ABSTRACT
This chapter contrasts biological and social approaches to social life in the modern world through an application of the four sensibilities comprising the sociological imagination. Contesting a number of hereditary assumptions with reference to their social environments, the chapter illustrates the distinction between the biological and social world with an emphasis on gender and racial discrimination. Examples discuss how many taken-for-granted gender and racial norms long held by people in many societies to be simply matter of fact are socially constructed and are not related to the biological make up of people. The application of the sociological imagination to these areas also further assists in positioning the sociological perspective within scholarly disciplines.
