Soci 321 Foundation of Social Thoughts

SOCI301/321
FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL THOUGHT
Session 1 – THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIOLOGY: THE

HISTORICAL, SOCIAL AND INTELLECTUAL CONTEXTS
Lecturer: Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo

Contact Information: ddzorgbo@ug.edu.gh
College of Education
School of Continuing and Distance Education
2014/2015 – 2016/2017
Session Overview
• Introduction: This session describes pre-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

socioeconomic and political conditions in Europe and identifies the major factors that
led to the emergence of sociology as a scientific study of society
• Goals and Objectives: By the end of this session you should be able to:
• describe the socio-economic and political conditions in Europe before the 18th and 19th
centuries
• describe the social change or “the great social transformation” that Europe experienced
in the 18th and 19th centuries that necessitated the scientific study of society
• Identify and explain the major factors that account for the development of sociology.
Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo, Sociology Dept. UG Slide 2

Session outline
Two topics are discussed in this session. They are:
• Description of socio-economic and political conditions in Europe

before the 18th and 19th centuries
• The major factors that account for the emergence of sociology

Reading list
• ALLAN K. (2005) EXPLORATIONS IN CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY: SEEING THE
SOCIAL WORLD, LONDON: PIN FORGE PRESS
• ASHLEY D. AND D. M. ORENSTEIN (2001) SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY: THE CLASSICAL

STATEMENTS, BOSTON: ALLYN AND BACON.
• DZORGBO, D-B. S. (2013) SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY: CLASSICAL IDEAS AND THEIR

APPLICATION IN THE AFRICAN CONTEXT, ACCRA: WOELI PUBLISHING SERVICES
• DZORGBO D-B. S. (2009) SOCIOLOGY: FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL THOUGHT: LEGON-

ACCRA: CENTER FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF GHANA.
• RITZER G. (20O8) SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY, BOSTON: MCGRAW HILL
• RITZER G. & DOUGLAS J. GOODMAN, (2004) CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY,

BOSTON: MCGRAW HILL

Topic One:
Europe before the 18th and 19th Centuries
European societies before the 18th and 19th centuries were largely:
• Agrarian and rural like many parts of Africa before colonialism and even today
• Most people on Europe a t the time had their worldview was dominated by
traditional, mythical, religious, and superstitious explanations.
• Most Europeans lived in relatively small and isolated communities dominated by

kinship and extended relations; most were illiterates
• The Church, Kings and feudal lords or the nobility occupied high positions/statuses
in society and ordinary people called serfs worked on the lands for them
• There was little science and technology in society; societies were largely rural and
agrarian with little cottage industries

Topic One:
Europe before the 18th and 19th Centuries (Cont’d)
• Communities were relatively homogenous and stable. There was face-to-face
interactions, members were familiar to each other and society was relatively stable
• Although there was relatively peace these societies were not just as the majority
the serfs were exploited by those highly placed in society
• There were social distinctions and the wealth that existed were in the hands of the
few: feudal lords, the monarchy and clergy or the church who preached that such
unjust social arrangements were sanctioned by God and the majority: the
peasants or serfs should accept these arrangements and not question them
• Even though these societies were by our today’s standard unjust because of social
distinctions they was relatively harmonious and peaceful because the social order
was sanctioned by religion and tradition.
• These harmonious societies were to be subject to cataclysmic social change the
scale of which Europeans had never experienced before and so set in attempts to
understand scientifically this change and future direction of society

Topic Two
Factors that account for the emergence of sociology
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the major European societies that experienced the
social change were France, Germany and Britain. The major factors we can
identify as precipitating the study of society scientifically (i.e. sociologically) are:
1. The French Political Revolution of 1789

2. The Growth of Science and Technology
3. The Industrial Revolution and Urbanization
4. Growth of Cities and Social Problems
5. The Rise of Socialist Ideas
6. The Decline of Religion
7. The Enlightenment Ideas
8. Colonialism and Europeans Exposure to other Peoples and Cultures

Factors that account for the emergence of sociology (Cont’d)
THE FRENCH POLITICAL REVOLUTION
• The French Political Revolution brought about civil

disobedience that resulted in the destruction the
French monarchy
Revolution
• It questioned and challenged the existing social
order and authority
• Resulted in social anarchy, instability for about 10

years onwards
• The positive effects were: the proclamation of

equality and freedom for all French people, the
development of democratic egalitarian, republican
and humanistic ideas
• The negative effects of social disorder and anarchy

worried social philosophers such as Auguste Comte.
• He thus called for a new discipline he called

sociology to scientific study society to understand
its nature and dynamism in order to re-establish
social order and stability

Factors that account for the emergence of sociology
(Cont’d)
The Growth of Science and Technology
• Long before Europeans experienced this 18th and 19th centuries changes, a period of
renaissance and enlightenment from roughly 1400-1700 saw Europeans having new ideas
emerging about these societies to replace religious ones.
• The culminating point of this development is the celebration of the reasoning powers or
capacities of human beings and their ability to understand nature (rather than worshipping it)
• This led to the emergence of the natural sciences (Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry and Biology
Astronomy)
• The practical achievements in these sciences is technology and the revelations of the
wonders of natures and this also led to the idea that society could also be studied
scientifically and not continuously be explained in religious and superstitious manner.
• Social philosophers at this time were of the view that if natural sciences could explain the
physical environment and nature so well and create technologies which were benefitting
society so much, a science of society could also offer understanding of society and generate
scientific knowledge that could benefit society as well

Industrial Revolution and Urbanization
• With the development of science and technology industries began to be set by

private individuals thereby ushering Europe into an industrial revolution, the first
time in the entire human history
• The emergence of industries in towns led to towns growing into cities and thus
triggering massive movement of people from villages and rural areas to cities in
search of jobs: urbanization

The Growth of Cities and Social Problems
The effects of industrialization and urbanization were:

• People moved from face-to-face and closed-knit simple, agricultural, traditional communities to complex,
industrial and modern anonymous urban centres, creating problems of isolation, alienation and destitution
• In the emerging urban centers, traditional norms and values could no longer be counted on for social
security and protection
• Traditional family and kinship systems began to crumble; people had to be organized on large-scale to work
in with people from different background who were unrelated in any way except through industrial work
• Industrialists exploited the workers so much and subjected them to long working hours in working extreme
and unsafe working environments without any protection as it is the case in many countries today, so there
were many industrial accidents
• Industrial workers were exploited through low wages, they subject to chronic dismissals as trade unions and
minimum wages were forbidden
• Urbanization also created many social problems and vices: unemployment, overcrowding, prostitution,
armed robbery, slums, alcoholism, mental depression and suicide
• Industries also polluted the environment and the air; all these issues attracted the attention of serious minded social
analysts and thus constituted materials for sociological analyses and study. They helped broaden the subject matter of
the emerging sociology

