DISCIPLINES AND IDEAS IN

THE APPLIED SOCIAL SCIECE

Midterm
The Pioneering Sociologists or
Great Classical Thinkers
Lesson III
The Pioneering Sociologists or Great Classical
Thinkers
• It can be said that the American Civil War has brought the necessity for
men - for Americans to study in Germany, and return to the United States
inspired with a new spirit and by the methods of their German Teachers.
The men who trained under their German teachers were given a new
direction and inspiration to have a fresh start and fresh interest in social
studies, history, political science and economics. However, it was by way of
English influence that the study about sociology in America flourished.
Some of the most notable contributors to the study of the social sciencesare:
1. August Comte
 1. August Comte (Isidore Auguste Marie
François Xavier Comte)
• (19 January 1798 -September 1857)
• a French philosopher generally credited for coining the term sociology.
• He was a founder of the discipline of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism, a philosophical
and political movement which enjoyed a very wide diffusion in the second half of the nineteenth
century. It sank into an almost complete oblivion during the twentieth, when it was eclipsed by
neopositivism. However, Comte’s decision to develop successively a philosophy of mathematics, a
philosophy of physics, a philosophy of chemistry and a philosophy of biology, makes him the first
philosopher of science in the modern sense, and his constant attention to the social dimension of
science resonates in many respects with current points of view. His political philosophy, on the
other hand, is even less known, because it differs substantially from the classical political
philosophy we have inherited.
 Comte’s Most Important Works
• A. the Course on Positive Philosophy (1830-1842, six
volumes,Ctranslated and condensed by Harriet Martineau as The Positive
Philosophy of Auguste Comte);
• B. the System of Positive Polity, or Treatise on Sociology, Institutingthe
Religion of Humanity, (1851-1854, four volumes); and
• C. the Early Writings (1820-1829), where one can see the influenceof
Saint-Simon, for whom Comte served as secretary from 1817to 1824.
• The Early Writings are still the best introduction to Comte's thought. In
the Course, Comte said, science was transformed into philosophy; in the
System, philosophy was transformed into religion. The second
transfornmation met with strong opposition; as a result, it has become
customary to distinguish, with Mill, between a "good Comte" (the author
of the Course) and a "bad Comte" (the author of the System). Today’s
common conception of positivism corresponds mainly to what can
befound in the Course.
• Comte was born in Montpellier on January 20, 1798 ('le 1er pluviôsede l'an VI, according to the Revolutionary
calendar then in use in France). Having displayed his brilliance in school, he was ranked fourth on the admissions
list of the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris in 1814.
• Two years later, the Bourbons closed that institution, and its students were dismissed. InAugust 1817, Auguste
Comte met Henri de Saint-Simon, who appointed him as his secretary to replace Augustin Thierry. The young
Comte was thus initiated into politics and was able to publish a great numberof articles, which placed him very
much in the public eye. (The most important of these articles were republished by him in 1854 and remain the best
introduction to his oeuvre as a whole.) In April 1824, he broke withSaint-Simon. Shortly afterward, in a civil
wedding, he married CarolineMassin, who had been living with hinm for several months. In April 1826,Comte
began teaching a Course of Positive Philosophy, whose audienceincluded some of the most famous scientists of
the time (Fourier, A. vonHumboldt, Poinsot). It was suddenly interrupted because of a 'cerebralcrisis' due to
overwork and conjugal sorrows. Comte was then hospitalizedin the clinic of Dr. Esquirol. Upon leaving, he was
classified as 'not cured'He recovered gradually, thanks to the devotion and patience of his wife.
• Comte's first essays signalled the beginning of sociology; his courseof Positive Philosophy
introduced the important relationship betweentheory, practice, and human understanding of the
world. It also views allphenomena as subject to invariable natural laws and sociologists mustuse
their senses to facts, when unguided by theory, will prove useless inthe development of science. The
progressive development of science wasanalyzed in his law of the three stages: theological-military,
metaphysicaljudicial, and scientific-industrial or positivistic. The theological-militarystage is
dominated by ideas that refer to the supernatural while beingstructured around slavery and the
military. While the metaphysicaljudicial stage, which follows from the theological and represents
atransition to the scientific, is typified by ideas that refer to the fundamentalessences of phenomena
and by elaborate political and legal forms.Finally, the scientific-industrial stage is dominated by the
positivephilosophy of science and industrial patterns of social organization.
2. Emile Durkheim
 2. Emile Durkheim
• Emile Durkheim was a well-known sociologist famous for hiaviews on the structure of society.
Emile Durkheim was a French sociologist who rose to prominencein the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. Along with Karl Marx and MaxWeber, he is credited as being one of the principal founders
of modernsociology. Chief among his claims is that society is a sui generis reality,or a reality unique
to itself and irreducible to its composing parts. It iscreated when individual consciences interact and
fuse together to createa synthetic reality that is completely new and greater than the sum of itsparts.
