Download European Origins of Sociology Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer

Developing and applying evolutionary theory to philosophy, psychology and the study
of society.

Helping to develop the functionalist perspective, one of the major theoretical
frameworks in sociology.

His political thoughts, primarily his defense of natural rights and for criticisms of
utilitarian positivism.
Birth:
Herbert Spencer was born April 27, 1820.
Death:
He died December 8, 1903.
Early Life and Education:
Herbert Spencer was born in Derby, England. He was the eldest of nine children, but the
only one to survive infancy. Spencer's father was a school teacher, however he was very
unconventional and Herbert therefore received a largely informal and undisciplined
education. Spencer had many eclectic interests and eventually trained as a civil engineer
for railways. In his early 20s, however, he turned to journalism and political writing.
Career and Later Life:
From 1848 to 1853, Spencer worked as a writer and subeditor for The Economistfinancial
weekly. In his early writings, Spencer defended a number of radical causes, particularly
on land nationalization, the extent to which economics should reflect a policy of laissezfaire, and the place and role of women in society. He eventually came to abandon most of
these causes later in his life.
In 1851 Spencer wrote his first book,Social Statics: The Conditions Essential to Human
Happiness. 'Social statics' is a term that Spencer borrowed from Auguste Comte, which
deals with the conditions of social order. In Social Statics, Spencer predicted that
humanity would eventually become completely adapted to the requirements of living in
society with the consequential withering away of the state.
Spencer's uncle died in 1853, leaving him a small inheritance which allowed him to
devote himself to writing without depending on regular employment. In 1855, Spencer
published his second book, The Principles of Psychology, which was much less successful
than his first book. It was about this time that Spencer also began experiencing serious
mental health problems, which would affect him for the remainder of his life. Because of
this, he sought privacy and rarely went out in public. He was also limited in terms of how
much work he could do and was only able to write for a few hours each day. He thus
embarked on a lengthy project, which was the nine-volume A System of Synthetic
Philosophy, which he wrote between 1862 and 1893. In it, he provided a systematic
account of his views in biology, sociology, ethics and politics and presented his idea that
societies are organisms that progress through a process of evolution similar to that
experienced by living species, a concept known to as social darwinism. Careers in HR and
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Among many of the honors he was given, Spencer was nominated for the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1902. He declined most of the honors he was given.
Harriet Martineau
Harriet Martineau, one of the earliest Western sociologists, was born in 1802 in Norwich,
England. Martineau was a self-taught expert in political economic theory, and wrote
prolifically about the relations between politics, economics, morals, and social life
throughout her career. Her intellectual work was centered by a staunchly moral
perspective that stemmed from her Unitarian faith. She was fiercely critical of the
inequality and injustice faced by girls and women, slaves, wage slaves, and the working
poor.
Martineau was one of the first women journalists, and also worked as a translator, speech
writer, and wrote acclaimed novels that invited readers to consider pressing social issues
of the day. Many of her ideas about political economy and society were presented in the
form of stories, making them appealing and accessible. She was known at the time for her
keen ability to explain complicated ideas in an easy-to-understand manner, and should
be considered one of the first public sociologists.
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. Martineau believed that by studying
society in this way, one could deduce why inequality existed, particularly that faced by
girls and women. In her writing she brought an early feminist perspective to bear on
issues such as marriage, children, home and religious life, and race relations.
Her social theoretical perspective was often focused on the moral stance of a populace
and how it did or did not correspond to the social, economic, and political relations of its
society. Martineau measured progress in society by three standards: the status of those
who hold the least power in society, popular views of authority and autonomy, and access
to resources that allow the realization of autonomy and moral action.
She won numerous awards for her writing, and was a rare successful and popular-though controversial--working woman writer during the Victorian era. She published
over 50 books and over 2,000 articles in her lifetime. Her translation into English and
rearticulation of Auguste Comte’s foundational sociological text, Cours de Philosophie
Positive, was received so well by readers and by Comte himself that he had Martineau’s
English version translated back to French.
She died in 1876 near Ambleside, Westmorland, in England. Martineau’s sweeping
contributions to social thought are more often than not overlooked within the cannon of
classical sociological theory, though her work was widely lauded in its day, and preceded
that of Émile Durkheim and Max Weber.
Karl Marx

