Who Advocated For Thinking About Sociology As A Big Organism Similar To An Animal?

Tradition vs. Science

Social scientists began to prefer the scientific method to make sense of the rapid changes accompanying modernization and industrialization.

Learning Objectives

Distinguish positivist from interpretive sociological approaches

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• Beginning in the 17th century, observation-based natural philosophy was replaced past natural science, which attempted to ascertain and test scientific laws.
• Social science continued this trend, attempting to find laws to explain social behavior, which had become problematic with the reject of tradition and the ascension of modernity and industrialization.
• Sociology is not a homogeneous field; it involves tensions between quantitative and qualitative sociology, positivist and interpretive sociology, and objective and critical folklore.
• The first thinkers to endeavor to combine scientific inquiry with the exploration of human being relationships were Emile Durkheim in France and William James in the Us.
• Social science adopted quantitative measurement and statistical methods from natural science to find laws of social beliefs, as demonstrated in Emile Durkheim'south book Suicide. But folklore may as well use qualitative methods.
• Positivist sociology (too known as empiricist) attempts to predict outcomes based on observed variables. Interpretive sociology (which Max Weber called verstehen, German language for "agreement") attempts to understand a civilization or miracle on its own terms.
• Folklore embodies several tensions, such as those betwixt quantitative and qualitative methods, between positivist and interpretive orientations, and betwixt objective and critical approaches.
• Social science adopted quantitative measurement and statistical methods from natural science to find laws of social beliefs, equally demonstrated in Emile Durkheim's book Suicide. Merely sociology may also use qualitative methods.
• Positivist sociology (as well known as empiricist) attempts to predict outcomes based on observed variables. Interpretive folklore (which Max Weber called Verstehen, German for "understanding") attempts to empathize a culture or phenomenon on its own terms.
• Objective sociology tries to explicate the earth; critical sociology tries to change information technology.

Key Terms

• Critical folklore: Critical theory is a school of thought that stresses the examination and critique of society and civilization, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities.
• scientific method: A method of discovering knowledge about the natural world based in making falsifiable predictions (hypotheses), testing them empirically, and developing peer-reviewed theories that all-time explain the known information.
• Positivist sociology: The overarching methodological principle of positivism is to comport sociology in broadly the same way as natural science. An emphasis on empiricism and the scientific method is sought to provide a tested foundation for sociological research based on the assumption that the just accurate knowledge is scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can simply go far by positive affidavit through scientific methodology.

In ancient philosophy, in that location was no difference between the liberal arts of mathematics and the study of history, poetry, or politics; only with the development of mathematical proofs did there gradually arise a perceived departure between scientific disciplines and the humanities or liberal arts. Thus, Aristotle studied planetary motion and poetry with the aforementioned methods, and Plato mixed geometrical proofs with his demonstration on the state of intrinsic noesis.

However, by the terminate of the 17^th century, a new scientific paradigm was emerging, particularly with the piece of work of Isaac Newton in physics. Newton, past revolutionizing what was then called natural philosophy, changed the bones framework by which individuals understood what was scientific. While Newton was merely the archetype of an accelerating trend, his work highlights an important distinction. For Newton, mathematical truth was objective and absolute: information technology flowed from a reality contained of the observer and information technology worked by its own rules. Mathematics was the golden standard of cognition. In the realm of other disciplines, this created a pressure level to limited ideas in the form of mathematical relationships, or laws. Such laws became the model that other disciplines would emulate.

In the late 19^thursday century, scholars increasingly tried to apply mathematical laws to explain human behavior. Among the kickoff efforts were the laws of philology, which attempted to map the change over fourth dimension of sounds in a language. At first, scientists sought mathematical truth through logical proofs. But in the early xx^th century, statistics and probability theory offered a new mode to divine mathematical laws underlying all sorts of phenomena. As statistics and probability theory adult, they were applied to empirical sciences, such every bit biology, and to the social sciences. The get-go thinkers to attempt to combine scientific inquiry with the exploration of human relationships were Emile Durkheim in France and William James in the United States. Durkheim'southward sociological theories and James'south work on experimental psychology had an enormous bear on on those who followed.

William James: William James was one of the first Americans to explore man relations scientifically.

Quantitative and Qualitative Methods

Sociology embodies several tensions, such every bit those between quantitative and qualitative methods, between positivist and interpretive orientations, and between objective and disquisitional approaches. Positivist sociology (also known as empiricist) attempts to predict outcomes based on observed variables. Interpretive sociology attempts to understand a culture or phenomenon on its own terms.

Early sociological studies considered the field to be analogous to the natural sciences, like physics or biological science. Many researchers argued that the methodology used in the natural sciences was perfectly suited for apply in the social sciences. Past employing the scientific method and emphasizing empiricism, sociology established itself as an empirical science and distinguished itself from other disciplines that tried to explicate the human condition, such every bit theology, philosophy, or metaphysics.

Early sociologists hoped to use the scientific method to explicate and predict human behavior, simply as natural scientists used it to explain and predict natural phenomena. Still today, sociologists often are interested in predicting outcomes given knowledge of the variables and relationships involved. This approach to doing science is oft termed positivism or empiricism. The positivist approach to social science seeks to explain and predict social phenomena, often employing a quantitative approach.

