Download 1.List of social thinkers

Group-A(5 marks)
1.List of social thinkers
The title social thinker denotes a personality who is acknowledged as a visionary for social advancement.
S/he’ thinks and contributes in the larger interest of society.

Mahatma Gandhi

Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru

Subhash Chandra Bose

Dharamvir Bharati

Jacob Burckhardt

Lloyd deMause

Julius Evola

Ziya Gökalp

Maurice Glasman, Baron Glasman

Eugene Gusman

Spencer Heath

Ivan Illich

Birbal Jha

Rajani Kannepalli Kanth

Roberto Mangabeira Unger

Karl Marx

Shankar Guha Niyogi

Vartika Nanda

Adriano Olivetti

Kesari Balakrishna Pillai

Caroline Pratt

John Ruskin

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Greg Sams

Henri de Saint-Simon

George Bernard Shaw

Rudolf Steiner

Debendranath Tagore

R. H. Tawney

Alberto Torres

Thorstein Veblen

Ivan Yefremov.
2. What is Social Thinking?
The term Social Thinking® was coined by Michelle Garcia Winner in the late 1990s while working with
higher-functioning students, who were expected to blend in with their peer group by producing more
nuanced social responses. This theory views social skills as dynamic and situational, not as something
that can be taught and then replicated across the school campus. Instead, social skills appear to evolve
from one’s thinking about how one wants to be perceived. So, the decision to use discrete social skills
(e.g. smiling versus “looking cool”, standing casually versus formally, swearing/speaking informally versus
speaking politely) are not based on memorizing specific social rules (as often taught in our social skills
groups), but instead are based on a social decision-making tree of thought that involves dynamic and
synergistic processing. Winner, (2000[1] & 2007[2]) has suggested we could better understand
multidimensional social learning needs by exploring the many different aspects of social information and
related responses that are expected from any one of us to utilize well, in order for us to be considered as
having “good social skills”.
3. Social Learning and Social Thinking
The ability to think socially is required prior to the production of social skills. As children age up,
successful social thinkers are able to consider the points of view, emotions, thoughts, beliefs, prior
knowledge and intentions of others (this is often called perspective-taking). For most people, this is an
intuitive process whereby we determine the meaning behind the message and how to respond within
milliseconds. Social Thinking occurs everywhere, when we talk, share space, walk down the street, even
when we read a novel and relate to our pets. It is an intelligence that integrates information across home,
work and community settings.
Social Thinking also demonstrates the link between one’s social learning abilities and his or her related
ability (or disability) when processing and responding to school curriculum based in the use of the social
mind (e.g., reading comprehension of literature, some aspects of written expression, etc.). Winner's ideas
related to teaching social thinking, which are all based on the research, are the conceptual foundation for
developing treatments for those with social challenges. Winner and colleagues argue that individuals who
share a diagnostic label (e.g., Asperger syndrome) nonetheless exhibit extremely different social learning
traits, or social mind profiles, and should have unique treatment trajectories, such as those based
in cognitive-behavioral therapy
Group-b (20 marks)
1. Social Thinking Strategies
For the adolescent with advanced cognitive and language skills, a discussion about the “why” underlying
the production of a skill becomes crucial. A number of teaching scaffolds have been developed to
encourage students to explore how “we all get along” with one another, even when relating to someone
we do not know well. Individuals are taught that thinking about the social world can in turn help him/her to
adapt behaviors in an increasingly proficient manner. While Social Thinking is relatively new in the field of
autism and special education, it is closely linked with other types of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
approaches such as Social Stories,[3] Hidden Curriculum,[4] 5-point scale,[5] and others,[6] etc. The
foundation of Social Thinking is weighted heavily in well-known issues in this population such
as executive functioning, central coherence issues, and perspective-taking, only a handful of
research[7][8] has been completed to date.
Social liberalism
Social liberalism is the belief that liberalism should include a social foundation. Social liberalism seeks to
balance individual liberty and social justice. Like classical liberalism, it endorses a market economy and the
expansion of civil and political rights and liberties, but differs in that it believes the legitimate role of
the government includes addressing economic and social issues such as poverty, health
care and education. Under social liberalism, the good of the community is viewed as harmonious with the
freedom of the individual.[4]Social liberal policies have been widely adopted in much of the capitalist world,
particularly following World War II.[5] Social liberal ideas and parties tend to be considered centrist orcentreleft. The term social liberalism is used to differentiate it from classical liberalism, which dominated political and
economic thought for several centuries until social liberalism branched off from it around the Great Depression.
