Founders of sociology

Founders of sociology 

Human beings have long been curious about the sources of their own behaviour, but for thousands of years attempts to understand people relied on ways of thinking passed down from generation to generation. Before the rise of modern sciences, 'folkways' - traditional knowledge and practice passed down though generation - held sway in most communities, and these persisted well into the twentieth century. One example people's understanding of their health or illness. Older people, with a good knowledge of a community's folkways, provided advice on how to prevent illness and cure disease. Reflecting on his american childhood in lawrence county, Kentucky, cratis Williams gives us a flavour of the Appalachian culture of the time (williams 2003: 397-8)

A plaque of lead suspended on a string around a child's neck warded off colds and kept witches away while the child was sleeping. Children plagued by nightmares could wear these lead charms to assure themselves of sweet sleep and pleasant dreams, for nightmares were caused by witches and evil creatures that could not operate in the presence of lead. Adults given to snoring and nightmares sought relief by smelling a dirty sock as they went to sleep.

In today's modern societies, very few people advocate such measures or hold similar beliefs. Instead, a more scientific approach to health and illness means that children are vaccinated against previously common disease and taught that nightmares are normal and generally harmless. Pharmacies do not routinely sell smelly socks to cure snoring either! The origins of systematic studies of social life lie in series of sweeping changes ushered in by the French Revolution of 1789 and the mid-eighteenth-century industrial revolution in Europe. These events shattered older traditional ways of life , and the founders of sociology looked to understand how such radical changes had come about . But , in doing so, they also developed more systematic, scientific ways of looking at the social and natural words , which challenged conventional religious beliefs.

Auguste Comte

No single individual can found a whole field of study, and there were many contributors to early sociological thinking. However, particular prominence is usually given to Auguste Comte (1798-1857), who invented the world 'sociology' around 1840. Comte had originally used to term 'social physics' to describe the nee Field, but some of his intellectual rivals at the time were also using that. To distinguish his own approach from theirs he coined the term 'sociology'.

Comte's thinking reflected the turbulent events of his age. Comte looked to create a science of society that could discover the 'laws' of the social world, just as natural science had discovered laws of the natural world. Although he recognized that each scientific discipline has its own subject matter, he thought that a similar logic and scientific method could be applied to them all. Finding laws that govern human societies could help us to shape our destiny and improve the welfare of all humanity.

Comte wanted sociology to become a 'positive science' that would use the same rigorous methods as astronomers, physicists and chemists do. Positivism is a doctrine which says that science should be concerned only with observable entities that are known directly to experience. On the basis of careful observation, laws can be inferred that explain the relationship between observed phenomena. By under - standings the casual relationship between events, scientists can then predict how future events will occur. A positivist approach in sociology aims to produce knowledge about society based on evidence drawn from observation, comparison and experimentation.

Comte argued that efforts to understand the world have passed through three stages: the sociological, metaphysical and positive stages. In the theological stage, thinking was guided by religious ideas and the belief that society was an expression of God's will. In the metaphysical stage, society came to be seen in natural, not supernatural, terms. The positive stage, ushered in by the discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo and Newton, encouraged the application of scientific methods to study society. Comte regarded sociology as the last science to develop, but it was also the most significant and complex.

In the latter part of his career, Comte was keenly aware of the state of the society in which he lived and was concerned with the inequalities produced by industrialization and the threat they posed tp social cohesion. The long-term solution, in this view, was the production of the moral consensus through a new 'religion of humanity' to hold society together despite the new patterns of inequality. Although comte's vision was never realized, his contribution in founding a science of society was important to the later professionalization of sociology as an academic discipline.

Emile Durkheim

The ideas of another french sociologist, Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), had a more lasting impact on  sociology than those of Comte. Durkheim saw sociology as a new science that turned traditional philosophical questions into sociological ones which demanded real-world research studies. He argued that we must study social life with the same objectivity as scientists study the natural world. Which he summed up in his famous injunction to 'study social facts as things!' by this, he meant that social institutions have a brand, objective reality that enables them to be analysed as rigorously as object in the natural world.