Understanding Culture and Behavior Instead of Predicting

Simply man society soon showed itself to exist less anticipated than the natural world. Scientists like Wilhelm Dilthey and Heinrich Rickert began to catalog ways in which the social world differs from the natural globe. For example, human society has culture, different the societies of most other animals, which are based on instincts and genetic instructions that are passed between generations biologically, not through social processes. Equally a result, some sociologists proposed a new goal for sociology: not predicting man behavior, but understanding it. Max Weber and Wilhelm Dilthey introduced the concept of verstehen, or agreement. The goal of verstehen is less to predict behavior than it is to understand behavior. Information technology aims to sympathise a culture or miracle on its own terms rather than trying to develop a theory that allows for prediction.

Sociology's inability to perfectly predict the behavior of humans has led some to label it a "soft scientific discipline. " While some might consider this label derogatory, in a sense it tin can be seen equally an admission of the remarkable complexity of humans as social animals. And, while arriving at a verstehen-similar agreement of a culture adopts a more subjective approach, information technology nonetheless employs systematic methodologies similar the scientific method. Both positivist and verstehen approaches employ a scientific method as they make observations and gather information, propose hypotheses, and test their hypotheses in the formulation of theories.

Early on Thinkers and Comte

I of the most influential early figures in sociology was Auguste Comte who proposed a positivist sociology with a scientific base.

Learning Objectives

Recollect Auguste Comte's most of import accomplishments

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• Auguste Comte was one of the founders of sociology and coined the term sociology.
• Comte believed sociology could unite all sciences and improve society.
• Comte was a positivist who argued that folklore must have a scientific base and be objective.
• Comte theorized a three-stage evolution of society.
• In sociology, scientific methods may include quantitative surveys or qualitative cultural and historical analysis.
• 1 common scientific method in sociology is the survey.

Key Terms

• Law of Three Stages: The Law of Iii Stages is an idea developed by Auguste Comte. It states that society equally a whole, and each particular science, develops through three mentally conceived stages: (ane) the theological stage, (ii) the metaphysical stage, and (3) the positive stage.
• positivism: A doctrine that states that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can only come from positive affirmation of theories through strict scientific method, refusing every form of metaphysics.
• Auguste Comte: Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte (19 January 1798 – 5 September 1857), amend known as Auguste Comte was a French philosopher. He was a founder of the bailiwick of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism.

Auguste Comte is considered one of the founders of sociology. He coined the term "sociology" in 1838 past combining the Latin term socius (companion, associate) and the Greek term logia (study of, speech). Comte hoped to unify all the sciences under sociology. He believed folklore held the potential to improve guild and direct human activeness, including the other sciences.

His ambition to unify the sciences was not unique. Other thinkers of the nineteenth century (for example, Herbert Spencer) held similar goals. This menstruum was a key turning betoken in defining disciplinary boundaries. In sociology'southward early days, disciplinary boundaries were less well divers than today. Many classical theorists of sociology (including Karl Marx, Ferdinand Toennies, Emile Durkheim, Vilfredo Pareto, and Max Weber) were trained in other academic disciplines, including history, philosophy, and economics. The diversity of their trainings is reflected in the topics they researched and in the occasional impulse to unify the sciences in a universal caption of human life.

1 of Comte's central questions was how societies evolve and change, which is known every bit social dynamics. He also studied the trends in society which do not change, which is known as social statics. Sociology today draws on these categories, though few sociologists have continued on Comte's theoretical work in this line.

While his theory is no longer employed in sociology, Comte, like other Enlightenment thinkers, believed club adult in stages. He argued for an understanding of society he labeled "The Law of Iii Stages. " The first was the theological stage where people took a religious view of club. The second was the metaphysical stage where people understood society as natural rather than supernatural. Comte'due south final stage was the scientific or positivist stage, which he believed to be the pinnacle of social development. In the scientific phase, society would exist governed past reliable knowledge and would be understood in light of the knowledge produced by science, primarily folklore. While Comte's approach is today considered a highly simplified and ill-founded style to understand social development, it still reveals important insights into his thinking almost the manner in which sociology, every bit part of the third stage, would unite the sciences and amend guild.

Auguste Comte: Auguste Comte was one of the founding figures of folklore.

Neither his vision of a unified scientific discipline nor his 3-stage model have stood the test of time. Instead, today, Comte is remembered for imparting to sociology a positivist orientation and a demand for scientific rigor. As explained in the previous section, early sociological studies drew an analogy from sociology to the natural sciences, such every bit physics or biology. Many researchers argued that sociology should prefer the scientific methodology used in the natural sciences. This scientific approach, supported by Auguste Comte, is at the heart of positivism, a methodological orientation with a goal that is rigorous, objective scientific investigation and prediction.

Since the nineteenth century, the idea of positivism has been extensively elaborated. Though positivism now has wider range of meanings than Comte intended, belief in a scientifically rigorous sociology has, in its essence, been carried on. The scientific method has been practical to sociological enquiry beyond all facets of society, including government, education, and in the economic system.

Today, sociologists following Comte'due south positivist orientation employ a variety of scientific research methods. Unlike natural scientists, sociologists rarely acquit experiments, since limited research resources and upstanding guidelines foreclose large-calibration experimental manipulation of social groups. Even so, sometimes sociologists are able to acquit field experiments. Though quantitative methods, such every bit surveys, are nearly usually associated with positivism, any method, quantitative or qualitative, may be employed scientifically.

Early Social Research and Martineau

Harriet Martineau was an English social theorist and Whig author, often cited as the showtime female person sociologist.

Learning Objectives

Call back Harriet Martineau's well-nigh important accomplishments

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• Although today Martineau is rarely mentioned, she was critical to the early growth of sociology.
• Martineau is notable for her progressive politics. She introduced feminist sociological perspectives in her writing and addressed disregarded issues such equally marriage, children, domestic life, religious life, and race relations.
• In 1852, Martineau translated the works of Auguste Comte, who had coined the term sociology. Through this process, she both clarified his work and made it accessible to English language readers.
• Martineau'southward reflections on Society in America, published in 1837, are prime examples of her approach to what would after be known as sociological methods.

Cardinal Terms

• Harriet Martineau: Harriet Martineau (12 June 1802 – 27 June 1876) was an English social theorist and Whig author, often cited equally the first female person sociologist.
• laissez-faire: a policy of governmental non-interference in economic or competitive diplomacy; pertaining to complimentary-market capitalism
• Whig: a member of a 19th-century US party opposed to the Democratic Party

Harriet Martineau

Harriet Martineau (12 June 1802 – 27 June 1876) was an English social theorist and Whig writer, often cited as the first female sociologist. Although today Martineau is rarely mentioned, she was critical to the early growth of the sociological discipline. Martineau wrote 35 books and a multitude of essays from a sociological, holistic, religious, domestic, and, perhaps most significantly, feminine perspective. She earned enough to be supported entirely by her writing, a challenging feat for a adult female in the Victorian era. Every bit a theorist, she believed that a thorough societal analysis was necessary to understand the status of women. She is notable for her progressive politics. Martineau introduced feminist sociological perspectives in her writing and addressed overlooked problems such as marriage, children, domestic life, religious life, and race relations.

Harriet Martineau, 1802-1876: Harriet Martineau introduced Comte to the English language-speaking world by translating his works.

Translating Comte

Although Auguste Comte is credited with launching the science of sociology, he might have been forgotten were information technology not for Martineau, who translated Comte'southward 1839 text, Cours de Philosophie Positive, from French into English. As she translated this slice, she also condensed Comte'south work into clearer, more attainable terms. In 1853, her translation was published in two volumes as The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte. Her translation then dramatically improved the work that Comte himself suggested his students read her translations rather than his original piece of work. Nigh significantly, her translation brought Comte'due south works to the English-speaking globe.

Martineau'due south Writing

As early on as 1831, Martineau wrote on the subject of "Political Economy" (as the field of economics was then known). Her goal was to popularize and illustrate the principles of laissez faire capitalism, though she fabricated no merits to original theorizing.

Martineau's reflective writing, published in Social club in America in 1837, are prime examples of her arroyo to what would eventually exist known as sociological methods. Her ideas in this field were set out in her 1838 book, How to Observe Morals and Manners. She believed that some very general social laws influenced the life of any gild, including the principle of progress, the emergence of science as the most advanced production of human intellectual endeavors, and the significance of population dynamics and the natural physical environs.

Spencer and Social Darwinism

Herbert Spencer created what he called "sociology," a constructed philosophy that tried to find a set of rules explaining social behavior.

Learning Objectives

Analyze the concept of "progress" in Herbert Spencer'south constructed philosophy

Fundamental Takeaways

Key Points

• According to Spencer'southward synthetic philosophy, the laws of nature applied without exception to the organic realm as much as the inorganic, and to the human listen as much every bit the rest of cosmos.
• Spencer conceptualized society as a "social organism" that evolved from a simpler state to a more complex i, co-ordinate to the universal law of development.
• Spencer is maybe best known for coining the term "survival of the fittest," later commonly termed "social Darwinism."

Central Terms

• survival of the fittest: Natural selection.
• Social Darwinism: a theory that the laws of evolution by natural selection too apply to social structures.
• positivism: A doctrine that states that the only authentic noesis is scientific cognition, and that such knowledge tin can only come from positive affidavit of theories through strict scientific method, refusing every form of metaphysics.

Though Auguste Comte coined the term " sociology," the commencement book with the term sociology in its championship was written in the mid-19^th century past the English philosopher Herbert Spencer. Following Comte, Spencer created a constructed philosophy that attempted to find a ready of rules to explain everything in the universe, including social behavior.

Spencer'southward Synthetic Philosophy

Like Comte, Spencer saw in sociology the potential to unify the sciences, or to develop what he called a "synthetic philosophy. " He believed that the natural laws discovered by natural scientists were not limited to natural phenomena; these laws revealed an underlying order to the universe that could explain natural and social phenomena alike. According to Spencer's synthetic philosophy, the laws of nature applied to the organic realm equally much equally to the inorganic, and to the human mind as much as to the residual of cosmos. Even in his writings on ethics, he held that it was possible to discover laws of morality that had the aforementioned potency equally laws of nature. This assumption led Spencer, like Comte, to adopt positivism as an approach to sociological investigation; the scientific method was best suited to uncover the laws he believed explained social life.

Spencer and Progress

Merely Spencer went across Comte, claiming that non only the scientific method, merely scientific knowledge itself was universal. He believed that all natural laws could exist reduced to one key law, the constabulary of evolution. Spencer posited that all structures in the universe developed from a elementary, undifferentiated homogeneity to a complex, differentiated heterogeneity, while beingness accompanied by a procedure of greater integration of the differentiated parts. This evolutionary process could be found at work, Spencer believed, throughout the cosmos. It was a universal police, applying to the stars and the galaxies every bit much every bit to biological organisms, and to human social organization as much equally to the human mind. Thus, Spencer's constructed philosophy aimed to show that natural laws led inexorably to progress. He claimed all things—the physical world, the biological realm, and human society—underwent progressive development.

In a sense, Spencer's belief in progressive development echoed Comte's own theory of the three-stage development of society. Still, writing after of import developments in the field of biology, Spencer rejected the ideological assumptions of Comte's three-stage model and attempted to reformulate the theory of social progress in terms of evolutionary biology. Following this evolutionary logic, Spencer conceptualized society as a "social organism" that evolved from a simpler state to a more complex ane, co-ordinate to the universal law of evolution. This social evolution, he argued, exemplifed the universal evolutionary process from elementary, undifferentiated homogeneity to complex, differentiated heterogeneity.

As he elaborated the theory, he proposed two types of society: militant and industrial. Militant club, structured around relationships of hierarchy and obedience, was simple and undifferentiated. Industrial guild, based on voluntary beliefs and contractually assumed social obligations, was complex and differentiated. Spencer questioned whether the development of society would upshot in peaceful anarchism (as he had get-go believed) or whether it pointed to a connected role for the state, albeit 1 reduced to minimal functions—the enforcement of contracts and external defence. Spenser believed, as society evolved, the hierarchical and authoritarian institutions of militant society would become obsolete.

Social Darwinism

Spencer is perhaps best known for coining the term "survival of the fittest," later commonly termed "social Darwinism." But, popular belief to the contrary, Spencer did not merely appropriate and generalize Darwin's piece of work on natural choice; Spencer simply grudgingly incorporated Darwin'southward theory of natural option into his preexisting synthetic philosophical organisation. Spencer's evolutionary ideas were based more directly on the evolutionary theory of Lamarck, who posited that organs are developed or macerated by apply or decay and that the resulting changes may be transmitted to future generations. Spencer believed that this evolutionary machinery was necessary to explain 'higher' evolution, especially the social development of humanity. Moreover, in contrast to Darwin, Spencer held that evolution had a direction and an endpoint—the attainment of a final state of equilibrium. Evolution meant progress, improvement, and somewhen perfection of the social organism.

Criticism

Though Spencer is rightly credited with making a significant contribution to early on sociology, his attempt to introduce evolutionary ideas into the realm of social science was ultimately unsuccessful. It was considered by many to be actively dangerous. Critics of Spencer's positivist synthetic philosophy argued that the social sciences were substantially dissimilar from the natural sciences and that the methods of the natural sciences—the search for universal laws was inappropriate for the study of human order.

Herbert Spencer: Herbert Spencer built on Darwin'due south framework of development, extrapolating information technology to the spheres of ethics and order. This is why Spencer'southward theories are often chosen "social Darwinism."

Class Conflict and Marx

Marx focuses on explaining class conflict due to the ways of product, which he posited was the driving force backside social evolution.

Learning Objectives

Chronicle Marx's concept of course to his view of historical change

Cardinal Takeaways

Key Points

• Marx sees society evolving through stages. He focuses on dialectical class conflict to control the means of production as the driving force backside social evolution.
• According to Marx, society evolves through different modes of production in which the upper class controls the means of production and the lower class is forced to provide labor.
• In Marx's dialectic, the class disharmonize in each stage necessarily leads to the development of the next phase (for instance, feudalism leads to capitalism ).
• Marx was specially critical of capitalism and foresaw a communist revolution.
• Marx predicted that class disharmonize between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat would pb to capitalism'south downfall.
• According to Marx, under capitalism, workers (the proletariat) must alienate their labor.
• The bourgeoisie try to preserve commercialism by promoting ideologies and false consciousness that keep workers from revolting.
• Marx'due south agreement of history is called historical materialism because it focuses on history and fabric (versus ideas).

Fundamental Terms

• bourgeoisie: The backer class.
• proletariat: the working grade or lower course
• false consciousness: A faulty understanding of the truthful grapheme of social processes due to credo.
• dialectical: Of, relating to, or of the nature of logical argumentation.

Marx, one of the principle architects of modern social science, believed that history was made of upward stages driven by class conflict. Famously, Marx wrote in The Communist Manifesto, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. " Class struggle pushed social club from one stage to the next, in a dialectical process. In each phase, an ownership form controls the means of product while a lower class provides labor for production. The ii classes come into conflict and that conflict leads to social change. For example, in the feudal stage, feudal lords owned the land used to produce agricultural goods, while serfs provided the labor to found, enhance, and harvest crops. When the serfs rose upwards and overthrew the feudal lords, the feudal phase ended and ushered in a new stage: capitalism.

Ways of Product, Relations of Production

According to Marx, the way social club is organized depends on the current ways of production and who owns them. The means of production include things that are necessary to produce material goods, such as land and natural resources. They also include engineering science, such every bit tools or machines, that people use to produce things. The means of product in whatsoever given society may change equally technology advances. In feudal gild, ways of production might have included elementary tools similar a shovel and hoe. Today, the means of production include avant-garde technology, such as microchips and robots.

At unlike stages in history, dissimilar groups have controlled the ways of production. In feudal times, feudal lords owned the state and tools used for production. Today, large corporations ain many of the means of product. Different stages have dissimilar relations of production, or different forms of social relationships that people must enter into as they acquire and use the means of production. Throughout history, the relations of production have taken a variety of forms—slavery, feudalism, commercialism—in which employees enter into a contract with an employer to provide labor in substitution for a wage.

Modes of Product

Together, the means of production and the relations of production etch a item catamenia'due south style of production. Marx distinguished dissimilar historical eras in terms of their different modes of production. He believed that the manner of production was the defining element of whatever menstruation in history, and he called this economic structure the base of that society. By dissimilarity, he believed that the ideas and civilisation of a given stage were derived from the mode of product. He referred to ideas and culture equally the "superstructure," which grew up from the more fundamental economic "base of operations. " Considering of his focus on the economical base of operations over civilisation and ideas, Marx is ofttimes referred to as an economic determinist.

In Marx'due south dialectic, the class conflict in each stage necessarily leads to the evolution of the next stage.

Marx was less interested in explaining the stable system of whatever given historical phase than in explaining how lodge changed from one stage to the side by side. Marx believed that the class conflict present in any stage would necessarily atomic number 82 to class struggle and, eventually, to the end of that stage and the beginning of the next. Feudalism ended with class struggle between serfs and lords, and gave ascension to a new stage, capitalism.

Instabilities in Commercialism

Marx's piece of work focused largely on explaining the inherent instabilities present in capitalism and predicting its eventual fall and transition to socialism. Marx argued that commercialism was unstable and prone to periodic crises. Marx believed that economic growth would be punctuated past increasingly severe crises as commercialism went through cycles of growth, collapse, and more growth. Moreover, he believed that in the long-term this procedure would necessarily enrich and empower the capitalist class, while at the same time it would impoverish the poorer laboring class, which he referred to as the proletariat.

Somewhen, the proletariat would become class conscious—aware that their seemingly individual problems were created past an economic system that disadvantaged all those who did not own the means of production. One time the proletariat developed a class consciousness, Marx believed, they would ascent up and seize the means of production, overthrowing the capitalist mode of production, and bringing about a socialist order. Marx believed that the socialist organization established after the proletariat revolution would encourage social relations that would benefit everyone every bit, abolish the exploitative backer, ending their exclusive buying of the means of production, and introduce a system of production less vulnerable to cyclical crises. For Marx, this eventual uprising was inevitable, given the inherent structural contradictions in capitalism and the inevitability of class conflict.

Marx's Communist Manifesto Illustrated past Cartoons: The Communist Manifesto gives an overview of Marx'south theory of class conflict and embraces his position that sociologists should too be publicly agile social critics. In this video, the test of the manifesto is illustrated with cartoon clips that demonstrate the deep and enduring legacy of Marx'due south philosophy for modernistic culture.

Durkheim and Social Integration

Emile Durkheim studied how societies maintained social integration after traditional bonds were replaced past modern economic relations.

Learning Objectives

Contrast the dissimilar modes of social integration co-ordinate to Durkheim

Primal Takeaways

Key Points

• Durkheim believed that society exerted a powerful forcefulness on individuals. According to Durkheim, people'south norms, beliefs, and values make up a collective consciousness, or a shared manner of understanding and behaving in the world.
• The collective consciousness binds individuals together and creates social integration.
• Durkheim saw increasing population density as a key factor in the advent of modernity. As the number of people in a given area increment, and so does the number of interactions, and the society becomes more circuitous.
• As people engage in more economic activeness with neighbors or distant traders, they begin to loosen the traditional bonds of family unit, religion, and moral solidarity that had previously ensured social integration. Durkheim worried that modernity might herald the disintegration of society.
• Simpler societies are based on mechanical solidarity, in which self-sufficient people are connected to others by shut personal ties and traditions. Modern societies are based on organic solidarity, in which people are connected by their reliance on others in the partition of labor.
• Although modernistic society may undermine the traditional bonds of mechanical solidarity, it replaces them with the bonds of organic solidarity.
• In the Elementary Forms of Religious Life, Durkheim presented a theory of the function of religion in ancient and modern societies and described the phenomenon of collective effervescence and collective consciousness.
• Durkheim has been called a structural functionalist because his theories focus on the function certain institutions (e.1000., religion) play in maintaining social solidarity or social structure.

Primal Terms

• organic solidarity: Information technology is social cohesion based upon the dependence individuals have on each other in more advanced societies.
• mechanical solidarity: It unremarkably operates in "traditional" and small scale societies. In simpler societies (due east.g., tribal), solidarity is usually based on kinship ties of familial networks.

Along with Marx and Weber, French sociologist Emile Durkheim is considered one of the founders of folklore. I of Durkheim'southward primary goals was to analyze how how modern societies could maintain social integration after the traditional bonds of family and church were replaced past mod economic relations.

Durkheim believed that club exerted a powerful strength on individuals. People's norms, beliefs, and values brand up a collective consciousness, or a shared way of understanding and behaving in the globe. The collective consciousness binds individuals together and creates social integration. For Durkheim, the collective consciousness was crucial in explaining the existence of society: it produces society and holds it together. At the aforementioned fourth dimension, the collective consciousness is produced by individuals through their deportment and interactions. Club is a social product created past the actions of individuals that then exerts a coercive social force dorsum on those individuals. Through their collective consciousness, Durkheim argued, human beings go aware of one another as social beings, not but animals.

Formation of Collective Consciousness

According to Durkheim, the collective consciousness is formed through social interactions. In particular, Durkheim thought of the shut-knit interactions between families and minor communities, groups of people who share a common religion, who may consume together, work together, and spend leisure time together. Still all around him, Durkheim observed evidence of rapid social change and the withering away of these groups. He saw increasing population density and population growth as central factors in the development of society and the advent of modernity. Equally the number of people in a given area increase, he posited, so does the number of interactions, and the society becomes more complex. Population growth creates competition and incentives to trade and farther the partition of labor. Just equally people engage in more economic activity with neighbors or afar traders, they begin to loosen the traditional bonds of family, religion, and moral solidarity that had previously ensured social integration. Durkheim worried that modernity might herald the disintegration of society.

Durkheim and Modernity

Post-obit a socioevolutionary approach reminiscent of Comte, Durkheim described the development of social club from mechanical solidarity to organic solidarity. Simpler societies, he argued, are based on mechanical solidarity, in which cocky-sufficient people are continued to others by close personal ties and traditions (e.chiliad., family and religion). Also, in such societies, people have far fewer options in life. Modern societies, on the other hand, are based on organic solidarity, in which people are connected past their reliance on others in the sectionalisation of labor. Modernization, Durkheim argued, is based get-go on population growth and increasing population density, second on increasing "moral density" (that is, the development of more than circuitous social interactions), and third, on the increasing specialization in work (i.due east., the sectionalisation of labor). Considering modern gild is circuitous, and because the work that individuals do is so specialized, individuals tin can no longer be self-sufficient and must rely on others to survive. Thus, although mod society may undermine the traditional bonds of mechanical solidarity, it replaces them with the bonds of organic solidarity.

Organic versus Mechanical Solidarity

Further, Durkheim argued, the organic solidarity of modern societies might take advantages over traditional mechanical solidarity. In traditional societies, people are cocky-sufficient, and therefore society has little demand for cooperation and interdependence. Institutions that require cooperation and agreement must often resort to force and repression to keep society together. Traditional mechanical solidarity may tend, therefore, to be disciplinarian and coercive. In mod societies, nether organic solidarity, people are necessarily much more interdependent. Specialization and the partition of labor require cooperation. Thus, solidarity and social integration are necessary for survival and practice not crave the same sort of coercion as nether mechanical solidarity.

In organic solidarity, the individual is considered vitally important, even sacred. In organic solidarity, the individual, rather than the collective, becomes the focus of rights and responsibilities, the eye of public and private rituals holding the lodge together—a function once performed by the religion. To stress the importance of this concept, Durkheim talked of the " cult of the individual. " Nevertheless, he made articulate that the cult of the individual is itself a social fact, socially produced; reverence for the individual is not an inherent human trait, but a social fact that arises in certain societies at sure times.

Sociological Theory: Emile Durkhiem and Social Solidarity: Professor Dan Krier, of Iowa Country Academy, explains Durkheim'southward theories of social solidarity and modernity.

Protestant Work Ethic and Weber

Weber departed from positivist sociology, instead emphasizing Verstehen, or understanding, equally the goal of folklore.

Learning Objectives

Summarize Weber's view on the relationship between Protestantism and capitalism

Key Takeaways

Fundamental Points

• Max Weber was a German sociologist and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social enquiry, and the discipline of sociology itself.
• In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Commercialism, his near enduring text, Weber proposed that ascetic Protestantism was one of the major "elective affinities " associated with the rise of commercialism, hierarchy, and the rational-legal nation- state in the Western globe.
• Weber argued that Protestantism, and especially the ascetic Protestant or Calvinist denominations, had redefined the connection between piece of work and piety.
• Weber tried to explicate social action in modern society by focusing on rationalization and secularization.
• Weber also developed a theory of political authority and the modern land, defining iii types of authority: traditional, charismatic, and rational-legal.

Cardinal Terms

• predestination: The doctrine that everything has been foreordained past a God, peculiarly that certain people take been elected for salvation, and sometimes also that others are destined for reprobation.
• Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Commercialism: A book written past Max Weber, arguing that the rise in ascetic Protestantism, particularly denominations similar Calvinism, was associated with the rise of modern capitalism in the West.
• secularization: The transformation of a lodge from shut identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious (or "irreligious") values and secular institutions.
• rationalization: the process, or result of rationalizing

Max Weber

Max Weber was a German sociologist and political economist who greatly influenced social theory, social enquiry, and the discipline of folklore itself. In 1919, he established a sociology department at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Along with Marx and Durkheim, Weber is considered one of the iii principal forefathers of modernistic social science. That being said, Weber developed a unique methodological position that set him autonomously from these other sociologists. Equally opposed to positivists like Comte and Durkheim, Weber was a primal proponent of methodological antipositivism. He presented sociology every bit a non-empiricist field whose goal was not to get together data and predict outcomes, but instead to understand the meanings and purposes that individuals attach to their ain actions.

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, his most famous text, Weber proposed that ascetic Protestantism was 1 of the major "elective affinities" associated with the ascent of capitalism, bureaucracy, and the rational-legal nation-state in the Western globe. Although some consider Weber's argument to be a study of faith, information technology tin can as well be interpreted as an introduction to his afterward works, especially his studies of the interaction betwixt diverse religious ideas and economic behavior. In contrast to Marx's "historical materialism," Weber emphasized how the cultural influences embedded in religion could exist a ways for understanding the genesis of capitalism. Weber viewed organized religion as one of the cadre forces in order.

Weber proposed that ascetic Protestantism had an constituent affinity with capitalism, hierarchy, and the rational-legal nation-state in the Western world. Past elective affinity, Weber meant something less direct than causality, just something more directly than correlation. In other words, although he did not fence that faith caused economic change, Weber did find that ascetic Protestantism and modern capitalism often appeared alongside one another in societies. Additionally, Weber observed that both ascetic Protestantism and capitalism encouraged cultural practices that reinforced one another. He never claimed that religion was the consummate, elementary, isolated cause of the rise of capitalism in the Due west. Instead, he viewed it was office of a cultural complex that included the post-obit:

• rationalism of scientific pursuit
• the merging of observation with mathematics
• an increasingly scientific method of scholarship and jurisprudence
• the rational systemization of regime administration and economic enterprise
• increasing bureaucratization

In the end, the study of the sociology of religion, according to Weber, focused on i distinguishing fact about Western culture, the refuse of beliefs in magic. He referred to this phenomena equally the "disenchantment of the world. "

Weber's Evidence and Argument

As evidence for his study, Weber noted that ascetic Protestantism and advanced capitalism tended to coincide with one another. Weber observed that, afterwards the Reformation, Protestant countries such as the Netherlands, England, Scotland, and Deutschland gained economic prominence over Cosmic countries such equally French republic, Spain, and Italy. Furthermore, in societies with different religions, the about successful business leaders tended to be Protestant.

John Calvin, the showtime capitalist?: Weber saw an elective affinity between commercialism and Protestantism, especially Calvinism.

To explain these observations, Weber argued that Protestantism, and especially the ascetic Protestant or Calvinist denominations, had redefined the connection between work and piety. Historically, Christian religious devotion had been accompanied by a rejection of mundane diplomacy, including economic pursuits. In contrast, Weber showed that certain types of Protestantism, notably Calvinism, supported worldly activities and the rational pursuit of economical gain. Because of the particularly Calvinist view of the globe, these activities became endowed with moral and spiritual significance. In these religions, believers expressed their piety towards God through hard work and achievement in a secular vocation, or calling. Because of this religious orientation, human effort was shifted abroad from the contemplation of the divine and towards rational efforts aimed at achieving economic gain. Furthermore, the Protestant ethic, while promoting the pursuit of economic gain, eschewed hedonistic pleasure. Thus, believers were encouraged to make coin, merely non to spend it. This motivated believers to work hard, to be successful in business, and to reinvest their profits rather than spend them on frivolous pleasures. The Calvinist notion of predestination also meant that material wealth could be taken as a sign of salvation in the afterlife. Predestination is the belief that God has chosen who will be saved and who volition not.

Protestant believers thus reconciled, fifty-fifty encouraged, the pursuit of profit with organized religion. Instead of being viewed as morally suspect, greedy, or ambitious, financially successful believers were viewed as being motivated past a highly moral and respectable philosophy, the "spirit of commercialism. " Eventually, the rational roots of this doctrine outgrew their religious origins and became autonomous cultural traits of capitalist club. Thus, Weber explained the rise of commercialism by looking at systems of civilization and ideas. This theory is oftentimes viewed as a reversal of Marx's thesis that the economic "base of operations" of gild determines all other aspects of it.

The Development of Sociology in the U.S.

Lester Ward, the first president of the American Sociological Clan, is generally thought of every bit the founder of American sociological study.

Learning Objectives

Hash out Lester Ward'south views on sociology's role in society

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• Ward was a positivist who saw folklore every bit a scientific tool to meliorate life.
• He criticized laissez-faire theories and Spencer's survival of the fittest theory and developed his ain theory of social liberalism.
• Ward believed that in large, complex, and apace growing societies, human freedom could only be achieved with the assist of a stiff, democratic authorities interim in the interest of the individual.
• Ward had a stiff influence on a ascent generation of progressive political leaders, including on the administrations of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt and on the modern Autonomous Party.

Key Terms

• American Sociological Association: The American Sociological Association (ASA), founded in 1905 every bit the American Sociological Order, is a non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing the subject and profession of sociology.
• laissez-faire: a policy of governmental not-interference in economic or competitive affairs; pertaining to free-market capitalism
• Social liberalism: The conventionalities that the legitimate function of the state includes addressing economic and social problems, such as unemployment, health intendance, and education while simultaneously expanding ceremonious rights; this belief supports capitalism but rejects unchecked laissez-faire economics.

Lester Ward is generally thought of as the founder of American sociological written report. He served as the first president of the American Sociological Lodge, which was founded in 1905 (and which after inverse its name to its current class, the American Sociological Clan ), and was appointed Chair of Sociology at Brown University in 1906.

Works and ideas

Similar Comte and the positivist founders of folklore, Ward embraced the scientific ethos. In 1883, Ward published his 2-volume,1,200 page Dynamic Sociology, Or Applied Social Science as Based Upon Statistical Sociology and the Less Complex Sciences, with which he hoped to establish the central importance of experimentation and the scientific method to the field of folklore.

But for Ward, science was not objective and removed, simply human-centered and results-oriented. As he put information technology in the preface to Dynamic Sociology:

"The existent object of science is to do good man. A science which fails to practise this, yet agreeable its study, is lifeless. Folklore, which of all sciences should do good human being virtually, is in danger of falling into the course of polite amusements, or dead sciences. It is the object of this work to bespeak out a method past which the breath of life may exist breathed into its nostrils. "

Thus, Ward embodied what would get a distinctive feature of American sociology. Though devoted to developing folklore as a rigorous science, he likewise believed sociology had unique potential every bit a tool to better social club. He believed that the scientific methodology of sociology should be deployed in the interest of resolving practical, real-world issues, such every bit poverty, which he theorized could be minimized or eliminated past systematic intervention in order.

Criticism of laissez-faire

Ward is most often remembered for his criticism of the laissez-faire theories avant-garde past Herbert Spencer and popular among his contemporaries. Spencer had argued that lodge would naturally evolve and progress while assuasive the survival of the fittest and weeding out the socially unfit. Thus, social ills such as poverty would be naturally alleviated as the unfit poor were selected against; no intervention was necessary. Though originated by Spencer, these ideas were advanced in the United States by William Graham Sumner, an economist and sociologist at Yale. Ward disagreed with Spencer and Sumner and, in dissimilarity to their laissez-faire approach, promoted active intervention.

Every bit a political approach, Ward's system became known as "social liberalism," as distinguished from the classical liberalism of the 18th and 19th centuries. While classical liberalism (featuring such thinkers equally Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill) had sought prosperity and progress through laissez-faire policies, Ward's "American social liberalism" sought to heighten social progress through direct government intervention. Ward believed that in large, complex, and quickly growing societies, homo freedom could only exist achieved with the assistance of a strong autonomous authorities acting in the interest of the individual. The characteristic element of Ward'south thinking was his religion that authorities, interim on the empirical and scientifically based findings of the science of sociology, could be harnessed to create a near Utopian social order.

Ward had a potent influence on a ascension generation of progressive political leaders, including on the administrations of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt and on the modern Democratic Party. He has, in fact, been chosen "the male parent of the modern welfare state. " The liberalism of the Democrats today is not that of Smith and Factory, which stressed not-interference from the government in economic problems, simply of Ward, which stressed the unique position of authorities to result positive change. While Roosevelt's experiments in social engineering were popular and constructive, the total effect of the forces Ward set up in motion came to bear half a century after his death, in the Great Club programs of President Lyndon B. Johnson and the Vietnam war.

Influence on academic folklore

Despite Ward'due south impressive political legacy, he has been largely written out of the history of sociology. The matter that fabricated Ward almost bonny in the 19th century, his criticism of laissez faire, made him seem dangerously radical to the ever-cautious bookish community in early 20th century America. This perception was strengthened by the growing socialist movement in the U.s., led past the Marxist Russian Revolution and the ascent of Nazism in Europe. Ward was basically replaced by Durkheim in the history books, which was easily accomplished because Durkheim's views were similar to Ward'south but without the relentless criticism of lassiez faire and without Ward'due south calls for a strong, fundamental government and "social engineering". In 1937, Talcott Parsons, the Harvard sociologist and functionalist who almost single-handedly set American sociology's bookish curriculum in the mid-20th century, wrote that "Spencer is dead," thereby dismissing not merely Spencer but also Spencer's nearly powerful critic.

Lester Ward: Lester Ward, the first president of the American Sociological Association, is generally thought of as the founder of American sociological written report.

Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-sociology/chapter/the-history-of-sociology/

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