SOC4044 Sociological Theory: Origins of Paradigmatic Assumptions of Sociological Theory (Plato) and Why Did Sociology Em

1. SOC4044 Sociological Theory:Origins of Paradigmatic Assumptions of Sociological Theory (Plato)andWhy Did Sociology Emerge? © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

2. Origins of Paradigmatic Assumptions of Sociological TheoryandWhy Did Sociology Emerge? References Denisoff, R. Serge, Orel Callahan, and Mark H. Levine. 1974. Theories and Paradigms in Contemporary Sociology. Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock Publishers, Incorporated. Turner, Jonathan H., Leonard Beeghley, and Charles H. Powers. 1998. The Emergence of Sociological Theory. 4th ed. Cincinnati, OH: Wadsworth Publishing Company. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

3. Origins of Paradigmatic Assumptions of Sociological Theory The fundamental foundations of sociological theory have been gleaned (as all things seem to be) from the ancient Greeks. (Denisoff, Callahan, and Levine 1974:3-7) © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

4. Origins of Paradigmatic Assumptions of Sociological Theory Even though Plato is not considered the “father” of sociology--he is probably the first person to systematically study society in a “sociological” way. In other words, he thought like a sociologist. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

5. Origins of Paradigmatic Assumptions of Sociological Theory The basic notion of natural law is found in Plato’s Republic. There is an order to society--a universalism, urged the Greek philosopher. The essence of this universal, unfortunately, was not totally clear. On the one hand, society was characterized as an organism, an enclosed, total, holistic unit. This was the Platonic “is” of society. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

6. Origins of Paradigmatic Assumptions of Sociological Theory The entire state of nature, however, was not yet known. Consequently, man was in a position to use logic--”the act and method of correct thinking”--to posit an “ought” of what society could be. This inherent contradiction between the Platonic “is” and the “ought” is fundamental to the processes of random fact gathering in Western thought. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

7. Origins of Paradigmatic Assumptions of Sociological Theory Plato’s Six Basic Assumptions of Society • Man is an organism. • Organisms tend toward survival. • Man survives in groups. • Man is a social animal. • Man lives in an ordered society. • The order of society is knowable. (Rose 1967 and Carroll 1972 in Denisoff, Callahan, and Levine 1974:4-5) © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

8. Origins of Paradigmatic Assumptions of Sociological Theory Important note regarding Plato’s Six Basic Assumptions of Society for the Final Exam-- Memorize each assumption “word for word” AND Memorize the order of assumptions (1 to 6) © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

9. Why Did Sociology Emerge? Sociology ---- So What? Why do we need this discipline? © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

10. Why Did Sociology Emerge? Humans have, no doubt, always thought about their lives and the conditions of their existence. Such thoughts are the lifeblood of religion, philosophy, ideology, and the many other ways that humans can think about themselves and their world. (Turner, Beeghley, and Powers 1998:1-6) © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

11. Why Did Sociology Emerge? There is, therefore, nothing new in the basic impulse that eventually led to the emergence of sociology as a discipline concerned with understanding human behavior, interaction, and organization. Sociology is, after all, only the more systematic study of what people do in their daily lives and routines. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

12. Why Did Sociology Emerge? But sociology did not emerge as an inevitable extension of what people typically do; rather, it arose from the rebirth or Renaissance in Europe after centuries of apparent stagnation and misery. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

13. Why Did Sociology Emerge? These “dark ages” were the aftermath of the collapse of the last remnants of the Roman Empire, and they were only dark in retrospective comparison with the perceived accomplishments of the Greeks and Romans. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

14. Why Did Sociology Emerge? But life was not so stagnant: (a) New inventions and ideas were slowly accumulating, despite the oppressive poverty of the masses, the constant warfare among feudal lords, and the rigid dogma of religion. (b) New systems of commerce were slowly emerging. (c) New forms and experiments in political organization were emerging from the patterns of war and conquest. (d) New religious ideas were subtly working their way around the dogmas of the dominant church. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

15. Why Did Sociology Emerge? Thus, the great awakening in intellectual thought, art, commerce, politics, and other human pursuits was built on small achievements and advances that were slowly accumulating between the fifth and thirteenth centuries in Europe. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

16. Why Did Sociology Emerge? Yet, once a critical threshold was reached, human thinking took sudden leaps, recapturing much that had been lost from the Greeks and Romans and, more significantly, re-creating systematic thought about the universe in terms of science. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

17. Why Did Sociology Emerge? Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was the first to articulate clearly the new mode of inquiry: Conceptualizations of the nature of the universe should always be viewed with skepticism and tested against observable facts. This sounds like a commonplace idea today, but it was radical in its time. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

18. Why Did Sociology Emerge? This idea both legitimated and stimulated the great achievements of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in astronomy, culminating in Sir Isaac Newton’s famous law of gravity. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

