Tradition vs. ScienceSocial scientists began to adopt the scientific method to make sense of the rapid changes accompanying modernization and industrialization. Show
Learning Objectives Distinguish positivist from interpretive sociological approaches Key TakeawaysKey Points
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In ancient philosophy, there was no difference between the liberal arts of mathematics and
the study of history, poetry, or politics; only with the development of mathematical proofs did there gradually arise a perceived difference between scientific disciplines and the humanities or liberal arts. Thus, Aristotle studied planetary motion and poetry with the same methods, and Plato mixed geometrical proofs with his demonstration on the state of intrinsic knowledge. William James: William James was one of the first Americans to explore human relations scientifically. Quantitative and Qualitative Methods Sociology
embodies several tensions, such as those between quantitative and qualitative methods, between positivist and interpretive orientations, and between objective and critical approaches. Positivist sociology (also known as empiricist) attempts to predict outcomes based on observed variables. Interpretive sociology attempts to understand a culture or phenomenon on its own terms. Understanding Culture and Behavior Instead of Predicting But human society soon showed
itself to be less predictable than the natural world. Scientists like Wilhelm Dilthey and Heinrich Rickert began to catalog ways in which the social world differs from the natural world. For example, human society has culture, unlike the societies of most other animals, which are based on instincts and genetic instructions that are passed between generations biologically, not through social processes. As a result, some sociologists proposed a new goal for sociology: not predicting human
behavior, but understanding it. Max Weber and Wilhelm Dilthey introduced the concept of verstehen, or understanding. The goal of verstehen is less to predict behavior than it is to understand behavior. It aims to understand a culture or phenomenon on its own terms rather than trying to develop a theory that allows for prediction. Early Thinkers and ComteOne of the most influential early figures in sociology was Auguste Comte who proposed a positivist sociology with a scientific base. Learning Objectives Recall Auguste Comte's most important accomplishments Key TakeawaysKey Points
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Auguste Comte is considered one of the founders of sociology. He coined the term "sociology" in 1838 by combining the Latin term socius (companion, associate) and the Greek term logia (study of, speech). Comte hoped to unify all the sciences under sociology.
He believed sociology held the potential to improve society and direct human activity, including the other sciences. Auguste Comte: Auguste Comte was one of the founding figures of sociology. Neither his vision
of a unified science nor his three-stage model have stood the test of time. Instead, today, Comte is remembered for imparting to sociology a positivist orientation and a demand for scientific rigor. As explained in the previous section, early sociological studies drew an analogy from sociology to the natural sciences, such as physics or biology. Many researchers argued that sociology should adopt the scientific methodology used in the natural sciences. This scientific approach, supported by
Auguste Comte, is at the heart of positivism, a methodological orientation with a goal that is rigorous, objective scientific investigation and prediction. Early Social Research and MartineauHarriet Martineau was an English social theorist and Whig writer, often cited as the first female sociologist. Learning Objectives Recall Harriet Martineau's most important accomplishments Key TakeawaysKey Points
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Harriet MartineauHarriet Martineau (12 June 1802 – 27 June 1876) was an English social theorist and Whig writer, often cited as the first female sociologist. Although today Martineau is rarely mentioned, she was critical to the early growth of the sociological discipline. Martineau wrote 35 books and a multitude of essays from a sociological, holistic, religious, domestic, and, perhaps most significantly, feminine perspective. She earned enough to be supported entirely by her writing, a challenging feat for a woman in the Victorian era. As a theorist, she believed that a thorough societal analysis was necessary to understand the status of women. She is notable for her progressive politics. Martineau introduced feminist sociological perspectives in her writing and addressed overlooked issues such as marriage, children, domestic life, religious life, and race relations. Harriet Martineau, 1802-1876: Harriet Martineau introduced Comte to the English-speaking world by translating his works. Translating ComteAlthough Auguste Comte is credited with launching the science of sociology, he might have been forgotten were it not for Martineau, who translated Comte's 1839 text, Cours de Philosophie Positive, from French into English. As she translated this piece, she also condensed Comte's work into clearer, more accessible terms. In 1853, her translation was published in two volumes as The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte. Her translation so dramatically improved the work that Comte himself suggested his students read her translations rather than his original work. Most significantly, her translation brought Comte's works to the English-speaking world. Martineau's Writing As early as 1831, Martineau wrote on the subject of "Political Economy" (as the field of economics was then known). Her goal was to popularize and illustrate the principles of laissez faire capitalism, though she made no claim to original theorizing. Spencer and Social DarwinismHerbert Spencer created what he called "sociology," a synthetic philosophy that tried to find a set of rules explaining social behavior. Learning Objectives Analyze the concept of "progress" in Herbert Spencer's synthetic philosophy Key TakeawaysKey Points