The Rise of Socialist Ideas
• Because of the inherent social problems or the “evils” associated with the emerging capitalist
industrial production system, some social philosophers like Karl Marx sought through his writings to
stir up workers’ rebellion or even revolution to overthrow the capitalism
• Capitalism is the system of production that came with the industrial revolution. In this system, it is
not states or governments but individuals (the private sector as we call it today) who owned the
factories and the important means of production: the banks, the machines, etc. Marx did not like
capitalism because it exploited and dehumanized the factory workers and created classes in
society: the few rich (who owned property and great wealth) and the poor (who owned very little
or nothing except their labour power). Marx sought capitalism’s destruction and worked for its
replacement with socialism
• Socialism is the opposite of capitalism; it means that all economic activities (planning, production
and distribution) in society should be or is undertaken by the state so that everybody becomes
state employee. Socialism would end the exploitation and dehumanization of the many by the few.
In other words, private ownership of property or wealth would cease and there would be no class
distinctions in society.
• Many of these ideas appealed to some of the philosophers of the day.
• The Rise of socialist ideas also shaped how sociologists think about societal arrangements and they
constructed theories and concepts to explicate the nature and functioning of capitalist societies
and how new and preferably “better” socialist or human-centered societies could be constructed.

The Decline of Religion
• As noted the 15th 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries were a period
of remarkable transformation of Europe as new ideas about
nature, the universe and society were generated that went
contrary to the long established teachings of the church.
• In the period enlightenment and with the growth of science,

many people started questioning the religious leaders and their
ideas and their claim that Kings and Queens had the divine right
to rule
• Also there was rebellion of Martin Luther against the Catholic

Church and denunciation of some of its doctrines and practices
all these factors combined to undermine the influence of religion
in the affairs of humans

The Enlightenment Ideas
• The Enlightenment period was the age of reason, a time when many people believed that the
reasoning capacities and powers of humans (and not blind religious explanations) should be used to
understand the nature and human conditions
• As Enlightenment ideas and science were coming of age, religious ideas were relegated to the
background and thus losing much of their explanatory powers
• Enlightenment philosophers and their ideas encouraged reflections on societies, social institutions,
social practices. Many people asked questions about society and subjected it to critical analysis.
• During the enlightenment period, people begun to question the right of the monarchs and the
priest in the society
• In a way, much of the social-ills, anarchy and instability that pervaded the French and other
European societies at the time that led to the call for scientific study of society were the result of
the Enlightenment ideas . No wonder some social philosophers of the day held their counterparts
as responsible for this anarchy and sought through their work (counter-enlightenment
philosophies) to return their societies to the good old days when religion was dominant and there
was social order and peace

Colonialism and Exposure to other Peoples and Cultures
• The discovery of other

continents and different
peoples and cultures by
Europeans challenged some
social philosophers and
emerging social scientists
(sociologists and
anthropologists) and
missionaries/evangelists to
study the human societies in
general and in comparative
terms thus further broadening
the scope, concepts and
theories of sociology.

Summary of the Session
In this session we learnt about how Europeans lived before the 18th and 19th centuries
and how their world changed dramatically an the consequences thereof necessitated
the development of sociology. More specifically the following factors are often
isolated and discussed as leading the development and consolidation of the sociology.
They are
1. The French Political Revolution of 1789
2. The Growth of Science and Technology
3. The Industrial Revolution and Urbanization
4. Growth of Cities and Social Problems
5. The Rise of Socialist Ideas
6. The Decline of Religion
7. The Enlightenment Ideas
8. Colonialism and Europeans Exposure to other Peoples and Cultures
In the next session, we consider what the founders of sociology said that have
constituted the foundational ideas of sociology as a scientific discipline of society

SOCI 301/321
Foundations of Social Thought
Session 2 –The Founders of Sociology:

Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
Lecturer: Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo, UG

2014/2015 – 2016/2017
Session Overview
OVERVIEW
In this session, students will be studying the first major founder of sociology: Auguste
Comte
Goals and Objectives
• Provide brief biographical background knowledge on Comte
• Identify and explain his core ideas, concepts and theories
• Determine his contribution to sociology
Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo Slide 2

Session Outline
Comte’s work is examined under the following two topics :
• Topic One : The biography of Auguste Comte
• Topic Two: Comte’s ideas, concepts and views

Reading List
• ALLAN K. (2005) EXPLORATIONS IN CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY: SEEING THE
SOCIAL WORLD, LONDON: PIN FORGE PRESS
• ASHLEY D. AND D. M. ORENSTEIN (2001) SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY: THE CLASSICAL

STATEMENTS, BOSTON: ALLYN AND BACON.

• DZORGBO D-B. S. (2009) SOCIOLOGY: FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL THOUGHT: LEGON-

ACCRA: CENTER FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF GHANA.
• RITZER G. & DOUGLAS J. GOODMAN, (2004) CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY,

BOSTON: MCGRAW HILL

Topic One: Auguste Comte
(1798-1857) Biography
• Isidore Auguste Marie Francois-Xavier Comte, known today simply as Auguste
Comte was born in Montepellier, France on 19th January, 1798.
• His parents were middle class. He went to the prestigious college: Ecole
Polytechnique in France
• He never received a college-level degree because he and his class were dismissed
for their rebelliousness and political ideas.
• In his intellectual work Comte was heavily influenced by the scientific methods of
the natural sciences (physics, chemistry and biology) that had developed
• In 1817, Comte became secretary to the social philosopher: Henri de Saint Simon
who was forty years older than him and they developed intellectual ideas
together

Auguste Comte: Biography (Cont’d)
• However in 1824, Comte left Saint Simon claiming that the latter was not acknowledging him well
enough for his intellectual contribution.
• In 1832, Comte gained a teaching assistant position in Ecole Polytechnique and was also
admissions examiner.
• Comte worked on the six-volume work for which he is best known, Cours de Philosohie Positive,
which was finally published in its entirety in 1842 (the first volume was published in1830). In this
work Comte view sociology as the ultimate science.
• The Systeme de Politique Positive also had the practical ambition of re-organizing society.
• But as far back as 1838 Comte felt that he was not receiving much intellectual attention, people
were not taking him seriously, so he decided not to read the works of others—he practiced “cerebal
hygiene”—so that he did not benefit from the intellectual discourse at the time.
• He was sought to use sociology to reform society and that sociology would develop to become a
new religion of humanity and sociologists would lead this religion by becoming sociology-priests.

