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William Isaac Thomas (13 August 1863 – 5 December 1947) was an American sociologist. Working with Polish sociologist Florian Znaniecki, W.I. Thomas developed innovative work on the sociology of migration. Thomas then went on to formulate a fundamental principle of sociology, known as the Thomas theorem. Through his theorem, Thomas contended that, "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences".〔Thomas, William I.; Thomas, Dorothy: The Child in America (Alfred Knopf, 1929, 2nd ed., p. 572)〕 ==Biography== Thomas was born in Russell County, Virginia on 13 August 1863, to his mother Sarah Price Thomas and his father Thaddeus Peter Thomas, a Methodist minister of Pennsylvania Dutch descent. His family moved to Knoxville, home of the University of Tennessee, when he was a boy, because his father wanted to improve the educational opportunities of his children. From 1880, Thomas studied literature and classics at the University of Tennessee, where he obtained a B.A. degree in 1884 and became Adjunct Professor in English and Modern Languages. While at Knoxville, Thomas also taught courses in Greek, Latin, French, German, and, interestingly, natural history. At the same time, he developed an interest in ethnology and social science after reading Herbert Spencer's ''Principles of Sociology''. In 1888, Thomas married the first of his two wives, Harriet Park. During 1888/1889, he attended the German universities of Berlin and Göttingen to pursue studies of classic and modern languages. During his time in Germany, he also furthered his interest in ethnology and sociology under the influence of German scholars such as Wilhelm Wundt. Upon his return to the United States in 1889, Thomas taught at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio from 1889 to 1895 as a professor of English and then sociology.〔Sica, Alan. 2005. "W.I. Thomas" Pp.406-410 in "Social Thought: From the Enlightenment to the Present". Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.〕 In 1894, Thomas was invited to teach a class in sociology at the University of Chicago. The next year, he relocated to the University of Chicago permanently in order to pursue graduate studies in sociology and anthropology in the university's new department of sociology, where he finished his Ph.D. thesis, ''On a Difference in the Metabolism of the Sexes'', in 1896. After that, he returned to Europe to conduct field studies in various ethnic and cultural problems in preparation for the writing of a comparative work on European nationalities that he never completed. For nearly the next 25 years, Thomas taught sociology and anthropology at the University of Chicago, becoming instructor in 1895, assistant professor in 1896, associate professor in 1900, and professor in 1910. From 1895 until 1917, he also co-edited the American Journal of Sociology. 1907 saw the publication of Thomas's first major work, ''Sex and Society''. Despite a biological bias that would nowadays be considered sexist by many ("Anthropologists ... regard women as intermediate between the child and the man"), the book was progressive for its time. In "Sex and Society", Thomas speculated that women's intellect might actually be superior to men's "due to their superior cunning" and "superior endurance". In 1927, Thomas was elected president of the American Sociological Society. He belonged to a group often referred to as the earlier psychological school of sociologists along with Franklin Henry Giddings, E.A. Ross, Charles Cooley, and Ellsworth Faris. Thomas never published any material on the subject, but did use it as lecture material.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www2.asanet.org/governance/thomas.html )〕 When discussing his interests, Thomas writes "The sociopsychological aspects of culture history, or otherwise stated, social psychology as examined in relation to races, nationalities, classes, interest groups, etc., in different cultural situations and historical epochs; and second, personality development in normal, criminal and psychopathic individuals in relation to cultural situations and particular trains of experience as seen through their life-histories, which may be in the form of autobiographies, case studies, continuous and organized inter-views, etc. (I do not say `psychoanalysis' because of the meaning which this term has acquired)." Furthermore, when explaining about sociologists whom influenced him, Thomas writes "I do not feel that I have been greatly influenced by any of my teachers of sociology. My interests, as I have indicated, were in the marginal fields and not in sociology as it was organized and taught at that time, that is, the historical and methodological approach of Professor Small and the remedial and correctional interests of Professor Henderson."〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www2.asanet.org/governance/thomas.html )〕〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「W. I. Thomas」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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