02 - Origins of Sociology

Lecture notes for Mr. English's Sociology class

1. Origins of
Sociology
From Europe to the United States: The Minds
Behind the Theories

2. Objectives
•- Students will identify key figures in
development of sociology.
•- Students will discuss changing roles in
society with "McDonaldization"

3. Vocabulary
•positivism: the belief that knowledge should be derived from scientific observation.
•social statics: the study of social stability and order
•social dynamics: the study of social change
•bourgeoisie: class owning the means for producing wealth
•capitalist: person who owns or controls the means for producing wealth
•proletariat: working class; those who labor for bourgeoise
•class conflict: the ongoing struggle between the bourgeoise (owners) and the proletariat
(working) classes
•mechanical solidarity: social dependency based on a widespread consensus of values and
beliefs, enforced conformity, and dependence on tradition and family
•organic solidarity: social interdependency based on a high degree of specialization in roles
•verstehen: understanding social behavior by putting yourself in the place of others.
•rationalization: the mind-set emphasizing knowledge, reason and planning.

4. European Origins
•Relatively new science - late 1800s
•Heavily influenced by industrial revolution
•Intellectuals desired to better understand
changes to society as more and more
people moved from the farms to factories
•Lose of a sense of community

5. August Comte
•Considered the father of sociology
•Bright, challenging child - expelled
from Ecole Polytechnique
•Believed to for society to improve,
scientific study needed to occur

6. Positivism
•Comte wanted to use scientific observation to study
social behavior
•He called this positivism - should be a science on
knowledge of which we can be “positive”, or sure
•He also distinguished between studying social stability
and order (social statics) and study of social
change (social dynamics)

7. Harriet Martineau
•British woman who translated
Comte’s writing and published
several books herself
•Introduced many ideas about
research method, political economy
•Considered the pioneer in
feminism; saw link between slavery
and oppression of women

8. Herbert Spencer
•Compared society to the human body
•Composed of parts working together
to promote its well-being and
survival.
•brains, stomachs, nervous systems,
limbs : economies, religions,
governments, families

9. Social Darwinism
•Modeled after Darwin’s theory of evolution, Spencer
thought that evolutionary social change led to
progress (as long as people didn’t interfere)
•Survival of the fittest (for societies)
•He opposed social reform: poor deserved to be poor
and the rich to be rich - let evolution sort it out
•Supported in America in 1882 - by corporate leaders

10. Karl Marx
•Most concerned in class struggle in
society
•Predicted that all society would settle
into two classes: bourgeoisie
(owners of wealth) & proletariat
(workers)
•Owners would want to continue to
gain more wealth and continue
capitalist society

11. Class Conflict
•The different interests of the different
classes leads to constant class conflict
•Marx predicted that eventually proletariate
would rise up against bourgeoise and
overtake the capitalists
•Create a classless society where no one
would be powerless

12. Emile Durkheim
•
French thinker who said that society
exists because of broad consensus
•
Members of society agree to
certain expectations
•
In pre-industrial times, consensus of
values and beliefs surrounded
family, tradition and conformity
called mechanical solidarity

13. Post-Industrial Society
•Change happened with industrial revolution
•Organic solidarity - social
interdependence based on a web of
specialized roles.
•These specialized roles make members
of society rely on each other for goods
and services

14. Scientific Methodology
•Durkheim helped to develop research
techniques to validate theories
•Replace speculation with observation,
collect and classify data and use that data
for testing social theory
•Durkheim introduced use of statistical
techniques in research (suicide research)

15. Max Weber
•Writer on a number of topics
•Human beings act on the basis of
their own understanding of a
situation
•Weber believed that sociologists
must discover the personal
meanings, values, beliefs and
attitudes underlying human social
behavior.

16. Verstehen
•Weber’s concept of verstehen involved an
understanding of the personal intentions of
people in groups can be accomplished
through empathy
•By ‘putting yourself in someones’ shoes’,
you can temporarily shed your values
and see things from a different point of
view

17. Rationalization
•Weber also identified rationalization as a
key influence in the change to an
industrialized society
•Tradition, emotion, superstition ➱
knowledge, reason and planning
•Agriculture: belief in luck, fate or magic ➱
grounded science

18. Jane Addams
•Early social reformer in America
•Seeing a lot of corruption in government,
she began her life’s work seeking social
justice
•Focused on problems caused by the
imbalance of power among the social
classes.
•Active in women’s suffrage movement
•Won Nobel Peace Prize (1931) - only
sociologists to ever win.

19. W.E.B. DuBois
•African-American educator and
social activist
•Analyzed social structure of
black communities to address
the “Negro problem”
•Racial discrimination and
segregation based on idea that
blacks were an inferior race