Talk:List of sociologists

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This article (or one that was redirected to it) was nominated for deletion on 28 February 2023. The result of the discussion was keep.

Who is a sociologist...[change source]

I just want to put up what I also wrote on the RfD page:

Auguste Comte first used the term "sociology" in 1833.
He died 1857.

I would therefore propose to remove all those from the list who:

Died before the 1850s

For all those that came later, we likely need a reference they were sociologists. Also note that the 1800s was a time of wars in Europe, so please don't classify the rmaining ones by nationality (esp. for countriews that did'nt exist then... Eptalon (talk) 23:30, 10 March 2023 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Just because the term did not exist yet, does not mean that sources cannot refer to people earlier than that as sociologists. If a reliable source backs up a person being a sociologist, they should not be removed from here. --IWI (talk) 00:40, 11 March 2023 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@Eptalon and Gotanda: It is important to get this right, but it is undeniably true that some people on this list should not be here, however many should. The enwiki article states: It is intended to cover those who have made substantive contributions to social theory and research, including any sociological subfield. Scientists in other fields and philosophers are not included, unless at least some of their work is defined as being specifically sociological in nature. It is worth keeping this in mind as the article is improved; we can only include people who have verifiably carried out work that was sociological in nature (they could possibly be from before the term "sociology" was coined). Hopefully later this week, I can help out with the sourcing. --IWI (talk) 23:03, 15 March 2023 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Sociology is a specific field and the term has a discrete meaning. This is Simple English Wiki where we use simplified language but also try to keep things simple. Sociology is not synonymous with social sciences. It is not philosophy. Adding in people who might be tangentially related just confuses what is and is not sociology. I have commented specifically for individual entries I have removed as psychologists, philosophers, anthropologists, archaeologists, etc. Those are all disciplines which are not sociology. And, there were a whole bunch of Marxists or socialists. Socialists are most definitely not the same thing as sociologists. --Gotanda (talk) 07:44, 18 March 2023 (UTC)Reply[reply]