ABSTRACT
The process of learning sociology has much in common with the learning of other humanistic disciplines. Sociology is a humanistic subject because its subject matter is symbols. Sociological education follows a humanistic model to the extent it relies on the reading of classics of social thought as stimulation for contemporary thinking about society and as the primary means to convey sociological wisdom. The history of sociology shows that one can very eager to reach not only theories of modest scope but to reach for grand theories. There are two types of specialists in theoretical sociology: the man who develops new partial theories out of his own or other people's research, and the man who takes a number of partial theories developed by others and integrate them into a more inclusive theory. Micro-sociology translates accounts of small groups and the encounters reported in biographical documents into a general vocabulary.
