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Sociology 12 Acad. Early Sociologist. Auguste Comte (1798-1857). French Philosopher Came up with the modern term, Sociology Socius (Latin) = Social, Being With others Logos (Greek) = Study Of Termed “The New Science”
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Sociology 12 Acad. Early Sociologist
Auguste Comte(1798-1857) • French Philosopher Came up with the modern term, Sociology • Socius (Latin) = Social, Being With others • Logos (Greek) = Study Of • Termed “The New Science” • Comte’s Theories included: Social Statics (order and stability) and Social Dynamics (conflict and change)
Auguste Comte (Con’t) • Positivism Theory: Belief that the world can best by understood through scientific inquiry, bias free knowledge and not religious reasoning. • Three stages of knowledge: Theological, metaphysical, and scientific (positivism) • Stage one: Religious Based • Stage two: Abstract Speculation • Stage Three: Scientific knowledge ( proven through observations, experiments, comparisons, and historical analysts
Harriet Martineau(1802-1876) • Attributed for translating and compressing the work of Comte and making it more available for viewing. • Studied social customs of Britain and USA during industrialization and capitalism • Studies focused on religion, politics, child rearing, slavery, class, race, gender and “sufferers”
Harriet Martineau (Con’t) • Strong advocate for racial and gender equality • Believed that a better society would emerge if men and women were treated equally. • Also believed in bridging the class gap and having cooperation from all people with the lead coming from middle class. • Sociology could “enlighten people’s capacity to create a just society and live heroic lives
Herbert Spencer(1820-1903) • Major contribution was an evolutionary perspective on social order and change • General evolution theory: compares society to a living biological organism with various interdependent parts (family, economy, and government) that work to ensure the stability of the entire society. • Believed in Survival of the fittest, only the best adapted survive, others die out. (natural selection) = known as Social Darwinism
Herbert Spencer (Con’t) • Critics have pointed out many flaws in Spencer’s theories. Stating: • Spencer’s theories promote can be used to justify class, racial, ethnic, and gender inequalities. • Ideas could act as a crutch to eliminate harmful practices that worsen these negative views.
Emile Durkheim(1858-1917) • Criticized some of Spencer’s views while incorporating others into his work. • Stressed the importance that people are the product of their social environment and that behaviour cannot be fully understood in terms of individual biological, and psychological traits. • Limits of human potential are limited not by biology, by society
Emile Durkheim (Con’t) • Lived through the secularation of society (turn against religion) thus, sought to provide scientific rational way of explaining societal integration and stability. • Largest Contribution: Societies based on facts (Social facts are patterned ways of acting, thinking and feeling that exist outside any one individual) • Strains in society lead to anomie – a condition in which cocial control becomes ineffective as a result of loss of shared values and a sense of purpose in society. Most likely to occur during rapid social change
Karl Marx(1818-1883) • Sharp Contrast to ideas before • German economist • Conflict necessary, to produce social change and better society. • Believed that society should not just be studied, but changed, due to its’ formation from a few wealthy people over the rest of population • Many argued that Marx put too much emphasis on class division
Max Weber(1864-1920) • Like Marx, concerned with the changes brought on by industrial revolution • Believed that sociologic research should be done value free in complete scientific study. • Weber feared the growth and development of large scale organizations, as a way of taking away human vitality and freedom.
George Simmel(1858-1918) • Society as a web of patterned interactions among people • The main purpose of sociology, should be to examine these interactions within groups • Interactions depended greatly on the size of the social group • Different interactions between dyad, and triad • Pointed out a higher class conflict in industrial societies, and a stronger push for individualism rather than group support. • Developed formal sociology – an approach that focuses attention on universal, recurring social forms that underlie the varying content of social interaction.