Auguste Comte’s Ideas and Concepts
• He coined the term sociology after considering as “social physics”

• “Socius” from Latin – meaning “companion”, or
“associate”, or “being with others”
• “Logos” from Greek—meaning “study of”
• Sociology means the study of society
• Sociology and the hierarchy of the sciences
• Advocate of Positivism
• Experimentation
• Historical comparative method
• Social Statics and social dynamism
• The Law of Three stages: the theological (fictive), metaphysical and the
scientific (positivistic) stages
• Sociology would unlock the secrets of society and guide social engineering
Auguste Comte: Social Statics and Social
Dynamism
• Comte urged that sociologists should study two main aspects of society: social
statics and social dynamics
• Social statics is concerned with stability and social order; the structures and
institutions that hold together and make for social stability
• Social dynamics refers to those forces that make society to change or make society
to be dynamic

Auguste Comte and Positivism
• Comte advocated the scientific study of
society
• Positivism: the application of the

methods of the natural sciences to the
study of the social world
• Sociology would discover social laws or

social principles for understanding
society, its direction and for
undertaking social reforms.

Auguste Comte’s Ideas and Concepts
(Cont’d)
• Comte’s social law: “The
law of three stages”
• The evolution and
advancement of society
and social thoughts
from primitive
traditional stage
towards positivistic, or
scientific or modern
stage
Auguste Comte (Cont’d): The Law of Three Stages
The Theological State

Auguste Comte: The Law of Three Stages
The theological stage (cont’d)
• Explanations of the universe, events and social phenomena in terms of the
powers of God and gods
• The theological stage is dominated religious and superstitious thoughts
and beliefs as in many parts of Africa today. We have numerous churches,
pastors, traditional shrines and priests, witchdoctors, soothsayers, oracles
revelations,
• People come to believe that all phenomena are created and influenced by
the Almighty God, other gods and supernatural forces.
• Beliefs in the works of the devil, spirits, witchcrafts, are all in Comtian
Sociology, evidences that society is at the theological stage where pastors
and other religious leaders are the ones who offer us explanations as to
the how society works, our personal circumstances, our misfortunes, etc.

The Metaphysical Stage

The Metaphysical Stage (cont’d)

The Positivistic/Scientific Stage

The Positivistic Stage (cont’d)
• Things are explained
based on systematic
observations and using
scientific methods
• Historical comparative
method

Auguste Comte: The Hierarchy of the
Sciences
• Based on the law of three stages, Comte ranked the
science in order of their complexities
• Comte ranked sociology at the apex, above all the

sciences.
• He argued that knowledge have gone through the

law of the three stages and that sociology is the last
stage being positivism therefore sociology should
take it seat among the sciences

Auguste Comte: The Hierarchy of the
Sciences (cont’d)

Comte and the Methodology of Sociology
He urged sociologists to be positivistic, to use the

scientific method which include
1. Observation
2. Experimentation, and
3. Comparative historical method

Comte’s Contribution to Sociology
• He was not only one of the well-known to formally acknowledge that a
scientific study of society was feasible but also gave the study its name:
sociology
• He urged sociologists to study society in two phases: social statics and
social dynamics. Yes, sociologists today do study social stability (social
harmony) but also social change (social conflict)
• He advocated the use of the scientific method in social inquiry. Yes many
sociologists use the scientific, quantitative methods in their research
• He viewed sociology as a subject that should help humanity to ameliorate
social problems: Yes sociological knowledge have helped many nations to
socially organized their societies “better” and “solve” many problems of
human living.
• On the whole, we can say many societies are indeed experiencing albeit in
varying degrees the law of three stages

SOCI 301/321
Session 3 –The Founders of Sociology: Herbert

Spencer (1820-1903)

2014/2015 – 2016/2017
Session Overview
Introduction
This session is sequel to the preceding one that dealt with Auguste Comte. It deals
with the works and ideas of Herbert Spencer.

By the end of this session you should be able to:
• Give a brief biographical background of Herbert Spencer
• Identify and understand the various concepts and ideas associated with
Spencer
• Determine Spencer’s contribution to sociology

Session Outline
The key topics to be covered in the session are as follows:
• Topic One: Biography of Spencer
• Topic Two : Major ideas, concepts and views of Spencer
• Topic Three: Spencer’s contribution to sociology

Reading List
• ALLAN K. (2005) EXPLORATIONS IN CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY: SEEING
THE SOCIAL WORLD, LONDON: PIN FORGE PRESS
• ASHLEY D. AND D. M. ORENSTEIN (2001) SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY: THE

CLASSICAL STATEMENTS, BOSTON: ALLYN AND BACON.

• DZORGBO D-B. S. (2009) SOCIOLOGY: FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL THOUGHT:

LEGON-ACCRA: CENTER FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF GHANA.
• RITZER G. & DOUGLAS J. GOODMAN, (2004) CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL

THEORY, BOSTON: MCGRAW HILL
Topic Two: Herbert Spencer
(1820-1903)
• Herbert Spencer was born in Derby, England
on April 12, 1820
• He schooled in technical and utilitarian

matters not in humanities and arts.
• He worked as a civil engineer for a railway
company from 1837 to 1846
• During this time, Spencer studied on his own

and published scientific and political works.
In 1848, Spencer was appointed the editor of
The Economist and this job enabled him to
build his intellectual capacity
• By 1850, he had completed his major work,

Social Statics. But Spencer experienced
intermittent insomnia and a series of
nervous breakdown in the process of writing
this book, a problem that afflicted him
throughout his life

Topic Two: Herbert Spencer
(1820-1903)
• In 1853 Spencer inherited a
family fortune that permitted him
to live a gentleman scholarly life.
• Although Spencer never earned a
university degree or occupied
academic position, his scholarly
productivity increased to the
extent that it was impossible to
be a scholar in England at the
time without being familiar with
Spencer’s work. Spencer was a
great thinker.
• Like Comte before him, Spencer
did not read the works of others,
meaning he also practiced
“cerebral hygiene”.

Herbert Spencer: Major Ideas
• Spencer like Comte was evolutionist. He believed that just as a
living organism grows and develops, so is the evolution of society.
Society evolves from a small relatively simple and homogenous
state in which division of labour is little to more a complex and
heterogeneous state in which the division of labour is advanced.
• He believed that society (i) evolves from one stage to the other
from headless society to headed, compound, doubly compound,
triply compound (modern societies)
• and (ii) also from militant and to industrial where there would be
peace.
• Societal evolution entails competition coined the term “survival of
the fittest”— hence “Social Darwinism”
• Competition in human affairs results in social progress and human
perfection

Herbert Spencer: Major Ideas (cnt’d)
• Society is like living organism, it has parts (e.g. religion, the
family, education, the state, and the economy) that are
interrelated and interdependent and all function to maintain
the society as an ongoing entity.
• This image of society is in line with a modern theoretical

perspective in sociology known as structural functionalism.
• An advocate of non-intervention in society by governments or

states because competition and social inequality are
necessary for the progress of society.