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Though Auguste Comte coined the term " sociology," the first book with the term sociology in its title was written in the mid-19th century by the English philosopher Herbert Spencer. Following Comte, Spencer created a synthetic philosophy that attempted to find a set of rules to explain everything in the universe, including social behavior. Spencer's Synthetic PhilosophyLike Comte, Spencer saw in sociology the potential to unify the sciences, or to develop what he called a "synthetic philosophy. " He believed that the natural laws discovered by natural scientists were not limited to natural phenomena; these laws revealed an underlying order to the universe that could explain natural and social phenomena alike. According to Spencer's synthetic philosophy, the laws of nature applied to the organic realm as much as to the inorganic, and to the human mind as much as to the rest of creation. Even in his writings on ethics, he held that it was possible to discover laws of morality that had the same authority as laws of nature. This assumption led Spencer, like Comte, to adopt positivism as an approach to sociological investigation; the scientific method was best suited to uncover the laws he believed explained social life. Spencer and Progress But Spencer went beyond Comte, claiming that not only the scientific method, but scientific knowledge itself was universal. He believed that all natural laws could be reduced to one fundamental law, the law of evolution. Spencer posited that all structures in the universe developed from a simple,
undifferentiated homogeneity to a complex, differentiated heterogeneity, while being accompanied by a process of greater integration of the differentiated parts. This evolutionary process could be found at work, Spencer believed, throughout the cosmos. It was a universal law, applying to the stars and the galaxies as much as to biological organisms, and to human social organization as much as to the human mind. Thus, Spencer's synthetic philosophy aimed to show that natural laws led inexorably
to progress. He claimed all things—the physical world, the biological realm, and human society—underwent progressive development. Social DarwinismSpencer is perhaps best known for coining the term "survival of the fittest," later commonly termed "social Darwinism." But, popular belief to the contrary, Spencer did not merely appropriate and generalize Darwin's work on natural selection; Spencer only grudgingly incorporated Darwin's theory of natural selection into his preexisting synthetic philosophical system. Spencer's evolutionary ideas were based more directly on the evolutionary theory of Lamarck, who posited that organs are developed or diminished by use or disuse and that the resulting changes may be transmitted to future generations. Spencer believed that this evolutionary mechanism was necessary to explain 'higher' evolution, especially the social development of humanity. Moreover, in contrast to Darwin, Spencer held that evolution had a direction and an endpoint—the attainment of a final state of equilibrium. Evolution meant progress, improvement, and eventually perfection of the social organism. CriticismThough Spencer is rightly credited with making a significant contribution to early sociology, his attempt to introduce evolutionary ideas into the realm of social science was ultimately unsuccessful. It was considered by many to be actively dangerous. Critics of Spencer's positivist synthetic philosophy argued that the social sciences were essentially different from the natural sciences and that the methods of the natural sciences—the search for universal laws was inappropriate for the study of human society. Herbert Spencer: Herbert Spencer built on Darwin's framework of evolution, extrapolating it to the spheres of ethics and society. This is why Spencer's theories are often called "social Darwinism." Class Conflict and MarxMarx focuses on explaining class conflict due to the means of production, which he posited was the driving force behind social evolution. Learning Objectives Relate Marx's concept of class to his view of historical change Key TakeawaysKey Points
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Marx, one of the principle architects of modern social science, believed that history was made of up stages driven by class conflict. Famously, Marx wrote in The Communist Manifesto, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. " Class struggle pushed society from one stage to the next, in a dialectical process. In each stage, an ownership class controls the means of production while a lower class provides labor for production. The two classes come into conflict and that conflict leads to social change. For example, in the feudal stage, feudal lords owned the land used to produce agricultural goods, while serfs provided the labor to plant, raise, and harvest crops. When the serfs rose up and overthrew the feudal lords, the feudal stage ended and ushered in a new stage: capitalism. Means of Production, Relations of Production According to Marx, the way society is organized depends on the current means of production and who owns them. The means of
