OUTLINE:Auguste Comte – Positivism Social Statics and Social DynamicsKarl Marx – Class conflict / Dialectical materialism / SuperstructuresEmile Durkheim – Social solidarity / Suicide / AnomieMax Weber – Verstehen / social actionHerbert Spencer – organic analogy / Social Darwinism American Sociology

Eugene DuBois - double consciousnessJane Addams – sympathetic knowledgeHarriet Martineau - impact of inequalityIda Wells Barnett – resist oppression

Lecture 3

FOUNDERS OF SOCIOLOGY

2

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

The Father of PositivismBelieved that the major goal of

sociology was to understand society as it actually operates.

Main concern: How to preserve social orderSolution: Scientific approach - “social engineering” to

cure society’s ills

Recommended the study of social statics and social dynamics

• 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 development

4

Karl Marx• 1818-1883 German philosopher

Writer and social critic

• Personally involved in social change

• Believed social scientists should help to improve society

• 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

Karl Marx

Major focus: How society holds together and endure - SOLIDARITY

Mechanical solidarityTraditional 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 problems

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

Emile Durkheim

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 one’s community is too strong

Durkheim’s four types of suicide

14

Max Weber• Lived 1864-1920• German scholar who studied

wide variety of topics• studied the impact of

industrialization on peoples’ lives

• 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

SOCIAL ACTION – action people take in response to othersoTraditional / Affectional

Traditional societies emphasize emotion and personal ties

oValue-rational / Instrumental-rational Modern societies emphasize calculation,

efficiency, self control Personal ties decline and people become

“disenchanted” “a crisis of meaning”

16

Marx, Durkheim, and Weber Compared

• How is life treating you?– Marx’s alienated person

• I really don’t care (because I’m detached from my work and from other people).

– Durkheim’s anomic person• I’m distressed by it (because there are no

common rules or norms to guide me).– Weber’s rational person

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

Social DarwinismAn 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 inevitable and productive)

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.

18

American Sociologysociology and the modern university system rose together.

Early American sociology was optimistic, forward-looking, 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

19

• W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963)

– 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 one’s self through the eyes of others

– Revealed social processes that contributed to maintenance of racial separation – the strange meaning of being black

SYMPATHETIC KNOWLEDGE

JANE ADDAMS (1860 - 1935 )

-first hand knowledge gained by living and 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-Awarded with Nobel peace prize for her work to promote peace

22

Other Important Founders

Feminist and Methodologist Studied social life in Britain and US,

translated Comte.

Studied the impact of inequality

. Harriet Martineau:

Society in America (1837)– first empirical study in sociology

How to Observe Manners and Morals − first book on sociological method

(1802-1876)

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)

Sociology’s 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

24

• 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

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 Philippines

Development of Sociology in the Philippines

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.