<P> Sociology as a scholarly discipline emerged primarily out of the Enlightenment thought , shortly after the French Revolution , as a positivist science of society . Its genesis owed to various key movements in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of knowledge . Social analysis in a broader sense , however , has origins in the common stock of philosophy and necessarily pre-dates the field . Modern academic sociology arose as a reaction to modernity , capitalism , urbanization , rationalization , secularization , colonization and imperialism . Late 19th century sociology demonstrated a particularly strong interest in the emergence of the modern nation state ; its constituent institutions , its units of socialization , and its means of surveillance . An emphasis on the concept of modernity , rather than the Enlightenment , often distinguishes sociological discourse from that of classical political philosophy . </P>
<P> Sociology as a scholarly discipline emerged primarily out of the Enlightenment thought , shortly after the French Revolution , as a positivist science of society . Its genesis owed to various key movements in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of knowledge . Social analysis in a broader sense , however , has origins in the common stock of philosophy and necessarily pre-dates the field . Modern academic sociology arose as a reaction to modernity , capitalism , urbanization , rationalization , secularization , colonization and imperialism . Late 19th century sociology demonstrated a particularly strong interest in the emergence of the modern nation state ; its constituent institutions , its units of socialization , and its means of surveillance . An emphasis on the concept of modernity , rather than the Enlightenment , often distinguishes sociological discourse from that of classical political philosophy . </P>
when did sociologists ( as opposed to social thinkers ) first appear
when did sociologists ( as opposed to social thinkers ) first appear
shortly after the French Revolution
shortly after the French Revolution