production include things that are necessary to produce material goods, such as land and natural resources. They also include technology, such as tools or machines, that people use to produce things. The means of production in any given society may change as technology advances. In feudal society, means of production might have included simple tools like a shovel and hoe. Today, the means of production include advanced technology, such as microchips and robots. Modes of Production Together, the means of production and the relations of production compose a particular period's mode of production. Marx distinguished different historical eras in terms of their different modes of production. He believed that the mode of production was the defining element of any period in history, and he called this economic structure the base of that society. By
contrast, he believed that the ideas and culture of a given stage were derived from the mode of production. He referred to ideas and culture as the "superstructure," which grew up from the more fundamental economic "base. " Because of his focus on the economic base over culture and ideas, Marx is often referred to as an economic determinist. Instabilities in Capitalism Marx's work focused largely on explaining the
inherent instabilities present in capitalism and predicting its eventual fall and transition to socialism. Marx argued that capitalism was unstable and prone to periodic crises. Marx believed that economic growth would be punctuated by increasingly severe crises as capitalism went through cycles of growth, collapse, and more growth. Moreover, he believed that in the long-term this process would necessarily enrich and empower the capitalist class, while at the same time it would impoverish the
poorer laboring class, which he referred to as the proletariat. Marx's Communist Manifesto Illustrated by Cartoons: The Communist Manifesto gives an overview of Marx's theory of class conflict and embraces his position that sociologists should also be publicly active social critics. In this video, the test of the manifesto is illustrated with cartoon clips that
demonstrate the deep and enduring legacy of Marx's philosophy for modern culture. Durkheim and Social IntegrationEmile Durkheim studied how societies maintained social integration after traditional bonds were replaced by modern economic relations. Learning Objectives Contrast the different modes of social integration according to Durkheim Key TakeawaysKey Points
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Along with Marx and Weber, French sociologist Emile Durkheim is considered one of the founders of sociology. One of Durkheim's primary goals was to analyze how how modern societies could maintain social integration after the traditional bonds of family and church were replaced by modern economic relations. Formation of Collective ConsciousnessAccording to Durkheim, the collective consciousness is formed through social interactions. In particular, Durkheim thought of the close-knit interactions between families and small communities, groups of people who share a common religion, who may eat together, work together, and spend leisure time together. Yet all around him, Durkheim observed evidence of rapid social change and the withering away of these groups. He saw increasing population density and population growth as key factors in the evolution of society and the advent of modernity. As the number of people in a given area increase, he posited, so does the number of interactions, and the society becomes more complex. Population growth creates competition and incentives to trade and further the division of labor. But as people engage in more economic activity with neighbors or distant traders, they begin to loosen the traditional bonds of family, religion, and moral solidarity that had previously ensured social integration. Durkheim worried that modernity might herald the disintegration of society. Durkheim and ModernityFollowing a socioevolutionary approach reminiscent of Comte, Durkheim described the evolution of society from mechanical solidarity to organic solidarity. Simpler societies, he argued, are based on mechanical solidarity, in which self-sufficient people are connected to others by close personal ties and traditions (e.g., family and religion). Also, in such societies, people have far fewer options in life. Modern societies, on the other hand, are based on organic solidarity, in which people are connected by their reliance on others in the division of labor. Modernization, Durkheim argued, is based first on population growth and increasing population density, second on increasing "moral density" (that is, the development of more complex social interactions), and third, on the increasing specialization in work (i.e., the division of labor). Because modern society is complex, and because the work that individuals do is so specialized, individuals can no longer be self-sufficient and must rely on others to survive. Thus, although modern society may undermine the traditional bonds of mechanical solidarity, it replaces them with the bonds of organic solidarity. Organic versus Mechanical Solidarity Further, Durkheim argued, the organic solidarity of modern societies might have advantages over traditional mechanical solidarity. In traditional societies, people are self-sufficient, and therefore society has little need for cooperation and interdependence. Institutions that require cooperation and agreement must often resort to
