Download Key figures in Sociology

Key figures in Sociology
Auguste Comte
• Inspired to study what he would call
Sociology by events surrounding the
French Revolution (1789).
• Observed the rise and fall of Napolean.
• Wanted to use the discipline of Sociology
for the common good.
Comte: Order and Change
• Believed Sociology should concern itself
with two basic problems: Order and
Change
Order- What forces bring order to a Society
Change- What forces bring change?
Harriet Martineau
Early sociologist who promoted active
involvement in solutions to social issues,
differing from other sociologists. She
believed scholars and intellectuals should
advocate change.
Herbert Spencer
After studying the nature of social change
and trying to figure out who will become rich
and who will become poor, Spencer felt that
Darwin’s theory of natural selection applied.
He believed society would be “survival of the
fittest” and that the individual’s least suited
to their environments are weak and will die
out. (Social Darwinism)
Karl Marx
• Developed the idea of
Communist Marxism.
• Wrote the Communist
Manifesto
• Felt in capitalism the workers
suffered and forces businesses
to pay workers as little as
possible.
• Advocated that capitalism will
die out and inequalities among
all members of society would
be removed.
Max Weber
• Focused interest on the interactions of
society and the individual.
• Developed the concept of Ideal Type
which is a model that can be used to
measure reality.