Major figure in the founding of sociology

Socio-political theory of Marxism

The Communist Manifesto
Birth:
Karl Marx was born May 5, 1818.
Death:
He died of cancer on March 14, 1883.
Early Life And Education:
Karl Marx was born in Trier, Prussia (present-day Germany). While he attended a
Lutheran elementary school growing up, he later became an atheist and a materialist. In
1835, Marx enrolled in Bonn University in Germany where he took courses in law,
however, he was much more interested in philosophy and literature. One year later, he
enrolled him at the University of Berlin. Marx soon felt at home when he joined a circle of
brilliant and extreme thinkers who were challenging existing institutions and ideas,
including religion, philosophy, ethics, and politics. Marx graduated with his doctoral
degree in 1841.
Career and Later Life:
After school, Marx turned to writing and journalism to support himself. In 1842 he
became the editor of the liberal Cologne newspaper Rheinische Zeitung, but the Berlin
government prohibited it from publication the following year. He then moved to Brussels,
Belgium, where he founded the German Workers’ Party and was active in the Communist
League. Here he wrote his most famous workCommunist Manifesto. After being exiled
from Belgium and France, Marx finally settled in London where he lived as a stateless
exile for the rest of his life.
In London, Marx worked in journalism and wrote for both German and English language
publications. From 1852 to 1862 he was also a correspondent for the New York Daily
Tribune, writing a total of 355 articles. He also continued writing and formulating his
theories about the nature of society and how he believed it could be improved, as well as
actively campaigning for socialism.
Marx's theories about society, economics and politics, which are collectively known as
Marxism, argue that all society progresses through the dialectic of class struggle. He was
heavily critical of the current socio-economic form of society, capitalism, which he called
the "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie," believing it to be run by the wealthy middle and
upper classes purely for their own benefit, and predicted that it would inevitably produce
internal tensions which would lead to its self-destruction and replacement by a new
system, socialism. Under socialism, he argued that society would be governed by the
working class in what he called the "dictatorship of the proletariat." He believed that
socialism would eventually be replaced by a stateless, classless society called pure
communism.
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While Marx remained a relatively unknown figure in his own lifetime, his ideas and the
ideology of Marxism began to exert a major influence on socialist movements shortly
after his death. Marx has been described as one of the most influential figures in human
history, and in a 1999 BBC poll was voted the "thinker of the millennium" by people from
around the world.
Emile Durkheim
Sociologist (1858–1917)
Émile Durkheim was a pioneer of French sociology and the author of The
Division of Labour in Society and Suicide.

A founding figure in the field of sociology

"Father of sociology"