But what is a social fact ? Durkheim explains that social fact are all those institutions and rules of action which constrain or channel human behaviour. For the individual, social facts can feel  rather like an external pressure, though most of the time they are simply taken for granted as natural or normal parts of life. For instance , they monetary system is a social fact we rarely think about. We are paid in money, we borrow money from banks to buy a car or a house, and if we have not been good at managing money we will be considered a high risk and may not be allowed to borrow. But the monetary system was already in place before we were born and, as we are forced to use it if we want to take part in our society, we are subject to its rules. In that sense, the system constraints or shapes our actions. This is typical of all social facts; they exist independently of the individual and shape their actions.

In Durkheim's analysis of suicide rates, he used the concept to social facts to explain why some countries have higher suicide rates than others. Suicide seems to be a purely individual act, the outcome of extreme unhappiness or perhaps deep depression. Yet Durkheim showed that social facts such as religion, marriage and divorce, and social class all exert an influence on suicide rates. And, as there are regular patterns across different countries, these patterns must be explained in a sociological not a phycological way.

Durkheim was preoccupied with the changes transforming society in his own lifetime and was particularly interested in social and moral solidarity - what it is that binds society together. Solidarity is maintained when individuals are integrated into social groups and regulated by a set of shared values and customer. In the division of labour in society, Durkheim (1984 - [1893]) argued that the advent of the industrial age also led to a new type of solidarity.

According to Durkheim, older cultures with a low division of labour (specialized roles such as work occupations) are characterized by mechanical solidarity. Most people are involved in similar occupation and are bound together by common experiences and shared beliefs. But the development of modern industry and the enlargement of cities produced a growing division of labour which broke down the mechanical from of solidarity. With the increasing specialization of tasks and roles, a new type of organic solidarity was created. As the division of labour expands, people become increasingly dependent upon one another, because each person needs goods and services that those in other occupations supply. Like the human 'organic' body, each part of organ depends on all the others if the whole society or body is to function properly.

Nonetheless, Durkheim thought that social change in the modern world was so rapid and intense that major difficulties arose. As societies change, so do lifestyle, morals, beliefs and accepted behaviour patterns. But, when change is rapid and continuous, the old values lose their grip on people without any new ones becoming established. Durkheim called such as unsettling condition anomie - deep feelings of aimlessness, dread and despair. As many  people are left perceiving that their lives lack meaning structure. ** (Durkheim's study of suicide rates) 👈(If you want to know more about suicide rates, then click here)

Karl Marx

The ideas of karl marx (1818 - 83) contrast sharply with those of Comte and Durkheim, though he too sought to explain the changes associated with the industrial revolution. When he was a young man, Marx's political activities brought him into conflict with the German authorities; after a brief stay in France he settled permanently in exile in British, where he saw the growth of factories and industrial production as well as the resulting inequalities. His interest in the European labour movement and socialist ideas were reflected in his writings, and much of his work concentrated on political and economie issues. Yet, since he connected economie problem to social institutions, his work was rich in sociological insights.

Capitalism continues to provoke extremely passionate feeling in the twenty-first century, such as in the recent Occupy movements protesting against a perceived 'greedy' from of capitalism. Anti-capitalists have often drawn on marx's ideas.

Although he wrote about broad sweep of human history, Marx's primary focus was on the development of capitalism: a system of production that contrasts radically with all previous economie system. Marx's identified two main elements within capitalist enterprises. The first is capital - that is, any asset, including money, machines or even factories, that can be used or invested to make future assets. The accumulation of capital goes hand in hand with the second element, wage - labour. Wage - labour refers to the pool of workers who do not own any means of production themselves, but must find employment provided by the owners of capital.

Marx's argued that those who own capital  -  capitalists - from a ruling class, while the mass of the population make up a class of waged workers - the working class. As industrialization spread, large numbers of peasants  who used to support themselves by working the land moved to the expanding cities and helped to from an urban industrial working class, which Marx also called the proletariat. According marx, capitalism is a class system in which relations between the two main classes are characterized by conflict. Although owners of capital and workers are dependent on each other - capitalists need labour, workers need wages  -  this dependency is unbalanced. Workers have little or no control over their labour, and employers are able to generate profit by appropriating the products of the worker' labour.