A reaction against social liberalism in the late twentieth century, often called neoliberalism, led
to monetarist economic policies and a reduction in government provision of services. However, this reaction did
not result in a return to classical liberalism, as governments continued to provide social services and retained
control over economic policy
Origins
United Kingdom
By the end of the nineteenth century, the principles of classical liberalism were challenged by downturns in
economic growth, a growing perception of the evils of poverty, unemployment and relative deprivation present
within modern industrial cities, and the agitation of organized labour. The ideal of the self-made individual, who
through hard work and talent could make his or her place in the world, seemed increasingly implausible. A
major political reaction against the changes introduced by industrialisation and laissez-fairecapitalism came
from conservatives concerned about social balance, although socialism later became a more important force
for change and reform. Some Victorian writers—including Charles Dickens, Thomas Carlyle, and Matthew
Arnold—became early influential critics of social injustice.
John Stuart Mill contributed enormously to liberal thought by combining elements of classical liberalism with
what eventually became known as the new liberalism. The new liberals tried to adapt the old language of
liberalism to confront these difficult circumstances, which they believed could only be resolved through a
broader and more interventionist conception of the state. An equal right to liberty could not be established
merely by ensuring that individuals did not physically interfere with each other, or merely by having laws that
were impartially formulated and applied. More positive and proactive measures were required to ensure that
every individual would have an equal opportunity of success
In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, a group of British thinkers, known as the New
Liberals, made a case against laissez-faire classical liberalism and argued in favor of state intervention in
social, economic, and cultural life. The New Liberals, which included intellectuals like T.H. Green, L.T.
Hobhouse, and John A. Hobson, saw individual liberty as something achievable only under favorable social
and economic circumstances. In their view, the poverty, squalor, and ignorance in which many people lived
made it impossible for freedom and individuality to flourish. New Liberals believed that these conditions could
be ameliorated only through collective action coordinated by a strong, welfare-oriented, and interventionist
state.[16]
Ultimately, the Liberal governments of Henry Campbell-Bannerman and H.H. Asquith, especially thanks
toChancellor of the Exchequer and later Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, established the foundations of the
welfare state in the UK before the First World War. The comprehensive welfare state built in the UK after
the Second World War, although largely accomplished by the Labour Party, was significantly designed by two
Liberals—John Maynard Keynes, who laid the economic foundations, and William Beveridge, who designed the
welfare system.[6]
Germany
In late nineteenth century Germany, left-liberals established trade unions in order to help workers improve
working and economic conditions. Some liberal economists, such as Lujo Brentano or Gerhart von SchulzeGävernitz, established the Social Policy Association in 1873 to promote social reform. But their ideas found
relatively few supporters among the liberal politicians. The main objectives of the left-liberal parties were free
speech, freedom of assembly, free trade, representative government, equal and secret suffrage, and protection
of private property, although they were strongly opposed to the welfare state, which they calledState Socialism.
Later Friedrich Naumann, who maintained close contacts with Brentano and Schulze-Gävernitz, founded
theNational-Social Association, which attempted to combine bourgeois liberalism with proletarian socialism.
The new group advocated, among other things, increased social welfare legislation, the right to strike, and
profit-sharing in industry. Although the party was unable to win any seats and soon dissolved, the theories it
developed would remain influential in German liberalism.
While some writers describe Germany's liberalism as social liberalism, others only apply the term to the policies
of the National-Social Association. The main left-liberal parties in Germany were the German Progress
Party during the German Empire and the German Democratic Party during the Weimar Republic. The Free
Democratic Party represents liberalism in modern Germany. The term left-liberal contrasted these parties with
the more conservative liberals, in particular the right-wing of the National Liberal Party, which allied itself with
the Conservatives.
France
In France, social liberal theory was developed in the Third Republic by solidarist thinkers, including Alfred
Fouillée and Émile Durkheim, who were inspired by sociology and influenced radical politicians like Léon
Bourgeois. They explained that a greater division of labor caused greater opportunity and individualism, but it
also inspired a more complex interdependence. They argued that the individual had a debt to society,
promoting progressive taxation to support public works and welfare schemes. However, they wanted the state
to coordinate rather than to manage, and they encouraged cooperative insurance schemes among individuals.