This reality can only be understood in sociological terms, and cannotbe reduced to biological or
psychological explanations. The fact that sociallife has this quality would form the foundation of
another of Durkheim'sclaims, that human societies could be studied scientifically. For this purposehe
developed a new methodology, which focuses on what Durkheim calls"social facts," or elements of
collective life that exist independently of andare able to exert an influence on the individual.
• His work focused on how traditional and modern societies evolvedand
function. Durkheim's theories were founded on the concept of socialfacts,
defined as the norms, values, and structures of a society. This perspective
of society differed from other sociologists off his era as Durkheim's
theories were founded on things external in nature, asopposed to those
internal in nature, such as the motivations and desiresof individuals.
According to Durkheim, collective consciousness, values,and rules are
critical to a functional society. In this lesson, we will focus onDurkheim's
theories of functionalism, anomie, and division of labor.
• Durkheim actually viewed crime and delinquent behavior as a normal
and necessary Occurrence in the social system. He proposed that crimeled
to reactions from society about the crime. These shared reactions
wereused to create a common consensuses of what individuals felt were
moraland ethical norms by which to abide. These commonly held norms
and values led to boundaries and rules for the society.
• When Durkheim began writing, sociology was not recognized as anindependent field
of study. As part of the campaign to change this he went to great lengths to separate
sociology from all other disciplines, especially philosophy. In consequence, while
Durkheim’s influence in the social sciences has been extensive, his relationship with
philosophy remains ambiguous. Nevertheless, Durkheim maintained that sociology
and philosophy are inmany ways complementary, going so far as to say that sociology
has anadvantage over philosophy, since his sociological method provides the means to
study philosophical questions empirically, rather than metaphysicallyor theoretically.
As a result, Durkheim often used sociology to approachtopics that have traditionally
been reserved for philosophical investigation.
• Durkheim was born into a middle class family. He spent most of hiscareer occupying a
professorship at a prestigious university in Paris. He devoted himself in understanding the
stability of society and the importance of social participation for individual happiness. He
defined sociology as the study of social facts. According to him, there are social
factswhich are distinct from biological and psychological facts. By social facts he meant
of behaviour that characterize a social group in a given society.
• He was acclaimed the father of modern sociology for his works, Rules of Sociological
Method; Suicide: A Study in Sociology, Division of Labor in Society, and Elementary
Forms of Religious Life wherein he clearlydefined the scope and method of sociology
and even provided notableexamples of empirical (or scientific) investigations.
3. Max Weber
 3. Max Weber
• Max Weber, (born April 21, 1864, Erfurt, Prusosia (now Germany
DiedJune 14, 1920,Munich, Germany)
• German sociologst and political economist best known for his thesis of
the "Protestant ethic" relating Protestantism to capitalism, and for his
ideas on bureaucracy. Webers profound influence on sociological theory
stens from his demand for objectivity in scholarship and from his analysis
of the motivesbehind human action.
• Weber was the eldest son of Max and Helene Weber. His father was an aspiring liberal
politician who soon joined the more compliant, pro-Bismarckiarn "National-Liberals"
and moved the family from Erfurt to Berlin, where he became a member of the
Prussian House of Deputies(1868-97) and the Reichstag (1872-84).
• The elder Weber established himself as a fixture of the Berlin social milieu and
entertained prominent politicansand scholars in the Weber household. The sociologisť's
mother was raised in Calvinist orthodoxy. Though she gradually accepted a more
tolerant theology, her Puritan morality never diminished. As a result, her husband's social
activities distanced her from him, especially when he spurned her prolonged grief
following
• the deaths of two of their children. He, in turn, adopted a traditionally
authoritarian manner at home and demanded absolute obedience from
wife and children. It is thought that this bleak home environment, marked
by conflicts between Weber's parents, contributed to the inner agonies that
haunted Weber in his adult life.
• Weber defines sociology as the scientific study of human social
action,which refers to any action oriented to influence or influenced by
anotherperson or persons. It is not necessary for more tharn one person to
bephysically present for action to be regarded as social action. Sociology
forWeber is concerned with the interpretative understanding of human
socialaction and the meaning people attach to their own actions and
behavioursand those of others.
• Weber's significance during his lifetime was considerable among German social
scientists, many of whom were his friends in Heidelbergor Berlin; but because so
little of his work was published in book form during his lifetime, and because most
of the journals in which he published had restricted audiences of scholarly
specialists, his major impact was not felt until after his death. The only exceptions
were his formulation of "liberal imperialism" in 1895, his widely discussed thesis
on Protestantism and capitalism, and his extensive attack on German foreign and
domestic policies during World War I in the pages of the Frankfurter Zeitung,
which stimulated liberal sentiment against the government's war aims and led
General Erich Ludendorff to view Weber as a traitor.
• In general, Weber's greatest merit as a thinker was that he brought the
social sciences in Germany, hitherto preoccupied largely with national
problems, into direct critical confrontation with the international giants of
19th-century European thought-Marx and Nietzsche; and, through this
confrontation, Weber helped create a methodology and a body of literature
dealing with the sociology of religion, political parties, and the
economy,as well as studies of formal organizations, small-group
behaviour, and the Philosophy of history. His work continues to stimulate
scholarship.