Marx saw conflicts between classes as the motivation for historical development; they are the 'motor of history'. As marx and engels(2008 [1848]) wrote at the beginning of the communist manifesto, 'the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.' According to marx, there have been a series of historical stages, beginning with 'primitive communist' societies of hunters and gatherers and passing through ancient slave - owning systems and feudal systems with landowners and present farmers. The emergence of a new commercial or capitalist class displaced the landed nobility, and just as capitalists had overthrown the feudal order, so too would the capitalists be overthrown by the proletariat.

Marx theorized that a workers revolution would bring about a new society in which there would be no large-scale division between owners and workers. He called this stage communism. He mean that all inequalities would just disappear, but society would no longer be split into a small class that monopolizes economie and political power and a mass of people who benefit little from their labour. The economie system would be under communal ownership, and a more humane, egalitarian society would emerge.

Marx's ideas had a far - reaching effect on the twentieth century. Until only a generation ago, more than a third of the Earths population lived in societies whose governments derived inspiration from Marx's ideas. However, since the revolutionary wave that began in Poland in 1989 and swept aside communist regimes across Eastern Europe, ending with the collapse of Communism in the soviet Union itself in 1991, Marx's ideas have lost ground. Even in China, where a Communist party still holds political power, capitalist economic development has taken a firm hold. The working class revolution Marx foresaw looks further away today than it did in Marx's time.

Max Weber

Like Marx, Max Weber was not just a sociologist; his interested ranged across many areas. He was born in Germany, where he spent most of his academic career, and his work covered economics, law, philosophy and comparative history as well as sociology. He was also concerned with the development of capitalism and he ways in which modern societies differed from earlier types. In a series of studies, Weber set out some of the basic characteristics of modern industrial societies and identified key issues that remain central in sociology today.

Weber saw class conflict A's less significant than didi marx. In Weber's view , economie factors are important, but ideas and values can also help to bring about social change. His celebrated and much discussed work the Protestant Ethic and the spirit of capitalism (1992 [1904-5]) proposes that religious values - especially those associated with Puritanism - were of fundamental importance in creating a capitalistic outlook. unlike the other early sociologists, Weber argued that sociologist should study social action - the subjectively meaningful actions of people that are oriented towards other people. It is the job of sociology to understand the meanings behind all of those individual actions.

An important element in Weber's sociological perspective is the ideal type. Ideal types are models that can be used to alert us to some social phenomenon and help us to make sense of it. These hypothetical construction can be very useful in pointing research towards a subject. For example, we could construct a simple ideal - type 'terrorist group', based in the most striking aspects that have been noted in the IRA in northern Ireland, ETA in Spain, the Red Brigades in Italy and the global networks of al - Qaeda. We might note that all these groups oparate outside mainstream politics; they use extreme violence against the state and they target civilians to demonstrate their power. We can then use this ideal type to analyse other real - world instances of political violence.

Of course, in reality there are many differences between our four groups. The Red Brigades were communist, the TRA was a Irish nationalist group, ETA is Basque separatist Organization and al - Qaeda is a global Islamist network. But using out ideal type, we can accommodate these differences while also seeing that they share enough to be described as 'terrorist groups'. It is important to note that , by 'ideal' type , Weber did not mean that the conception was perfect or desirable. Ideal types are 'pure' or 'one - sided' forms of real phenomena. But constructing an ideal type of terrorism (or anything else ) from certain aspects of many observed cases is more effective than using one real terrorist group as a template for others.

Weber saw the emergence of modern society as accompanied by important shifts in patterns of social action. People were moving away from traditional beliefs grounded in superstition, religion, custom and long - standing habit. Instead, they engaged increasingly in rational, instrumental calculations that took into account efficiency and the future consequences of their actions. In industrial society, there  was little room for sentiment or doing things just because they had always been done that way. The emergence of science, modern technology and bureaucracies was described by Weber as rationalization - the organization of social life according to principles of efficiency and on the basis of technical knowledge. If religion and long - standing customs previously guided people's attitudes and values, modern society was marked by the rationalization of politics, religion, economie activity band even music.

