Q 01/05

Which French philosopher coined the term "sociology" and founded the doctrine of positivism?

A) Auguste Comte

B) Jean-Jacques Rousseau

C) Claude Lévi-Strauss

D) Émile Durkheim

Answer · why

A) Auguste Comte

He had first called it "social physics" until the Belgian statistician Adolphe Quetelet appropriated that phrase.

Q 02/05

Which French essayist first wrote down the word "sociology" in 1780, in an unpublished manuscript?

A) François-Marie Voltaire

B) Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès

C) Denis Diderot d'Alembert

D) Charles de Montesquieu

Answer · why

B) Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès

Sieyès is better known for the revolutionary pamphlet "What Is the Third Estate?"

Q 03/05

Which institution established the world's first formal Department of Sociology in 1892?

A) University of Bordeaux

B) Harvard University

C) University of Chicago

D) London School of Economics

Answer · why

C) University of Chicago

Albion Small founded it, wrote the first sociology textbook and started the American Journal of Sociology in 1895.

Q 04/05

Who became France's first professor of sociology in 1895 and wrote The Rules of Sociological Method?

A) Pierre Bourdieu

B) Auguste Comte

C) Marcel Mauss

D) Émile Durkheim

Answer · why

D) Émile Durkheim

He set up the first European sociology department the same year, at Bordeaux.

Q 05/05

Durkheim's 1897 study Suicide compared suicide rates between which two groups?

A) Catholics and Protestants

B) Urban and rural populations

C) Men and women

D) Rich and poor

Answer · why

A) Catholics and Protestants

It pioneered the use of statistics in social research and helped separate sociology from psychology.