force and repression to keep society together. Traditional mechanical solidarity may tend, therefore, to be authoritarian and coercive. In modern societies, under organic solidarity, people are necessarily much more interdependent. Specialization and the division of labor require cooperation. Thus, solidarity and social integration are necessary for survival and do not require the same sort of coercion as under mechanical solidarity. Sociological Theory: Emile Durkhiem and Social Solidarity: Professor Dan Krier, of Iowa State University, explains Durkheim's theories of social solidarity and modernity.
Protestant Work Ethic and WeberWeber departed from positivist sociology, instead emphasizing Verstehen, or understanding, as the goal of sociology. Learning Objectives Summarize Weber's view on the relationship between Protestantism and capitalism Key TakeawaysKey Points
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Max Weber Max Weber was a German sociologist and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself. In 1919, he established a sociology department at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism, his most famous text, Weber proposed that ascetic Protestantism was one of the major "elective affinities" associated with the rise of capitalism, bureaucracy, and the rational-legal nation-state in the Western world. Although some consider Weber's argument to be a study of religion, it can also be interpreted as an introduction to his later works, especially his studies of the interaction between various religious ideas and economic behavior. In contrast to Marx's "historical
materialism," Weber emphasized how the cultural influences embedded in religion could be a means for understanding the genesis of capitalism. Weber viewed religion as one of the core forces in society.
In the end, the study of the sociology of religion, according to Weber, focused on one distinguishing fact about Western culture, the decline of beliefs in magic. He referred to this phenomena as the "disenchantment of the world. " Weber's Evidence and ArgumentAs evidence for his study, Weber noted that ascetic Protestantism and advanced capitalism tended to coincide with one another. Weber observed that, after the Reformation, Protestant countries such as the Netherlands, England, Scotland, and Germany gained economic prominence over Catholic countries such as France, Spain, and Italy. Furthermore, in societies with different religions, the most successful business leaders tended to be Protestant. John Calvin, the first capitalist?: Weber saw an elective affinity between capitalism and Protestantism, especially Calvinism. To explain these observations, Weber argued
that Protestantism, and especially the ascetic Protestant or Calvinist denominations, had redefined the connection between work and piety. Historically, Christian religious devotion had been accompanied by a rejection of mundane affairs, including economic pursuits. In contrast, Weber showed that certain types of Protestantism, notably Calvinism, supported worldly activities and the rational pursuit of economic gain. Because of the particularly Calvinist view of the world, these activities
became endowed with moral and spiritual significance. In these religions, believers expressed their piety towards God through hard work and achievement in a secular vocation, or calling. Because of this religious orientation, human effort was shifted away from the contemplation of the divine and towards rational efforts aimed at achieving economic gain. Furthermore, the Protestant ethic, while promoting the pursuit of economic gain, eschewed hedonistic pleasure. Thus, believers were encouraged
to make money, but not to spend it. This motivated believers to work hard, to be successful in business, and to reinvest their profits rather than spend them on frivolous pleasures. The Calvinist notion of predestination also meant that material wealth could be taken as a sign of salvation in the afterlife. Predestination is the belief that God has chosen who will be saved and who will not. The Development of Sociology in the U.S.Lester Ward, the first president of the American Sociological Association, is generally thought of as the founder of American sociological study. Learning Objectives Discuss Lester Ward's views on sociology's role in society Key TakeawaysKey Points
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Lester Ward is generally thought of as the founder of American sociological study. He served as the first president of the American Sociological Society, which was founded in 1905 (and which later changed its name to its current form, the American Sociological Association ), and was appointed Chair of Sociology at Brown University in 1906. Works and ideas Like Comte and the positivist founders of sociology, Ward embraced the scientific ethos. In 1883, Ward published his two-volume,1,200 page Dynamic Sociology, Or Applied Social Science as
Based Upon Statistical Sociology and the Less Complex Sciences, with which he hoped to establish the central importance of experimentation and the scientific method to the field of sociology.