Their main objective was to remove barriers to social mobility rather than create a welfare state.
United States
In the 1870s and the 1880s, the American economists Richard Ely, John Bates Clark, and Henry Carter
Adams—influenced both by socialism and the Evangelical Protestant movement—castigated the conditions
caused by industrial factories and expressed sympathy towards labor unions. None, however, developed a
systematic political philosophy, and they later abandoned their flirtations with socialist thinking. In 1883, Lester
Frank Ward published the two-volume Dynamic Sociology and formalized the basic tenets of social liberalism
while at the same time attacking the laissez-faire policies advocated by Herbert Spencer andWilliam Graham
Sumner. The historian Henry Steele Commager ranked Ward alongside William James, John Dewey,
and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and called him the father of the modern welfare state.[21] Writing from 1884
until the 1930s, John Dewey—an educator influenced by Hobhouse, Green, and Ward—advocated socialist
methods to achieve liberal goals. Some social liberal ideas were later incorporated into the New Deal,[22] which
developed as a response to the Great Depression.
2. Implementation
The welfare state grew gradually and unevenly from the late nineteenth century, but became fully developed
following the Second World War, along with the mixed market economy. Also called "embedded liberalism",
social liberal policies gained broad support across the political spectrum, because they reduced the disruptive
and polarizing tendencies in society, without challenging the capitalist economic system. Business accepted
social liberalism in the face of widespread dissatisfaction with the boom and bustcycle of the earlier economic
system as it seemed to them to be a lesser evil than more left-wing modes of government. Social liberalism
was characterized by cooperation between big business, government and labor unions. Government was able
to assume a strong role because its power had been strengthened by the wartime economy. However, the
extent to which this occurred varied considerably among Western democracies.[23]
United Kingdom
The first notable implementation of social liberal policies occurred under the Liberal Partyin Britain from
1906 until 1914. These initiatives became known as the Liberal reforms. The main elements included pensions
for poor elderly people, health, sickness, and unemployment insurance based on earlier programs in Germany,
and the establishment oflabour exchanges. These changes were accompanied by progressive taxation,
particularly in the People's Budget of 1909. The old system of charity—relying on the Poor laws and
supplemented by private charity, public co-operatives, and private insurance companies—was in crisis, giving
the state added impetus for reform. The Liberal Party caucus elected in 1906 also contained more
professionals, including academics and journalists, sympathetic to social liberalism. The large business owners
had mostly deserted the Liberals for the Conservatives, the latter becoming the favorite party for commercial
interests. The reforms were regularly opposed by both business interests and trade unions. Liberals most
identified with these reforms were Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, John Maynard Keynes, David Lloyd
George (especially as Chancellor of the Exchequer),Winston Churchill (as President of the Board of Trade) in
addition to the civil servantWilliam Beveridge
Germany
Alexander Rüstow, a German economist, first proposed the German variant of economic social liberalism. In
1932, speaking at the Social Policy Association, he applied the label "neoliberalism" to this kind of social
liberalism, although that term now carries a different meaning than the one proposed by Rüstow. Rüstow
wanted an alternative to socialism and to the conservative economics developed in the German Empire. In
1938, Rüstow met with a variety of economic thinkers—including the likes of Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich von
Hayek, and William Roepke—to determine how liberalism could be renewed. Rüstow advocated a strong state
to enforce free markets and state intervention to correct market failures. However, Mises argued that
monopolies and cartels operated because of state intervention and protectionism, and claimed that the only
legitimate role for the state was to abolish barriers to market entry. He viewed Rüstow's proposals as negating
market freedom and saw them as similar to socialism.
Following the Second World War, Rüstow's "neoliberalism", now usually called ordoliberalism or the Social
Market Economy, was adopted by the West German government under Ludwig Erhard, who was the Minister
of Economics and later became Chancellor. Price controls were lifted and free markets were introduced. While
these policies are credited with Germany's post-war economic recovery, the welfare state-which had been
established under Bismarck-became increasingly costly
Rest of Europe
The post-war governments of other countries in Western Europe also followed social liberal policies. These
policies were implemented primarily by Christian Democrats and Social Democrats, as liberal parties in Europe
declined in strength from their peak in the nineteenth century.
United States
American political discourse resisted this social turn in European liberalism. While the economic policies of
the New Dealappeared Keynesian, there was no revision of liberal theory in favor of greater state initiative.
Even though America lacked an effective socialist movement, New Deal policies often appeared radical and
were attacked by the right. The separate development of modern liberalism in the United States is often
attributed to American exceptionalism, which kept mainstream American ideology within a narrow range.
Canada
Canada has been governed by the Liberal Party of Canada throughout the majority of its history as a state.
3. Reversal
Following economic problems in the 1970s, social liberal thought underwent some transformation. Keynesian
economic management was seen as interfering with the free market while increased welfare spending that had
been funded by higher taxes prompted fears of lower investment, lower consumer spending, and the creation
of a "dependency culture." Trade unions often caused high wages and industrial disruption, while full
employment was regarded as unsustainable. Writers such as Milton Friedman and Samuel Brittan, who were
influenced by Friedrich Hayek, advocated a reversal of social liberalism. Their policies, which are often
called neoliberalism, had a significant influence on Western politics, most notably on the governments of UK
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and US President Ronald Reagan, who pursued policies of deregulation of
the economy and reduction in spending on social services.
Part of the reason for the collapse of the social liberal coalition was a challenge in the 1970s from financial
interests that could operate independently of national governments. Another cause was the decline of
organized labor which had formed part of the coalition but was also a support for left-wing ideologies
challenging the liberal consensus. Related to this was the decline of working class consciousness and the
growth of the middle class. The push by the United States, which had been least accepting of social liberalism,
for trade liberalization further eroded support
Active social liberal parties and organizations
coalitions at national or regional levels, are the Liberal Democrats in the United Kingdom, D66 in
the Netherlands, and the Danish Social Liberal Party. In continental European politics, social liberal parties are
integrated in the ALDE group of the European Parliament, which is the third biggest group at the parliament
and includes both social liberal parties and market liberal parties.
Giving an exhaustive list of social liberal parties worldwide is difficult, largely because political organisations
are not always ideologically pure. Party ideologies often change over time. However, the following parties and
organisations are usually accepted by peers
or scholars as following social liberalism as a core ideology.
4. History of sociology
Sociology emerged from enlightenment thought, shortly after the French Revolution, as
apositivist science of society. Its genesis owed to various key movements in the philosophy of
science and the philosophy of knowledge. Social analysis in a broader sense, however, has origins in the
common stock of philosophy and necessarily pre-dates the field. Modern academic sociology arose as a
reaction to modernity, capitalism, urbanization,rationalization, and secularization, bearing a particularly
strong interest in the emergence of the modern nation state; its constituent institutions, its units
of socialization, and its means of surveillance. An emphasis on the concept of modernity, rather than the
Enlightenment, often distinguishes sociological discourse from that of classical political philosophy.[1]
Within a relatively brief period the discipline greatly expanded and diverged, both topically and
methodologically, particularly as a result of myriad reactions against empiricism. Historical debates are
broadly marked by theoretical disputes over the primacy of either structure or agency. Contemporary
social theory has tended toward the attempt to reconcile these dilemmas. The linguistic and cultural
turns of the mid-twentieth century led to increasinglyinterpretative, and philosophic approaches to the
analysis of society. Conversely, recent decades have seen the rise of
new analytically and computationally rigorous techniques.
Quantitative social research techniques have become common tools for governments, businesses and
organizations, and have also found use in the other social sciences. This has given social research a
degree of autonomy from the discipline of sociology. Similarly,"social science" has come to be
appropriated as an umbrella term to refer to various disciplines which study society or human culture. In
the past, sociology as well as other social sciences, was considered well below the level of other
sciences, such as the natural sciences. Very recently has sociology begun to be recognized as a
legitimate science and respected as such.
Precursors
Ancient times
Sociological reasoning may be traced back at least as far as the ancient Greeks (cf. Xenophanes′ remark:
"If horses would adore gods, these gods would resemble horses"). Proto- sociological observations are to
be found in the founding texts of Western philosophy (Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, Polybius and so on),
as well as in the non-European thought of figures such asConfucius.[3] The characteristic trends in the
sociological thinking of the ancient Greeks can be traced back to the social environment. Because there
was rarely any extensive or highly centralized political organization within states this allowed the tribal
