gifted student, Stanisław Ossowski, who revived the Polish Sociological Institute after it had been liquidated by Stalinist authorities in 1951 (as the Polish Sociological Association). Ossowski maintained the noted and considerable resistance by Znaniecki to the "ideological control of science".
The principle of analytic induction
Analytic induction is a method of social research that is inductive, where theories and concepts are modified as a result of doing research (see scientific method). The philosophical foundations of analytic induction originate from Aristotle and his concept of induction. Analytic induction can be thought of as a phenomenological process, that is the phenomena cannot occur or be understood separate from the process. Similar to the Socratic Method or Karl Popper's falsification, the researcher sets out to disprove his theory by maximizing the chance of producing negative evidence. Analytic induction was Znaniecki's answer to the problem of induction. Znaniecki believed analytic induction was a new process for conducting social research that is capable of universal and precise results.
Structuralism vs Functionalism
There is a debate between two competing schools of sociological thought, Structuralism and Functionalism. This debate is inherited from the European philosophical roots of humanistic sociology: Husserl's attempt via reflexion to extract the essence of experience as opposed to Heidegger's existential phenomenology. While each school lays claim to legitimate theory, each leads to quite different approaches when interpreting the results of research and developing conclusions. The genesis of the debate relates to the primacy of the Conceptual objects involved. Does a researcher consider the structural objects and their relation to the system as a priority, or does the researcher consider the function of the object as the priority? The problems found in each school will lead to static analysis.