Introduction

This chapter outlines some of the key aspects of the sociological quest as an introduction to the text and to the discipline of Sociology. It begins by introducing Sociology as a formal scholarly discipline that emerged in Europe from the aftermath of the Industrial and French Revolutions, and from social philosophy. The chapter then briefly introduces the three founders of Sociology: Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim with reference to some of their seminal ideas. The chapter concludes with some key points on the composition of the sociological perspective compared to other scholarly disciplines through the idea of the sociological imagination.