Herbert Spencer: Society as Living
Organism
• He conceived society as a
living organism. For example,
the human organism has parts
such as the heart, lung,
mouth, stomach, legs, etc. that
are interdependent and all
play their roles to ensure the
survival of the human being.
• Like the above, society also
has parts (the social
institutions) that are
interdependent and function
to ensure survival of society—
• If the human being is a
biological system, then society
is a social system
Society as System of Institutions
FAMILY
Religion
Education
• society
Health
Polity

Society as System of Institutions
(cont’d)
• The parts of the living organism are interrelated,
interdependent and are all functioning to sustain the
living organism
• The parts of society are the social institutions—the
family, politics, the economy, religion, education,
health; they are also interdependent and functional
(make contribution) to existence of the overall
society.

Herbert Spencer (cont’d): Evolution,
Competition and Progress
• Social evolution entails competition and results in progress
• Spencer applied Darwin's theory of Evolution and the idea of

“survival of the fittest” thereby improving society
• Societies evolve from simple homogeneous state to complex
heterogeneous state
• From Headless society, to headed, to compound, doubly compound
and triply compound society
• From militant society (militant) to industrial society (peaceful)
• The natural and unguided evolution of society leads to the most fit
surviving and the poor and the unfit being eliminated

Conclusion
• In this section you have learnt about Herbert Spencer’s (British) biography
• His contribution to sociology in terms of the ideas he developed for our

understanding of the nature of society and its future direction
• Spencer like Comte shared evolutionary ideas about society, although his
evolutionary ideas differed from that of Comte’s law of three stages
• Spencer shared a commitment to a science of society
• However, whereas Comte wanted social reforms through sociology,

Spencer did not want reform through sociology but wanted social life to
evolve freely not guided by any external force or governmental control

SOCI 301/321
Session 4 – Emile Durkheim (1958-1917)

2014/2015 – 2016/2017
Session Overview
Introduction
This session deals with the works and ideas of Emile Durkheim, (French)
By the end of the session you should be able to:
• know the background of Emile Durkheim
• know his major publications
• Identify and explain his leading ideas and views about the nature of society and
human behaviour
• compare and contrast his ideas and views with the earlier founders you have
studied
• apply his ideas and theories to understand society, aspects of it and human
behavior

Session Outline
• Topic One : Emile Durkheim: Biography
• Topic Two : Durkheim Positivism and Major Publications
• Topic Three: Durkheim: Major Ideas

Reading List




Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
Biography
• Emile Durkheim was born in Epinal, France to a Jewish family with a long line of rabbis.
• He decided not to be a rabbi.
• A the age of 19, went to the prestigious Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris.
• He developed interest first in philosophy but by the time he graduated in 1882, he had shifted his
interest to the scientific study of society.
• Five years after graduation, a sociology course was created for him at the University of Bordeaux
which gave him the chance to become the first academic sociologist.
• In 1893, Durkheim defended his doctoral dissertation, the Division of Labour in Society at the
University of Paris.
• He founded, edited and wrote an influential journal L’Anne Sociogique and by 1913 he attained the
professorship of “Science of Education and Sociology at the Sorbonne.

Durkheim: Major Works
• Major Works of Durkheim
• Unlike Comte who did not have the opportunity to
lecture in a University, Durkheim had this chance and
developed a sound academic base
• He legitimized sociology in France he established its
major subject matter.
• He wrote a number of books that continue to influence
sociological thinking or discourse. The major books are
Division of Labour in Sociology (1893), The Rules of
Sociological Method (1895), Suicide (1897), and The
Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912).

Topic Two: Durkheim’s Ideas
• Durkheim like Comte was worried about the social
disorder of his day so dealt with the issue of social
order.
• He defined the subject-matter of sociology as the

study of “social facts”
• To him, society is held together by the shared

beliefs, sentiments and values of members in a
society i.e. society exists because of consensus
(agreement) to follow the rules to keep society
stable
• Evolution of Society: traditional to modern,
• Key ideas are social solidarity or social integration,

collective conscience, happiness, division of labour
and specialization, anomie and suicide
• The social significance of religion: society creates

religion and religion serves society

Durkheim Ideas (cont’d)
• Durkheim’s Positivism
• Like Comte, Durkheim believed in positivism and urged
that society should be studied scientifically.
•
• Sociology should study social facts: things that are
external to individuals and coercive of them in society:
for example, social norms, traditions and customs,
societal laws, common morality, etc.
• Society evolves from traditional to modern state due

mainly to population growth—moral density
• Simple societies are characterized by limited division

of labour and specialization; modern societies have
increased division of labour and specialization
• Simple societies experience “mechanical solidarity”

and modern societies “organic solidarity”

• Like Comte, Durkheim was also disturbed by the
negative influence of the Enlightenment and the
French Revolution and sought to reform society.
• He was concerned with how society could re-create
social order and harmony. Hence the central theme
running through most of his work is “social
integration”, “social order”, “social cohesion” and
“social solidarity”.
• Anomie/Normlessness and Suicide
• According to Durkheim, the act of suicide is

influenced by social forces—level of social
integration and social regulation and not simply an
individual matter as it might appear
• Religion: the Profane and the Sacred
• Religion is a social fact. Its social significance is

social integration and social solidarity

• Durkheim urges that social facts should be the subject matter of sociology.
• “a social fact is every way of acting, fixed or not, capable of exercising on the
individual an external constraint; or again, every way of acting which is general
throughout a given society, while at the same time existing in its own right
independent of its individual manifestations (Durkheim, 1895/1982:13)
• Social facts are things in society that exert powerful influence on our behaviours.
They are external to and coercive of the individual.
• “Social facts are those aspects of social life that cannot be explained in terms of
the biological or mental characteristics of the individual. People experience social
facts as external to themselves in the sense that [social] facts have independent
reality and form part of people’s objective environment. As such social facts serve
to constrain their behaviour, and include not only legal and moral rules in society,
but also relationships and patterns of others that affect our day to day lives”
(2005:12):

• Social fact is experienced as (i) an external constraint, rather than
internal or individual drive and (ii) as general throughout the
society and cannot be attached to any particular individual in
society.
• Social fact cannot be reduced to individuals but must be studied on

their own, i.e. social facts are sui generis, a Latin word meaning
social facts and unique. They have their own unique character and
cannot be reduced to individual consciousness.
• In everyday language we can say that social facts are the social
structures, institutions, cultural norms and values, laws that are
external to and coercive of individuals. Durkheim himself gave
examples of social facts as legal rules, moral obligations and social
conventions as well as language.