Thus, Ward embodied what would become a distinctive characteristic of American sociology. Though devoted to developing sociology as a rigorous science, he also believed sociology had unique potential as a tool to better society. He believed that the scientific methodology of sociology should be deployed in the interest of resolving practical, real-world problems, such as poverty, which he theorized could be minimized or eliminated by systematic intervention in society. Criticism of laissez-faire Ward is most often remembered for his criticism of the laissez-faire theories advanced by Herbert Spencer and popular among his contemporaries. Spencer had argued that society would naturally evolve and
progress while allowing the survival of the fittest and weeding out the socially unfit. Thus, social ills such as poverty would be naturally alleviated as the unfit poor were selected against; no intervention was necessary. Though originated by Spencer, these ideas were advanced in the United States by William Graham Sumner, an economist and sociologist at Yale. Ward disagreed with Spencer and Sumner and, in contrast to their laissez-faire approach, promoted active intervention. Influence on academic sociologyDespite Ward's impressive political legacy, he has been largely written out of the history of sociology. The thing that made Ward most attractive in the 19th century, his criticism of laissez faire, made him seem dangerously radical to the ever-cautious academic community in early 20th century America. This perception was strengthened by the growing socialist movement in the United States, led by the Marxist Russian Revolution and the rise of Nazism in Europe. Ward was basically replaced by Durkheim in the history books, which was easily accomplished because Durkheim's views were similar to Ward's but without the relentless criticism of lassiez faire and without Ward's calls for a strong, central government and "social engineering". In 1937, Talcott Parsons, the Harvard sociologist and functionalist who almost single-handedly set American sociology's academic curriculum in the mid-20th century, wrote that "Spencer is dead," thereby dismissing not only Spencer but also Spencer's most powerful critic. Lester Ward: Lester Ward, the first president of the American Sociological Association, is generally thought of as the founder of American sociological study. Licenses and AttributionsCC licensed content, Shared previously
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What did Harriet Martineau believe?Martineau believed that the universe in general and society in particular operate according to certain natural laws which can be understood through science and education. The development of a truly free society she envisaged in her writings was governed by natural laws, which operated as the laws of political economy.
What is sociology according to Harriet Martineau?Martineau's key contribution to the field of sociology was her assertion that when studying society, one must focus on all aspects of it. She emphasized the importance of examining political, religious, and social institutions.
What was Harriet Martineau known for?Her chief historical work, The History of the Thirty Years' Peace, A.D. 1816–1846 (1849), was a widely read popular treatment. She also contributed voluminously to periodicals, writing some 1,600 leading articles for the Daily News between 1852 and 1866.
What was Harriet Martineau's contribution to sociology quizlet?Known for translating and abridging the works of various social scientists of her time. Her contribution lies in expanding the rules of research methods.
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