Weber had major concerns about the outcome of rationalization. He feared that the spread of bureaucracy would imprison individuals in a 'steel-hard cage' from which there would be little chance of escape. Bureaucratic domination, although based on rational principles, could crush the human spirit by over-regulating all aspects of life. For Weber, the seemingly progressive agenda of the eighteenth-century age of enlightenment, of scientific progress, increasing wealth and happiness produced by rejecting traditional customs and superstitions, also had a dark side with nee dangers.

Neglected founders of sociology?

Although Comte, Durkheim, Marx and Weber are, without doubt, foundational figures in sociology, there were some in the same period and others from earlier times whose contributions should also be taken into account. Sociology, like many academic fields, has not always lived up to its ideal of acknowledging the importance of every thinker whose work has intrinsic merit. Very few women or members of minority ethnic groups had the opportunity to become professional Sociologists during the 'classical' period of the lale nineteenth and early twentieth century. In addition, the few who were given the opportunity to do sociological research of lasting importance have frequently been neglected. Important scholars such as Harriet Martineau and the Muslim scholar Ibn Khaldun have attracted the attention of sociologists in recent years.

Harriet Martieau (1802-76) 

Harriet Martineau has been called the 'first woman sociologist', but, like Marx and Weber, she cannot be thought of simply as a sociologist. She was borm and educated in Encland and was the author ofmore than fifty books, as well as numerous essays. Martineau is now credited with introducing sociology to Britain through her translation of Comte's founding treatise of the field, Positive Philosophy (see Rossi 1973) In addition, she conducted a first hand, systernatic study of American society during her extensive travels throughout the United States in the 1830s, the subject of her book Society in America (Martineau 1962 [1837]). Martineau is significant to sociologists today for several reasons.

First, she argued that, when one studies a society, one must focus on all its aspects, including key polifical, religious and social institutions. Second, she insisted that an analysis of a society must include an understanding of women's lives. Third, she was the first to tum a sociological eye on previously ignored issues, among them maniage, children, domestic and religious life, and race relations. As she once wrote: "The nursery, the boudoir, and the kitchen are all excellent schools in which to leam the morals and mammers of a people' (1962 [1837]). Finally, she argued that Sociologists should do more than just observe, they should also act in ways to benefit a society. As a result, Martineau was an active proponent of both women's rights and the emancipation of slaves.

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) 

The Muslim scholar Ibn Khaldun was born in what is today Tunisia and is famous for his historical, sociological and political economic studies. He wrote many books, the most widely known of which is a six-volume work, the Muqaddimah ('Introduction'), completed in 1378. This is viewed by some scholars tóday as essentially an early foundational work of sociology (see Alatas 2006). The Muqaddimah criticized existing historical approaches and methods as deaing only with description, claiming instead the discovery of a new 'science of social organization' or 'science of scciety', capable of getting at the underlying meaming of events.

Ibn Khaldun devised a theory of social conflict based on understanding the central characteristics of the nomadic' and sedentary' societies of his time. Central to this theory was the concept of 'group feeling' or solidarity (asabiyyah). Groups and societics with a strong group feeling were able to dominate and control those with weaker forms of intemal solidarity. Ibn Khaldun developed these ideas in an attempt to explain the rise and decline of Maghribian and Arab states, and in this sense he may be seen as studying the process of state-formation - itself a main concem of modern, Western historical sociology. Nomadic Bedouin tribes tended towards a very strong group feeling, which enabled them to overnun and dominate the weaker sedentary town-dwellers and establish new dynasties. However, the Bedouin then became seitled into more urbanized lifestyles and their previously strong group feeling and military force diminished, thus leaving them open to attack from external enemies once again. This completed a long cycle in the rise and decline of states. Although Westem histornians and sociologists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century referred to Ibn Khaldun's work, only in very recent years has it again come to be seen as potentially significant.