• Material Social Fact
• Non-Material Social Fact
• Society as a Moral Entity
• Social Disorganization and Anomie
• Collective Conscience
• Collective Representation
• Social Currents Collective effervescenses

SOCI 301/321
Session 5 –Emile Durkheim (cont’d)

2014/2015 – 2016/2017
Session Overview
Introduction
This session continues to examine the works and ideas of
Emile Durkheim
At the end of the session, you should be able to:
• identify and explain his leading ideas and views about
the nature of society and human behaviour
• compare and contrast his ideas and views with the earlier
founders you have studied
• apply his ideas and theories to understand society,
aspects of it and human behavior

Session Outline
The key topics to be covered in the session are:
• Division of Labour in Society
• Social Solidarity
• Mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity
• Repressive and Restitutive Law

Reading List





Division of Labour in Society
• Durkheim was evolutionary like Comte and Spencer
Society is evolving from the simple or traditional to
become more complex/modern or industrialized,
This corresponds to:
• Comte’s theological and positivistic society, or
• Spencer’s militant and industrial societies, or
• Ferdinand Tonnies’ gemeinschaft and gesellschaft.

Division of Labour in Society (cont’d)
• The complex or modern society is essentially more
developed and has increased division of labour and
specialization than the simple society
• Population growth or increase in moral density is the

key to the evolution of society from one stage to
another

Division of Labour in Society (Cont’d)
• Social solidarity is the bonds of togetherness that
exist among individuals who are members of a
group, family, community and society.
• Mechanical Solidarity: characteristic of traditional

societies because of similarity or uniformity of the
individuals (in terms of similar background,
occupations, thoughts, and feelings) where the
collective conscience is strong

Division of Labour in Society (cont’d)
• Organic solidarity: characteristic of modern societies

because of differences among the individuals
(because of divergent backgrounds, occupations,
thoughts, and feelings) where the collective
conscience is weak

Law in Society
• Durkheim distinguishes two types of law: repressive and
restitutive
• Repressive law (mainly punitive) is characteristic of

traditional societies because of similarity or uniformity of
the thoughts, morality and collective conscience is strong
Examples are: Old Testament Law an eye for an eyes and
a tooth for a tooth, repressive Canon Law, atropre dance
of the Ashanti, honour killings, etc. Hence deviation or
criminality is regarded as behaviour against the whole
group and so the groups’ or society’s reactions is often
severe and spontaneous.

Law in Society (cont’d)
• Restitutive Law (mainly compensatory) is

characteristic of modern societies because of
differences in thoughts and feelings and the
dominance of the spirit of individualism. Hence
deviation or criminality is regarded as behaviour
against individuals rather than the group or society
hence law is mild often requiring that compensations
be paid the victims

SOCI 301/321
Session 6 – Emile Durkheim (cont’d)

2014/2015 – 2016/2017
Session Overview
Introduction
This session concludes the works and ideas of Emile
Durkheim
• identify and explain his leading ideas and views about
• apply his ideas and theories to understand society,
aspects of it and human behavior

Session Outline
The key topics to be covered in this session are as follows:
• Suicide
• Religion

Reading List





Suicide
• The book titled Suicide demonstrates the subject matter of
sociology (social fact) and also shows that the positivistic
methods—that is, the methods followed in the natural
sciences), is possible within sociology.
• Suicide is Durkheim’s most positivistic study and one of the
best within the sociological field
• For Durkheim, individuals find their happiness in groups and if
they are not integrated to groups they would feel isolated and
unhappy and in the extreme conditions would commit
suicide. Thus the weakness of social bonds has negative
effects on the individual’s social and mental well-being. Thus
the social fact—in this case weak social bond causes suicide.
• Thus Durkheim hypothesized that suicide varies inversely with
the degree of integration in society.

Suicide: Types
1. Egoistic suicide= where social integration is weak
2. Altruistic Suicide= where social integration is strong
3. Anomic Suicide = Where social regulation and norms are

weak, or absent that is there situation is anomic
4. Fatalistic Suicide= where social regulation and control is

strong
Durkheim and Religion
• Durkheim religion is a social fact. In The Elementary

Forms of Religious Life (1912/1965), Durkheim
sought to study primitive or the most simplistic or
elementary form of religion in order to shed light on
the role of religion in modern society.
• Definition of Religion
• The Sacred and the Profane
• Religion and Traditional Society:

Durkheim and Religion (cont’d)
• Totemic objects as Religious objects: the Arunta ethnic group of Australia
• The social significance of religion
• Manifest and Latent functions of Religion
• Durkheim’s Theory of Religion for Understanding Rituals and Festivals
• Society as Living Organism
• Anomie or Normlessness
• Moral Education and Socialization

CONCLUSION
• According to Durkheim sociology’s subject matter is “social fact”

meaning that sociologist should study how society extent influences
on our behaviour. It does this through its institutions, activities,
culture and shared value systems—social facts— society integrates
and exerts pressure on all of us so that to a large extent we are not
always totally free to acts as we wish
• Society and groups particularly their levels of integration and

regulation to a great extent can precipitate suicide
• Durkheim’s idea that sociologists should study social facts would

however not be accepted by all sociologists, particularly symbolic
interactionists and ethnomethologists. Today sociology’s subject
matter is wider than what Durkheim carved for it

Conclusion (cont’d)
• Social solidarity helps us to understand why and how social order
and consensus is possible in society.
• His idea of mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity also help us

to understand the nature and functioning of traditional societies
and modern societies and to explain the different behavioural
patterns that characterize members of these societies.
• His idea that society is like a living organism and the role of religion
plays in society helps us to understand the interrelatedness of social
institutions and their functions, likewise the importance of rituals,
festivals and national celebrations. He provided a fertile ground for
the development of modern functionalist theory.
• Among the founders of sociology, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx and
Max Weber are considered the greatest.
•

SOCI 301/321
Session 7 – Karl Marx 1818-1883

2014/2015 – 2016/2017
Session Overview
Overview
This session and the next two examine the works and ideas of Karl Marx
At the end of this session, you should be able to:
• give an biographical account of Karl Marx
• identify the major books he published
• Explain his leading ideas and views about the nature of the historic
transformation of society
• Explain the structure and function of modern capitalist society
• compare and contrast his ideas and views with the earlier founders you
have studied
• apply his ideas and theories to understand society, aspects of it and
human behavior
• Identify his contribution to sociology

Session Outline
• Karl Marx: Biography
• Marx and Engels’ Publications
• Intellectual Influences on Marx

Reading List





Karl Marx (1818-1883):Biography
• Karl Marx was born on 5th May 1818 in Trier, a small
town in the German Rhineland of Prussia.
• At the age of 17 Marx entered the University of

Bonn to read law.
• The following year his father transferred him to the

University of Berlin because of fighting a duel and
getting wounded and for running into debt.
• At the University of Bonn he came into contact with

the thoughts of idealist philosopher Georg Hegel
(1770-1831) l.
• Marx later abandoned his legal studies and focused

on philosophy. Four years later Marx received his
doctorate degree in philosophy from the University
of Jena.
• Because Marx was a radical scholar he was

blacklisted by the Prussian Minister of Education
and that prevented him from pursuing academic
career.

