thursday, september 10, 2015 © 1998-2006 by ronald keith bolender1 sya 3010 sociological theory:...

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender 1

SYA 3010 Sociological Theory:

William Graham Sumner




ReferencesDressler, David. 1973. Sociology: The Study of Human Interaction. 2d ed. New

York: Alfred A. Knopf.Hess, Beth B., Elizabeth W. Markson, and Peter J. Stein. 1993. Sociology. 4th ed.

New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Perdue, William D. 1986. Sociological Theory: Explanation, Paradigm, and Ideology.

Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company.Sumner, William Graham. [1883] 1978. What Social Classes Owe Each Other.

Caldwell, ID: Caxton. Sumner, William Graham. [1906] 1967. “Folkways and Mores.” Pp. 90-100 in The

Substance of Sociology: Codes, Conduct and Consequences, edited by Ephraim H. Mizruchi. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

Sumner, William Graham. 1919. Forgotten Man and Other Essays. Edited by A. G. Keller. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries.

Sumner, William Graham. 1963. Social Darwinism: Selected Essays of William Graham Sumner. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.




1840-1910 Born in Paterson, NJ Ordained in the

Episcopal Church Later, taught at

Yale University The first to teach

sociology in theUnited States(Perdue 1986:62)



William Graham Sumner:Social Darwinism

He was influenced by the works of Darwin and Spencer

Impressed by the advances in biological science, he developed an evolutionary view of society complete with the use of biological analogies.

(Perdue 1986:63-64)




For Sumner, the social world, as the natural, was an orderly creation obeying the prime direction of all life: a a struggle in which the fit struggle in which the fit survive and the unfit perishsurvive and the unfit perish.

He believed in individualismindividualism A staunch defender of Spencer’s noninterferencenoninterference An opponent of public welfareAn opponent of public welfare

(Perdue 1986:64)




The sociologist is often asked if he wants to kill off certain classes of troublesome and

bewildered persons. No such inference follows from any sound sociological

doctrine, but it is allowed to infer, as to a great many persons and classes, that it would have been better for society and would have involved no pain to them, if

they had never been born.(Sumner 1963:25)




The social variety of natural selection requires no apology, for it is the method by which a perfect hierarchy takes shape and the unfit wither away. Sumner wrote under the influence of Spencer’s principle of noninterference when he argued that social classes (especially the successful) owe not a thing to others (Sumner [1883] 1978). Hence, the divergent conditions of the fit Hence, the divergent conditions of the fit and the unfit do not call for intervention.and the unfit do not call for intervention. For the former student of theology, the drunkard in the gutter, the pauper without a loaf, the great masters of industry, and the millionaires have each earned their stationhave each earned their station.

(Perdue 1986:65)




Within the process of societal evolution, Sumner discerned two basic regularities: the law of the law of populationpopulation and the law of diminishing the law of diminishing returnsreturns. Taken together, these mean that population increase is ultimately limited by the level of environmental resources and further that the labor of workers may produce more from these resources but never in proportion to population growth.

(Perdue 1986:65)




... overpopulation represents an often unrecognized opportunity, or the “struggle for existence and the competition of life are intense where the pressure of population are great. This competition draws out the highest achievement.”

(Sumner 1963:23)




The Forgotten ManPersons A and B decided how to

intervene to help Person D with a social ill. In solving the problem with Person D, Person C has to alter his/her life without much choice in order to implement the solution for the social ill.




There is an almost invincible prejudice that a man who gives a dollar to a beggar is generous and kind-hearted, but that a man who refuses the beggar and puts the dollar in a savings bank is stingy and mean.




Nature’s remedies against vice are terrible. She removes the victims without pity. A drunkard in the gutter is just where he ought to be, according to the fitness and tendency of things. Nature has set up on him the process of decline and dissolution by which she removes things which have survived their usefulness. Gambling and other less mentionable vices carry their own penalties with them.




Competition, therefore, is a law of nature. Nature is entirely neutral; she submits to him who most energetically and resolutely assails her.




Let it be understood that we cannot go outside of this alternative; liberty, inequality, survival of the fittest; non-liberty, equality, survival of the unfittest. The former carries society forward and favors all its best members; the latter carries society downwards and favors all its worst members.




What we mean by liberty is civil liberty, or liberty under law; and this means the guarantees of law that a man shall not be interfered with while using his own powers for his own welfare.