Credited with making sociology a science
Birth:
Emile Durkheim was born April 15, 1858.
Death:
He died November 15, 1917.
Émile Durkheim was greatly influenced by philospher August Comte, and believed
that ethical and moral structures were endangered by technology and mechanization.
He felt that the division of labor produced alienation among workers, and feared the
greed inspired by increased prosperity. His books include The Division of Labour in
Society, Suicide, and The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.
Early Life and Education:
Durkheim was born in Epinal, France. He came from a long line of devout French Jews;
his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had all been rabbis. He began his
education in a rabbinical school, but at an early age, decided not to follow in his family's
footsteps and switched schools, realizing that he preferred to study religion from an
agnostic standpoint as opposed to being indoctrinated. Durkheim entered the École
Normale Supérieure (ENS) in 1879.
Career and Later Life:
Durkheim became interested in a scientific approach to society very early on in his career,
which meant the first of many conflicts with the French academic system, which had no
social science curriculum at the time. Durkheim found humanistic studies uninteresting,
turning his attention from psychology and philosophy to ethics and eventually, sociology.
He graduated with a degree in philosophy in 1882. Durkheim's views could not get him a
major academic appointment in Paris, so from 1882 to 1887 he taught philosophy at
several provincial schools. In 1885 he left for Germany, where he studied sociology for
two years. Durkheim's period in Germany resulted in the publication of numerous
articles on German social science and philosophy, which gained recognition in France,
earning him a teaching appointment at the University of Bordeaux in 1887. This was an
important sign of the change of times, and the growing importance and recognition of the
social sciences. From this position, Durkheim helped reform the French school system
and introduced the study of social science in its curriculum. Also in 1887, Durkheim
married Louise Dreyfus, with whom he later had two children.
In 1893, Durkheim published his first major work, The Division of Labor in Society, in
which he introduced the concept of "anomie", or the breakdown of the influence of social
norms on individuals within a society. In 1895, he published The Rules of Sociological
Method, his second major work, which was a manifesto stating what sociology is and how
it ought to be done. In 1897, he published his third major work, Suicide: A Study in
Sociology, a case study exploring the differing suicide rates among Protestants and
Catholics and arguing that stronger social control among Catholics results in lower
suicide rates.
By 1902, Durkheim had finally achieved his goal of attaining a prominent position in
Paris when he became the chair of education at the Sorbonne. Durkheim also served as an
advisor to the Ministry of Education. In 1912, he published his last major work,The
Elementary Forms of The Religious Life, a book that analyzes religion as a social
phenomenon.
Max Weber

A founding figure of the field of sociology

Thesis of the "Protestant Ethic"

Ideas on bureaucracy
Birth:
Max Weber was born April 21, 1864.
Death:
He died June 14, 1920.
Early Life And Education:
Max Weber was born in Erfurt, Prussia (present day Germany). Weber’s father was
greatly involved in public life and so his home was constantly immersed in both politics
and academia. Weber and his brother thrived in this intellectual atmosphere. In 1882, he
enrolled at the University of Heidelberg, but after two years left to fulfill his year of
military service at Strassburg. After his release from the military, Weber finished his
studies at the University of Berlin, earning his doctorate in 1889 and joining the
University of Berlin’s faculty, lecturing and consulting for the government.
Career and Later Life:
In 1894, Weber was appointed professor of economics at the University of Freiburg and
then was granted the same position at the University of Heidelberg in 1896. His research
at the time focused mainly on economics and legal history. After Weber’s father died in
1897, two months after a severe quarrel that was never resolved, Weber became prone to
depression, nervousness, and insomnia, making it difficult for him to fulfill his duties as a
professor. He was thus forced to reduce his teaching and eventually left in the fall of 1899.
For five years he was intermittently institutionalized, suffering sudden relapses after
efforts to break such cycles by travelling. He finally resigned his professorship in late
1903.
Also in 1903, Weber became the associate editor of the Archives for Social Science and
Social Welfare where his interests lied in more fundamental issues of social sciences.
Soon Weber began to publish some of his own papers in this journal, most notable his
essay The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, which became his most famous
work and was later published as a book.
In 1909, Weber co-founded the German Sociological Association and served as it’s first
treasurer. He resigned in 1912, however, and unsuccessfully tried to organize a left-wing
political party to combine social-democrats and liberals. At the outbreak of World War I,
Weber, aged 50, volunteered for service and was appointed as a reserve officer and put in
charge of organizing the army hospitals in Heidelberg, a role he fulfilled until the end of
1915.
Weber's most powerful impact on his contemporaries came in the last years of his life,
when, from 1916 to 1918, he argued powerfully against Germany's annexationist war
goals and in favor of a strengthened parliament. After assisting in the drafting of the new
constitution and in the founding of the German Democratic Party, Weber became
frustrated with politics and resumed teaching at the University of Vienna and then at the
University of Munich.
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