Karl Marx: Biography (cont’d)
• He consequently turned to journalism and in 1842
became chief editor of the liberal-radical
newspaper Rheinische Zeitung (Rhenish Gazette).
• Marx wrote many critical articles against the

government in Berlin was censored and his paper
closed down
• But through his association with Rheinische Zeitung

that he met his true life long friend and
collaborator Friedrich Engels (1820-1895).
• Engels was the son of a wealthy German

manufacturer who owned textile factories in
Barmen in Germany and Manchester in England.
He supported Marx and his family financially and
both collaborated and wrote many books.
• In October 1843, he moved to Paris where he took

up the study of political economy by reading the
works of Adam Smith and David Ricardo and thus
became interested in economic issues.
• .

Karl Marx: Biography (cont’d)
• In 1845, Marx left Paris for Brussels. Towards
the end of his stay in Brussels Marx became
more involved in the workers’ movement
and in 1848, the Communist League asked
Marx and Engels to draw up a workers
charter.
• This charter became The Communist

Manifesto of 1848 which had an enormous
impact on workers movement throughout
Europe, former Soviet Union, Eastern
Europe, and other revolutionary struggles
and governments throughout the world.
• In 1849 Marx left Brussels and settled in

London where he devoted his time to
intellectual work. Marx died at his desk in
1883 at the age of 65

Karl Marx: Major Works
Marx’s works include:
1. The Holy Family (with Engels, 1845)

2. The Poverty of Philosophy (1846)
3. The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts (1844)
4. The German Ideology (with Engels, 1846)
5. The Manifesto of the Communist Party (with Engels, 1848)
6. The Class Struggle in France, (1850)
7. The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852)
8. The Grundisse (1858)
9. The Critique of Political Economy (1859)
10. Three volumes of Capital (Vol. 1, 1867 and Vols. 2&3, 12 years later)
11. The Civil War in France (1871) and
12. The Critique of the Gotha Program (1875)

Intellectual Influence: Georg Hegel
• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) was the idealist philosopher whose ideas influenced
Marx tremendously
• Hegel and Dialectics. Dialectical thinking involves three interlinked processes of thinking: thesis,
anti-thesis, and synthesis.
• Hegel’s argument is that for every idea or thesis that can be conceived an apposing idea or anti-
thesis can also be conceived. In other words, if idea “A” exists, then its opposing idea “-A” can also
exist.
• Every thesis comes anti-thesis—a contradiction. The contradiction would be resolved by the
thinking process and this would lead to the development of a new idea or synthesis. Synthesis
emerges from the decomposition of the thesis and anti-thesis. At this point, the synthesis becomes
the thesis and another dialectical process begins whereby the new thesis encounters its
antagonistic anti-thesis thus resulting in yet another synthesis and on and on the dialectical process
continues.
• This process leads to the development of new forms of ideas that humans use to change society or
to organize society into newer progressive levels
• The Dialectics thus occurs in the human mind

(cont’d)
• Marx agreed with Hegel’s dialectics of thesis, anti-thesis
and synthesis but disagreed that it takes place in the
human mind.
• For Marx the dialectics takes place in the material world,
in the real world in which humans live, especially in the
economic institution where humans enter into relations
with each other to produce for their material existence.
• According to him it is in the economic realm that we find
the contractions of life and when these contradictions
are resolved, new socioeconomic formations and for that
matter society emerges.

(cont’d)
• Marx the development of the concepts: dialectical
materialism—the notion that societal development
depends on class of contradictions and the
subsequent creation of new, more advanced
structures.
• He developed the concept of historical materialism:
Marx took the dialectic from the level of
metaphysical abstraction and utilized it to explain the
dynamics of concrete socioeconomic life.
• From dialectical thinking to dialectical materialism
and finally to historical materialism
SOCI 301/321
Session 8 –KARL MARX (Cont’d)

2014/2015 – 2016/2017
Session Overview
Overview
• This session and the next continues to present Marx’s ideas,
basic concepts and views about the nature and functioning of
society
• Goals and Objectives

• identify and explain his leading ideas and views about the
nature of society and human behaviour
• apply his ideas and theories to understand society, aspects of
it and human behavior

Session Outline
The key topics to be covered in this session are as follows:
• Bourgeoisie and proletariat
• Substructure and superstructure
• Capitalism, socialism and communism

Karl Marx: Basic Ideas and Concepts
• The industrial capitalist society that emerged in the 19th century had split society into
two major classes: the few who were the owners of the industries, banks, shops, etc.—
the bourgeoisie and the many who did not own productive means or property so were
forced to sell their labour power to the industrialist as labourers—or the proletariat
• There is conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat or “the haves and the
have-nots”– hence class conflict which the motor that would change society
• This class conflict and the exploitation of the capitalist system would propel the workers
into revolution that would destroy and abolish the capitalism system of production
• The workers would create a socialist society and abolish private ownership of property
and also abolish social classes and end exploitation
• The conflict, the tensions and the contradictions in society are the factors that
transform society from one stage to the other
• Capitalism would be replaced by socialism and finally communism

Marx: Basic Ideas and Concepts
(cont’d)
• Marx divided the capitalist society into twoparts: the
substructure and the superstructure
• Substructure: is the economic institution of society
(where production of material things for sustaining life
takes place)
• Superstructure: includes, religion, education, family,
politics and others beliefs systems, law, media, etc.
• Substructure contains the forces of production and
relations of production
• Superstructure is full of ideas (where the ideas that
govern society—the ruling ideas are produced)

(cont’d)
• The superstructure is an ideological apparatus of society
which serves to hide or explain away the exploitation and
poverty the workers suffer in capitalist society.
• Religion is part of the superstructure so it is used by the ruling

class or the economically and politically dominant group to
explain away the poverty and suffering, unemployment of the
masses.
• After the rich in society have exploited the masses through

the payment of low wages and then made them poor, they
tend to preach to them in churches that “blessed are the
poor for they shall inherit the kingdom”
• When the masses hear and accept such religious messages,

they come to experience “false consciousness” and would not
revolt against their exploitation and against the rich capitalist
class.
• For Marx religion is “the opium of the masses”. In other

words, Christian religion is offered them so that they would
not know the objective conditions that create their miseries;
rather they would look to heaven for better lives and not on
earth

(cont’d)
• Marx also said that social scientists had all along been describing society
and social conditions, it was time to change them for the better
• Most of his writings had revolutionary ideas and Marx worked through his
writings to overthrow the capitalist system of production (see the
Communist Manifesto) and create socialist and finally communist society
• For Marx, there would be communism finally: where everyone makes
contribution to society according to his or her ability and receive according
to his or her needs. Human exploitation and suffering would cease. No
more classes

