Origin & Development of

Sociology
Course Code: SOC101
Course Teacher: Farhana Sultana
 Origin of Sociology
• The word sociology is derived from both Latin
and Greek origins.
– the Latin word: socius, “companion”;
– the Greek suffix: logie, “the study of”, “word”,
“knowledge”.
• It was first coined in 1780 by the French essayist
Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès (1748–1836) in an
unpublished manuscript.
• Sociology was later defined independently by the
French philosopher of science, Auguste Comte
(1798–1857), in 1838.
 Development of Sociology
• Sociology emerged as a separate discipline in
the nineteenth century.
• This was a time of great social upheaval due
largely to the French and Industrial
Revolutions.
• Several early sociologists shaped the direction
of the discipline.
 Development of Sociology in the
United States
• American sociology had its beginnings at the
University of Chicago in the early 20th century.
• The early emphasis was on empirical study of
communities and neighborhoods.
• Later, East Coast schools such as Columbia and
Harvard Universities began sociology
departments, producing scholars such as W.E.B.
Dubois, Talcott Parsons, and Robert Merton.
Auguste Comte (1798 – 1857)
• Auguste Comte was a French
philosopher and one of the
founders of the discipline of
sociology and of the principle
of positivism.
• In observing the circular
dependence of theory and
observation in science, and
having classified the sciences,
Comte may be regarded as the
first philosopher of science in
the modern sense of the term.
 Auguste Comte (Cont.)
• He endeavored to unify history, psychology and
economics through the scientific understanding of the
social realm.
• He focused on two aspects of society
– Social Statics: forces which produce order and stability
– Social Dynamics: forces which contribute to social change
• Comte proposed that social ills could be remedied
through sociological positivism, an epistemological
approach outlined in The Course in Positive Philosophy
and A General View of Positivism.
• Comte believed a positivist stage would mark the final
era in the progression of human understanding.
 Harriet Martineau (1802 – 1876)
• Harriet Martineau was a
British social theorist and
Whig writer, often cited as
the first female sociologist.
• Martineau wrote many
books and a multitude of
essays from a sociological,
holistic, religious, domestic,
and perhaps most
controversially, feminine
perspective; she also
translated various works
from Auguste Comte.
 Harriet Martineau (Cont.)
• Martineau's reflections on Society in America,
published in 1837, are prime examples of her
sociological methods. Her ideas in this field were set
out in her 1838 book How to Observe Morals and
Manners:
• She believed that some very general social laws
influence the life of any society, including the principle
of progress, the emergence of science as the most
advanced product of human intellectual endeavor, and
the significance of population dynamics and the
natural physical environment.
Herbert Spencer (1820 – 1903)
• Herbert Spencer was an
English philosopher,
biologist, anthropologist,
sociologist, and prominent
classical liberal political
theorist of the Victorian
era.
• He is claimed to be the
author of the first sociology
text Principles of Sociology.
 Herbert Spencer (Cont.)
• Spencer 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.
• He proposed a doctrine called ‘Social Darwinism’
in which he suggested that the people who could
not compete were poorly adapted to the
environment and inferior.
• He referred to this idea as ‘survival of the fittest’.
 Karl Marx (1818 – 1883)
• Karl Marx was a
Prussian philosopher,
economist, sociologist,
journalist, and
revolutionary socialist;
and is typically cited as
one of the principal
architects of modern
sociology and social
science.
 Karl Marx (Cont.)
• Marx proposed the conflict theory that holds that
human societies progress through class struggle:
a conflict between
– ruling classes (known as the bourgeoisie) that control
the means of production; and
– working classes (known as the proletariat) that work
on these means by selling their labor for wages
• According to Marx, states are run in the interests
of the ruling class but are nonetheless
represented as being in favor of the common
interest of all.
Emile Durkheim (1858 – 1917)
• Emile Durkheim was a
French sociologist, social
psychologist and
philosopher.
• He formally established
the academic discipline of
sociology and is
commonly cited as one of
the principal architects of
modern social science
and father of sociology.
 Emile Durkheim (Cont.)
• In The Division of Labor in Society, Durkheim described how
social order was maintained in societies based on two very
different forms of solidarity (mechanical and organic), and
the transition from more "primitive" societies to advanced
industrial societies.
• Durkheim was a major proponent of structural
functionalism, a foundational perspective in both sociology
and anthropology.
– In his view, social science should be purely holistic; that is,
sociology should study phenomena attributed to society at
large, rather than being limited to the specific actions of
individuals.
• He is most well-known for his empirical work Suicide in
which he looks at the social causes of suicide.
 Max Weber (1864 – 1920)
• Max Weber was a German
sociologist, philosopher,
jurist, and political
economist whose ideas
profoundly influenced
social theory and social
research.
• Much of his work was a
critique or clarification of
that of Marx and other
classic theorists such as
Durkheim.
 Max Weber (Cont.)
• Weber was a key proponent of methodological
antipositivism, arguing for the study of social action
through interpretive (rather than purely empiricist) means,
based on understanding the purpose and meaning that
individuals attach to their own actions.
• Unlike Durkheim, he did not believe in monocausality and
rather proposed that for any outcome there can be
multiple causes.
• Weber's main intellectual concern was understanding the
processes of rationalization, secularization, and
"disenchantment" that he associated with the rise of
capitalism and modernity, and which he saw as the result
of a new way of thinking about the world.
Theoretical Perspective: Functionalism
• Functionalism sees society as a system of
highly interrelated parts that work together
harmoniously.
• Functionalists try to look at society as a living
organism and to understand it as such.
• Each part of society works together for the
benefit of the whole - much like a living
organism.
 Theoretical Perspective: Conflict
Theory
• Conflict theory is grounded in the work of Karl
Marx.
• Society is understood to be made up of
conflicting interest groups who vie for power and
privilege.
• This dynamic results in continuous social change,
which is the normal state of affairs.
• Conflict theory focuses heavily on inequality and
differential distribution of power and wealth.
 Theoretical Perspective:
Interactionism
• This view focuses on how individuals make
sense of and interpret the world.
• This perspective tends to focus on the “micro-
order” of small groups.
• It has given rise to several specific approaches:
– Symbolic Interactionism developed by George
Herbert Mead
– Ethnomethodology developed by Harold Garfinkel
– Dramaturgy developed by Erving Goffman
Comparing Theoretical Perspectives