The course presents a historical profile of sociological thought from the classics to the most influential authors of modernity. We will start from an in-depth analysis of the historical-social context that has been the backdrop to the industrial revolution and which has given the beginning to the birth and development of sociological thought in the course of its becoming, until the birth and development of thought Modern sociological that is explained as a dynamic of processes of social change and explanation, at the same time, of the same. Coherently with these settings in treating the different authors, a special attention will be devoted to the historical, cultural, economic context that has characterised the path of sociological theory until it reaches the theme of modernity and the way in which the Sociological reflection originated and developed in relation to the problem of grasping the specificities of its "living" the world as a social arena of reference.