SOCI 301/321
Session 9 – KARL MARX (cont’d)

2014/2015 – 2016/2017
Session Overview
Overview
• This session concludes Marx’s ideas, basic concepts and views
about the nature and functioning of society

• identify and explain his leading ideas and views about the
nature of society and human behaviour

Session Outline
• Review of the Communist Manifesto

• Class conflict
• Historical materialism
• Primitive Communal Society
• Slave-Owning society
• Feudal Society
• Capitalist Society
• Socialist Society
• Communist Society and many more

Reading List





(cont’d)
• Review of the Communist Manifesto
“Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses… this

distinctive feature; it has simplified the class antagonism.
Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two
hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each
other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat”—from the Manifesto of
the Communist Party (1848)

(cont’d)
Marxist basic concepts include
• Class conflict
• Historical materialism
• Primitive Communal Society
• Slave-Owning society
• Feudal Society
• Capitalist Society
• Socialist Society
• Communist Society

• The Capitalist System of Production (the features)
• Socialist System of Production (the features)
• The place of the Bourgeoisie (owners of the means of

production)
• Proletariat in the capitalist system of production
(they do not own means of production but has their
labour power to offer the bourgeoisie

(cont’d)
• The contradictions of the capitalist society
• Surplus Value, Use value, Exchange value
• Alienation and alienated labour—what then…is alienation of
labour?
• First, the fact that labour is external to the worker, i.e. it does not
belong to his essential being; that in his work, therefore, he does
not affirm himself but denies himself, does not feel content but
unhappy, does not develop freely his physical and mental energy
but mortifies his body and ruins his mind. The worker therefore
only feels himself outside his work and his work feels outside
himself. He is at home when he is not working, and when he is
working he is not at home. His labour therefore is not voluntary, but
coerced; it is forced labour. It is therefore not the satisfaction of a
need; it is merely a means to satisfy needs external to it (Marx,
1850/1964:72).

(cont’d)
• Commodification of human relations
• Fetishism and thingification of commodities
• False consciousness and class consciousness
• Class-in-itself and class-for-itself and many more

(cont’d)
• Superstructure and Substructure
• Relations of production (in the substructure)
• Forces of production (in the substructure)
• Marx and the law in capitalist society

• Marx and the position of the state in capitalist
society— “an executive committee for managing the
affairs of the bourgeoisie”
• Marx and knowledge production in capitalist society

(cont’d)
• The state as ideological apparatus in capitalist society
• Marx and Religion
• Religion as opium of the masses, the proletariat/poor
• Marx and economic determinism

(cont’d)
• Marx and social inequality and social stratification
• The relevance of Marx in contemporary times

SOCI 301/321
Session 10 – MAX WEBER (1864-1920)

2014/2015 – 2016/2017
Session Overview
This session and the next two examine the works and ideas of Max Weber
At the end of this session, you should be able to:
• give an biographical account of Max Weber
• identify the major books he published
• Explain his leading ideas and views about the nature of the historic
transformation of society
• Explain the structure and function of modern capitalist society
• compare and contrast his ideas and views with the earlier founders you
have studied
human behavior
• Identify his contribution to sociology

Session Outline
• A Brief biographical background of Max Weber
• Weber major concepts and his sociology

Reading List





Topic Three: Max Weber
(1864-1920)
• Max Weber (pronounced Vay-ber).
Was German Sociologist
• Marx, Durkheim and Weber are the
most influential founders of sociology
• Sociologists should uncover or study
the feelings and thoughts of
individuals—using the method of
Verstehen (fehr-shtay-en)
• Ideal type concept
• Value-free sociology
• Societal evolution or social change is a
rationalization process
• Modernity and industrialization would
not necessarily lead to happiness
• Humanity would be trapped in an
“iron cage of rationality”

Max Weber: Biography
• Max Weber (pronounced Vayber) was born in Erfurt, Germany, on April 21, 1864. Max Weber’s father
was a lawyer and bureaucrat who rose to a relatively important political position.
• His father was a man who loved to enjoy earthly pleasures.
• Max Weber’s mother was, however, a devout Calvinist, a woman who sought to lead an ascetic life largely
devoid of the pleasures craved by her husband. Her concerns were more otherworldly; she was worried
by imperfections and held the view that that they were signs that she was not go to Heaven or destined
for salvation.
•
• At the age of 18, Weber went to the University of Heidelberg to study.
• He chose his father’s career: law. But after three terms at Heidelberg, Weber left for military service and
returned to Berlin in 1884.
• He trained at the University of Berlin for eight years and got his PhD and became a lawyer. Weber became
a lecturer at the University of Berlin and shifted his interest to economics, history and sociology.
• In 1896, he became a professor of economics at the University of Heidelberg and in 1897, when his
intellectual career was blossoming his father died after a violent argument between them.
• Shortly after Weber began showing signs of nervous breakdown and took rest from work. He later
traveled to the US and delivered a lecture and began to recuperate his academic energy.

Weber: Biography (cont’d)
• In 1905, Weber published his best-known work The Protestant
Ethic and the Spirit of capitalism: a work which raised his mother’s
religion to the level of academic discussion. Although Weber
himself was not personally religious, he worked on world’s religion
in world-historical perspective.
• At the time of his death (June 14, 1920) Weber was working on
another important work Economy and Society which was published
posthumously, albeit it remains unfinished.
• Weber founded the German Sociological Association in 1910. His

home was used for intellectual discussions where great minds such
as Georg Simmel, Robert Michels, his brother Alfred Weber, and
philosopher and literary critic Georg Lukacs often met. He also
wrote on many issues of his days as he was politically engaged.