Who does this sound like?Who does this sound like?



William Graham Sumner:Normative Order

In an examination of standards and expectations, Sumner sought to explain normative order, and in so doing he examined the question of social control. He began in characteristic Darwinist fashion by arguing that persistent group habits and customs are shaped by:

Underlying instincts (unlearned behavior), all of which reflect the common motivation of self-advantage

The inherent predisposition to define behavior primarily in terms of pleasure and pain.

These underlying biologically based impulses lead to behavior that prove to be more or less adaptive.




Through trial and error, Sumner argued, human beings learn which behavior works best to maximize pleasure, minimize pain, meet instinctual needs, and recurring behavioral norms that contribute to the struggle for existence, he termed folkwaysfolkways. They are backed by weak sanctions and emotions.




When standards and expectations for behavior acquire ethical or philosophical content, they are then raised to another plane. Known as mores mores [[pronounced “more-ays”], such norms include the power to “make anything right.” Mores set the limits for ideas, faith, and tastes and are founded on strong sanctions and sentiments. As such, they carry taboos or punishments that follow violations. Mores provide the moral basis by which a society coerces individual members. And for Sumner, they change only in accordance with the needs of the societal organism.

(Perdue 1986:66)




Folkways are not considered important enough to be strictly enforced. No court will punish the child who eats with her fingers. Violations of folkways are typically handled informally, through words and gestures of disapproval.

(Hess, Markson, and Stein 1993:62)




As a general rule, folkways come into a society without planning on the part of its members.

Folkways enter the culture when most members of the group to whom they apply have come to accept them as customary and appropriate.

Since many folkways are introduced into the culture without planning, their sources are likely to be obscure.

Folkways are transmitted informally by word of mouth, by behavior, through mass media, and in other way.

In the main, folkways are informally enforced. Although folkways are expected or required behavior,

some are more arbitrary than others. Folkways are comparatively durable.




Although folkways tend to be durable, they sometimes disappear from a culture.

The regulatory function of folkways determines much of individual behavior.

Folkways make it possible for an individual to achieve a feeling of identification with other members of a group.

The individual responds not only to the generally accepted folkways of his society, but also to those of the subcultural groups with which he identifies himself.

(Dressler 1973:137-141)




Mores are norms that cover moral and ethical behavior, more crucial to social order than the folkways and therefore are more severally enforced. For example, the obligation to help a relative, to respect authority, and to maintain community standards of decency are moral rules that bring public condemnation and scorn on the violator. These reactions, though still informal, are powerful shapers of behavior.





…the mores of one historical period may not be the same at another date. For example, it was the duty of a Puritan parent to beat the evil out of a child, whereas the same behavior could be considered abusive today. In the case of premarital sexuality, many of today’s college students [nationally] would have been expelled just a few decades ago or most certainly placed in the stocks of a New England village in the 18th century.





Another way to view Sumner’s normative order:

Permitted = Folkway Preferred = More Required = Law

(Dressler, 1973)




EthnocentrismEthnocentrism is the technical name for this view of

things in which one’s own group is the center of everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it. Folkways correspond to it to cover both the inner and the outer relation. Each group nourishes its own pride and vanity, boasts itself superior, exalts its own divinities, and looks with contempt on outsiders. Each group thinks its own folkways the only right ones, and if it observes the other groups have other folkways, these excite its scorn.

(Sumner [1906] 1967:93)




Ethnocentrism is the tendency to judge other cultures by one’s own.

Ethnocentrism was once defined as the belief that the “axis of the world runs axis of the world runs through my home townthrough my home town.”

Ethnocentric attitudes often have to do with race, nationality, religion, and the family, but they are not limited to these.

(Dressler 1973:88-90)




Ethnocentrism is based on two groups: In-group (we) Out-group (they)




Positives of Ethnocentrism Loyalty to the group, sacrifice for

it...brotherhood within… …contributes to the survival of a culture

Negatives of Ethnocentrism Encourages conformity, discourages

interpenetrating by other cultural groups, and justifies and perpetuates the status quo.

(Dressler 1973:90-91)




Real world examples and applications of ethnocentrism.

thursday, september 10, 2015 © 1998-2006 by ronald keith bolender1 sya 3010 sociological theory:...

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