19. Why Did Sociology Emerge? Thinking about the universe took on a systematic character, but more than just systematic: Thinking also became abstract, articulating basic and fundamental relationships in highly general terms and, then, seeing if concrete events in the empirical world conformed to these general statements. Such is the essence of science, and it changed the world. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

20. Why Did Sociology Emerge? Sociology and the Enlightenment Sociology emerged as a discipline in the early decades of the nineteenth century, but it was not so much a dramatic breakthrough in human reasoning as an extension of what is often termed “The Enlightenment.” Perhaps The Enlightenment can be considered an intellectual revolution, because it turned thinking about the human condition toward the view that progress was not only possible, but inevitable. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

21. Why Did Sociology Emerge? Sociology and the Enlightenment In England and Scotland, The Enlightenment was dominated by a group of thinkers who argued for a vision of human beings and society that both reflected and justified the industrial capitalism that first emerged in the British Isles. Scholars such as Adam Smith believed individuals are to be free of external constraint and allowed to compete, thereby creating a better society. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

22. Why Did Sociology Emerge? Sociology and the Enlightenment In France, The Enlightenment is often termed the Age of Reason, and it was dominated by a group of scholars known as the philosophers. Sociology was born from the intellectual ferment generated by the French philosophers. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

23. Why Did Sociology Emerge? Sociology and the Enlightenment Although The Enlightenment was fueled by the political, social, and economic changes of the eighteenth century, it derived considerable inspiration from the scientific revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The scientific revolution reached a symbolic peak, at least in the eye of eighteenth-century thinkers, with Newtonian physics. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

24. Why Did Sociology Emerge? Sociology and the Enlightenment The post-Newtonian view of science was dramatically different from previous views. The old dualism between reason and the senses had broken down, and for the first time, it could be confidently asserted that the world of reason and the world of phenomena formed a single unity. Through concepts, speculation, and logic, the facts of the empirical world could be understood, and through the accumulation of facts, reason could be disciplined and kept from fanciful flights of speculation. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

25. Why Did Sociology Emerge? Sociology and the Enlightenment The world was thus viewed as orderly, and people believed it was possible to understand the world’s complexity through the use of reason and the collection of facts. Newton’s principle of gravity was hailed as the model for this reconciliation between reason and senses. Physics became the vision of how scientific inquiry and theory should be conducted. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

26. Why Did Sociology Emerge? Sociology and the Enlightenment And the individual and society were increasingly drawn into the orbit of the new view of science. This gradual inclusion of the individual and society into the realm of science represented a break with the past because heretofore these phenomena had been considered the domain of morals, ethics, and religion. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

27. Why Did Sociology Emerge? Sociology and the Enlightenment Indeed, much of the philosophers’ intellectual effort involved the emancipation of thought about humans from religious speculation, and although the philosophers were far from scientific, they performed the essential function of placing speculation about the human condition in the realm of reason. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

28. Why Did Sociology Emerge? Sociology and the Enlightenment Indeed, as can be seen in their statements on universal human rights, laws, and the natural order, much of their work consisted of attacks on established authority in both the church and state. From notions of “natural law,” it was but a short step to consideration of the laws of human organization. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

29. Why Did Sociology Emerge? Sociology and the Enlightenment The philosophers’ view of human beings and society was greatly influenced by the social condition around them. They were vehemently opposed to the Old Regime in France and highly supportive of the interest of the bourgeoisie [bů( r )zh-,wä-’ze] in free trade, free commerce, free industry, free labor, and free opinion. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

30. Why Did Sociology Emerge? Sociology and the Enlightenment The large and literate bourgeoisie formed the reading public that bought the books, papers, and pamphlets of the philosophers. These philosophers’ concern with the “laws of human condition” was as much, and probably more, influenced by their moral, political, and ideological commitments as by a dispassionate search for scientific laws. Yet it would be a mistake to ignore the extent to which the philosophers raised the possibility of a science of society molded in the image of physics or biology. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

31. Why Did Sociology Emerge? Sociology and the Enlightenment The basic thesis of all philosophers, whether Voltaire, Rousseau, or others, was that humans had certain “natural rights,” which were violated by institutional arrangements. It would be necessary, therefore, to dismantle the existing order and substitute a new order considered more compatible with the essence and basic needs of humankind. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

32. Why Did Sociology Emerge? Sociology and the Enlightenment The transformation was to occur through enlightened and progressive legislation; ironically, the philosophers stood in horror as their names and ideas were used to justify the violent Revolution of 1789. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender

33. Why Did Sociology Emerge? Sociology and the Enlightenment In almost all of the philosophers’ formulation was a vision of human progress. Humanity was seen to be marching in a direction and was considered governed by a “law of progress” that was as fundamental as the law of gravitation in the physical world. Note Most sociological theorists adopted the philosophical concept of “the law of progress.” This is an important concept to remember as you study the various theorists and theories in this course. © 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender