Lecture 3

FOUNDERS OF
SOCIOLOGY
OUTLINE:

Auguste Comte Positivism Social Statics and

Social Dynamics
Karl Marx Class conflict / Dialectical
materialism / Superstructures
Emile Durkheim Social solidarity / Suicide /
Anomie
Max Weber Verstehen / social action
Herbert Spencer organic analogy / Social
Darwinism American Sociology
Eugene DuBois - double consciousness
Jane Addams sympathetic knowledge
Harriet Martineau - impact of inequality
Ida Wells Barnett resist oppression

Auguste Comte:
Lived (1798-1857) French
philosopher
The Founder of Sociology

The Father of

Main concern:
Solution:

Positivism

Believed that the major

goal of sociology was
to understand society
as it actually
operates.
How to preserve
social order
Scientific approach - social engineering to
cure societys ills

Recommended the study of social statics and social dynamics

2

 Social statics:
those forces/aspects of social
life that holds societies
together such that they
endure overtime
have to do with order and
stability

Social dynamics:

those forces /aspects of

social life that cause
societies to change
have to do with social
change and institutional

Karl Marx
1818-1883 German
philosopher Writer and
social critic
Personally involved in
social change
Believed social scientists
should help to improve
society

Karl Marx
Science as a tool for transforming society

Class conflict:

arises between those who owns the means of

production and those who do not
(ex. bourgeoisie and proletariat)

class antagonism drives

social change

Dialectical materialism:

development depends on the

clash of contradictions and on the creation of new, more advanced
structures out of these clashes (Thesis Vs. Anti-Thesis)

Superstructure of society:

political ideologies,
religion, family, organization, law, education, and government
constitute a level of social life that is shaped primarily by the

economic institution

Emile
Durkheim

1858-1918
Influential French sociologist,
educator, and public official

Major focus: How society holds

together and endure - SOLIDARITY

Mechanical solidarity
Traditional

societies are
united by social similarities

Organic solidarity
Modern

societies are united

by interdependence

Anomie
Rapid

social change leads

to loss of social norms and
produces many social

Emile
Durkheim
Social
fact some aspect of
reality that can not be reduced
to biological, psychological,
chemical or physical attributes
or properties and which
controls human behavior
Two major functions of society
Integration is the degree to which
collective sentiments (knowledge,
beliefs, values) are shared by
members is society
Regulation is the degree of external
constraint on people, i.e. the
common norms people live under

Durkheim and
Suicide
In 1897 published Suicide.

Suicide the severing of

relationships
Stressed that high suicide rates
reflect weaknesses in the
relationships among members
of a society, not in the character
or personality of the individual.
Later would call this social
integration
Identified 4 types of social ties

Suicide (1897)

Durkheim discovered that suicide rates in

all the countries tended to be higher:

1. Among widowed, single, and divorced

people than among married people
2.

Among people without children than

among parents

3. Among Protestants than among Catholics

What make these groups of people
different?

4 Types of Social Ties

Egoistic the ties attaching the individual to

others in the society is weak. When individuals are

detached from others, they encounter less
resistance to suicide.

Altruistic

the ties attaching the individual to

the group are such that he or she has no life beyond
the group.

Anomic

the ties attaching the individual to the

group are disrupted due to dramatic changes in
social circumstances (ex. econ crisis)

Fatalistic

the ties involve discipline so

oppressive it offers no chance of release
individuals see their futures as permanently blocked

Suicide
Durkheim argued that when group, family, or
communities ties are weak, people feel
disconnected and alone
Catholic Church emphasizes salvation through
community and binds members to the church
through elaborate doctrine and ritual
Protestantism emphasizes individual salvation
and responsibility (this individualism
explained the differences in suicide rate)
Durkheim also felt that suicide can become
likely when the ties to ones community is too
strong

Durkheims four types of

suicide

 Lived 1864-1920
German scholar who
studied wide variety of
topics
studied the impact of
industrialization on
peoples lives

Max Weber

Support for value free

studies and objective
research

Verstehen:

a method
of studying social life in
which sociologists
attempt mentally to place
themselves in the shoes
of other people

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SOCIAL ACTION

action people take in response to

others

o Traditional

/ Affectional

Traditional societies emphasize

emotion and personal ties

o Value-rational

/
Instrumental-rational

Modern societies emphasize

calculation, efficiency, self control
Personal ties decline and people

Marx, Durkheim, and Weber

Compared
How is life treating you?
Marxs alienated person
I really dont care (because Im detached from
my work and from other people).

Durkheims anomic person

Im distressed by it (because there are no
common rules or norms to guide me).

Webers rational person

Let me think about it, and Ill get back to you
later (because I need to make some
calculations
before I know how to answer).
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Herbert Spencer

(1820 1903)

English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and

prominent classical liberal political theorist
developed an all-embracing conception of
evolution as the progressive development of
the physical world, biological organisms, the
human mind, and human culture and societies.

Social Darwinism
An evolutionary model of society,
known for social Darwinism but thought
that attempts at social reform were wrong.
-Organic analogy: society is similar to
the living body
- Social Darwinism: societal processes
should not be interfered with (Conflict is

American Sociology
sociology and the modern university system rose
together.
Early American sociology was optimistic, forwardlooking, and rooted in a belief in progress, the value

of individual freedom and welfare

University of Chicago - the first department of sociology
in the United States was established in 1892.
Noted for

study of urban problems and cities

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 W. E. B. Du Bois
(18681963)
Combined emphasis on
analysis of everyday lived
experience with commitment
to investigating power and
inequality based on race

double

consciousness

the
sense of always looking at
ones self through the eyes of
others
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SYMPATHETIJANE
ADDAMS
C
(1860 - 1935 )
KNOWLEDG
-first hand knowledge gained by living and
E working among those being studied
- knowing one another better reinforces the
common connection of people such that the
potential for
caring and empathetic moral
actions increase
-Co-founded one of the first settlement Hull houses in the US
-Voted 2nd with most value to the community
-Publicly opposed Government during WWI branded as
traitor and
unpatriotic expelled from daughters of revolution

Other Important
Founders

Harriet Martineau:
(1802-1876)
Feminist and Methodologist
Studied social life in Britain and US,
translated Comte.
Studied the

impact of inequality

Society in America (1837)

first empirical study in sociology
How to Observe Manners and Morals
first book on sociological method

22

Harriet Martineau

(1802-

1876)

Sociologys 3 principles:
Impartiality
suspending judgment and
preconceptions

Critique
pointing out problems (ex. To
expose relations of domination)

Sympathy
striving to understand the
viewpoints of others

 Ida Wells-Barnett (1862

1931)

An early feminist
Argued that societies can be
judged on whether the
principles they claim to
believe in match their actions
Used her analysis of society
to resist oppression
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Development of Sociology in the Ph

Sociology viewed as a Social Philosophy
started at the University of Santo Tomas initiated it with Criminology,
University of the Philippines - Manila
Siliman University - Dumaguete. This approach lasted until the 1950's.
As a problem or welfare oriented approach of the study was introduced
by Serafin N. Macaraig - the first Filipino to acquire a Ph.D in Sociology
and has written the book, An Introduction to Sociology, in 1938 By 1950's, more emphasis on its scientific orientation.
made the people aware of the importance of sociological facts in the
decision-making process.
at recent, more studies had been undergone to give a future solution to
the recent wars in the Mindanao.

Development of Sociology in the Phili

RANDOLF DAVID
One of the prominent Filipino sociology, succinctly
depicts in his paper Philippine Underdevelopment and
Dependency Theory the social realities that Filipino
sociologist have to grapple with.