خلاصه ماشینی:
Book Review New Dimensions in Sociology: A Physico-Chemical Approach to Human Behavior by Mirza Arshad All Beg; Karachi: Hamdard Foundation Press, 1982 Let us start with the title of the book.
What is new about this book can be seen from the second part of its title, A Physico- Chemical Approach to Human Behavior—- eye-catching, even startling.
If, by using this title, Dr. Beg had in mind to shock sociologists into reading his book from cover to cover, he must be congratulated, for, no doubt, the title is intriguing, to say the least.
The author of this book, Mirza Arshad Ali Beg, is a trained and experienced chemist with graduate degrees from Karachi (M Sc.
Now, we know that in sociology, as well as in anthropology, psychology, and political science, socialization has come to mean the process of learning in interaction, not interaction per se.
His book does not have any comments by, or perhaps was not even discussed with Basharat Ali, the old guard of Islamic sociology; Arif Ghayyur, Director of Demographic Research; and Dr. Mufti, Chairman of the Department of Sociology—all of them at the University of Karachi.
There is no doubt that quantification of data is a nagging problem in sociology, as well as in other social sciences.
In fact, if we limit ourselves only to the observation of raw behavior, we may always end up with quantitative information, with or without the help of any physical or natural science models.
In short, observation of human behavior as frequencies is not an impossible task in sociological research.