Weber’s Basic Concepts (cont’d)
• Social Action Definition
• Types of Social Action
(i)Goal-Oriented Social Action
(ii) Value Oriented Social Action
(iii) Affective Social Action
(iv)Traditional Social Action

• Rationalization
• The methodology of Sociology:
(i) Subjectivity
(ii) Verstehen
(iii) Causality and Probability

• Ideal Types (definition and example)
• Value Free Sociology/Social science (the debate and

controversies: Alvin Gouldner, Robert Lynd &Howard
Becker

• Power and Domination
• Legitimate/Authority and Illegitimate Power
• Patterns of Authority
• (i) Traditional Authority
• (ii) Charismatic Authority
• (iii) Rational-Legal Authority

SOCI 301/321
Session 11 – MAX WEBER (Cont’d)

2014/2015 – 2016/2017
Session Overview
Overview
• This session and the next continues to present Weber’s ideas, basic
concepts and views about the nature and functioning of society

• identify and explain his leading ideas and views about the nature of
society and human behaviour
• compare and contrast his ideas and views with the earlier founders
you have studied
human behavior

Session Outline
• Authority Patterns: traditional, charismatic and rational-legal
• Bureaucracy as ideal concept and formal organization
• Rationalization, the iron cage of rationality and the

disenchantment with modernity

Reading List





Weber: Major Concepts (Cont’d)
• Patterns of Authority and their Sources of Legitimacy
(i) Traditional Authority
(ii) Charismatic Authority
(iii) Rational-Legal Authority

• Bureaucracy as ideal Concept
• Features of Bureaucracy
• Iron cage of rationality
• Rationalization and the Disenchantment with

modernity

• Advantages of bureaucracy
• Disadvantages/ limitations of bureaucracy
• Informal Organisations within formal organizations

SOCI 301/321
Session 12 – MAX WEBER (Cont’d)
Lecturer: Dr. Dan-Bright S . Dzorgbo, UG

2014/2015 – 2016/2017
Session Overview
Overview
• This session concludes the works, concepts and views of Max

Weber

• identify and explain further his leading ideas and views about
Session Outline
• The Spirit of capitalism
• Religion and the rise of capitalism
• Weber and Social Stratification
• Weber and Marx

Reading List





• Meaning of the Spirit of capitalism
• Types of rationality:
(i) Substantive rationality and (ii) formal rationality

• Religion and the rise of capitalism first in the West
• The Protestant Ethic and the spirit of capitalism
• The teachings of John Calvin and how it indirectly
promoted ethics and attitudes that conduced to the
development of rational capitalist activities
• The concept of predestination
• Religious Anxieties
• Work as a vocation

• Weber and the institutional theory of capitalism
development
• The role of the state and institutions in the genesis of

capitalism

• Weber and Social Stratification
• Weber and Marx: Weber’s “posthumous dialogue

with the ghost of Marx”
• Weber opposes or complements Marx?
• Compare Weber and Marx

Max Weber: Concepts (Cont’d)
• By verstehen Weber meant that sociologists should be interested in the personal meanings people
attach to their behaviours. Verstehen is thus a method of being able to put oneself in the shoes of
others in order to gain insight into others persons’ behaviour. The understanding of meanings
people attach to their behaviours.
• By value free sociology Weber meant that sociologists in their professional work should not let their
personal values, preferences or biases introduce in their work so that they should be able to
generate objective knowledge
• Weber also asked that sociologists should construct ideal type concepts: Ideal type is a description
of the essential characteristic s of a phenomenon or some aspect of society, a description that
brings out its essential features in a pure and ideal manner. With this, sociologists would then
observe how the reality conforms to or diverges from such an ideal type description: e.g.
bureaucracy
• Weber believed that social evolution entails increasing rationalization of every aspect of society:
Humans beings become more calculative in their actions and behaviours, they think of cost and
benefits of a particular action before executing it and society also becomes organized to achieve
profits and efficiency.
• This rationalization and concern for technical efficiency would not always make us happy and we
would appear to be trapped in an iron cage of rationality from which we cannot extricate ourselves:
human beings would become disenchanted with modernity and rationalization.

Conclusion: Durkheim, Marx and
Weber
• Durkheim laid emphasis on how society through its institutions, norms,
values, etc. exert pressure on humans—social facts as the subject
matter of sociologists
• Durkheim was interested in social order, what holds society and
individuals together—hence social solidarity is a theme running
through his work
• Whereas others were concerned with social order, Marx discovered
conflict is society and the exploitation of the many by the few and
predicted that societal change would lead to the development of a
more socially just and humane society
• Weber asked that sociologists discover the motives for human actions
through the method of verstehen and sociologists should not let their
values intrude into their professional work.
• Whereas some sociologists saw modernity as progressive Weber
indicated that societal evolution would mean increasing rationality in
the affairs of humans to the point that humans would become
disenchanted with the modern world

Soci 321 Foundation of Social Thoughts

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SOCI301/321

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL THOUGHT

Session 1 – THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIOLOGY: THE

Lecturer: Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo

• Introduction: This session describes pre-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo, Sociology Dept. UG Slide 2

Two topics are discussed in this session. They are:

• Description of socio-economic and political conditions in Europe

• The major factors that account for the emergence of sociology

Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo, Sociology Dept. UG Slide 3

• ASHLEY D. AND D. M. ORENSTEIN (2001) SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY: THE CLASSICAL

• DZORGBO, D-B. S. (2013) SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY: CLASSICAL IDEAS AND THEIR

• DZORGBO D-B. S. (2009) SOCIOLOGY: FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL THOUGHT: LEGON-

• RITZER G. (20O8) SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY, BOSTON: MCGRAW HILL

• RITZER G. & DOUGLAS J. GOODMAN, (2004) CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY,

Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo, Sociology Dept. UG Slide 4

• Most Europeans lived in relatively small and isolated communities dominated by

Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo, Sociology Dept. UG Slide 5

Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo, Sociology Dept. UG Slide 6

1. The French Political Revolution of 1789

Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo, Sociology Dept. UG Slide 7

• The French Political Revolution brought about civil

• Resulted in social anarchy, instability for about 10

• The positive effects were: the proclamation of

• The negative effects of social disorder and anarchy

• He thus called for a new discipline he called

Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo, Sociology Dept. UG Slide 8

Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo, Sociology Dept. UG Slide 9

• With the development of science and technology industries began to be set by

Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo, Sociology Dept. UG Slide 10

The effects of industrialization and urbanization were:

Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo, Sociology Dept. UG Slide 11

Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo, Sociology Dept. UG Slide 12

• In the period enlightenment and with the growth of science,

• Also there was rebellion of Martin Luther against the Catholic

Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo, Sociology Dept. UG Slide 13

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Colonialism and Exposure to other Peoples and Cultures

• The discovery of other

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Session 2 –The Founders of Sociology:

Lecturer: Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo, UG

Goals and Objectives

• Provide brief biographical background knowledge on Comte

• Identify and explain his core ideas, concepts and theories

• Determine his contribution to sociology

Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo Slide 2

Comte’s work is examined under the following two topics :

• Topic One : The biography of Auguste Comte

• Topic Two: Comte’s ideas, concepts and views

Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo Slide 3

• ASHLEY D. AND D. M. ORENSTEIN (2001) SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY: THE CLASSICAL

• DZORGBO, D-B. S. (2013) SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY: CLASSICAL IDEAS AND THEIR

• DZORGBO D-B. S. (2009) SOCIOLOGY: FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL THOUGHT: LEGON-

• RITZER G. (20O8) SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY, BOSTON: MCGRAW HILL

• RITZER G. & DOUGLAS J. GOODMAN, (2004) CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY,

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• He coined the term sociology after considering as “social physics”

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• Positivism: the application of the