spirit of localism and provincialism to have free play. This tribal spirit of localism and provincialism
pervaded most of the Greek thinking upon social phenomena.[4] The origin of the survey can be traced
back to the Doomesday Book ordered by king William Iin 1086.[5][6] There is evidence of early Muslim
sociology from the 14th century. Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406), in his Muqaddimah (later translated
as Prolegomena in Latin), the introduction to a seven volume analysis of universal history, was the first to
advancesocial philosophy and social science in formulating theories of social cohesion and social conflict.
He is thus considered by some to be the forerunner of sociology.
Origins
In 1838, the French-thinker August Comte tweaked the meaning of the term sociology, to give it the
definition that it holds today.[14] Comte had earlier expressed his work as "social physics", but that term
had been appropriated by others, most notably a Belgian statistician, Adolphe Quetelet (1796–1874).
Writing after the original enlightenment political philosophers of social contract, Comte hoped to unify all
studies of humankind through the scientific understanding of the social realm. His own sociological
scheme was typical of the 19th century humanists; he believed all human life passed through distinct
historical stages and that, if one could grasp this progress, one could prescribe the remedies for social
ills. Sociology was to be the "queen science" in Comte's schema; all basic physical sciences had to arrive
first, leading to the most fundamentally difficult science of human society itself. [14] Comte has thus come
to be viewed as the "Father of Sociology".[14] Comte delineated his broader philosophy of science in The
Course in Positive Philosophy [1830–1842], whereas his A General View of Positivism(1865) emphasized
the particular goals of sociology.
August Comte was so impressed with his theory of positivism that he referred to it as "the great discovery
of the year 1822.” Comte's system is based on the principles of knowledge, as seen in 3 states. This law
states any kind of knowledge always begins in theological form. Here the knowledge can be explained by
a superior supernatural power such as animism, spirits, or gods. It then passes to the metaphysical form
where the knowledge is explained by abstract philosophical speculation. Finally, the knowledge becomes
positive after being explained scientifically through observation, experiment, and comparison. The order
of the laws was created in order of increasing difficulty.[2]
In later life, August Comte developed a 'religion of humanity' to give positivist societies the unity and
cohesiveness found through the traditional worship people were used to. In this new "religion" he referred
to society as the "Great Being." Comte promoted a universal love and harmony taught through the
teachings of his industrial system theory. Comte appointed himself as high priest of this religion of
humanity so that he could oversee his followers, and ensure they were abiding by his practices and
teachings.[2] In 1849, he proposed a calendar reform called the 'positivist calendar'. For close
associate John Stuart Mill, it was possible to distinguish between a "good Comte" (the author of
the Course in Positive Philosophy) and a "bad Comte" (the author of the secularreligious system).[16] The system was unsuccessful but met with the publication of Darwin's On the Origin
of Species to influence the proliferation of various Secular Humanist organizations in the 19th century,
especially through the work of secularists such as George Holyoake and Richard Congreve. Although
Comte's English followers, including George Eliot and Harriet Martineau, for the most part rejected the full
gloomy panoply of his system, they liked the idea of a religion of humanity and his injunction to "vivre pour
autrui" ("live for others", from which comes the word "altruism").
Comte's description of the development of society is parallel to Karl Marx's theory that
communism was closing in fast on the progressing human society. They both also agreed that
communism would be the climax of human the society. Comte was at one point mentored by Henri de
Saint-Simon, and both he and Marx were very influenced by his Utopian socialism approach to society.[2]
Saint-Simon devoted much of his time to the prospect that human society could be salvaged if scientists
would form an international assembly and influence its course. His theory was that scientists could
distract people from war and strife, by focusing their attention to such things as building canals and
generally improving their societies living conditions. This would bring multiple cultures and societies
together and prevent conflict. Saint Simon took the idea that everyone had encouraged from the
Enlightenment, which was the belief in science, and spun it to be more practical and hands-on for the
society. Saint-Simon's main idea was that industrialism would create a new launch in history. He saw that
people had been seeing progress as an approach for science, but he wanted them to see it as an
approach to all aspects of life. Society was making a crucial change at the time since it was growing out
of a declining feudalism. This new path could provide the basis for solving all the old problems society
had previously encountered. He was more concerned with the participation of man in the workforce
instead of which workforce man choose. His slogan became "All men must work[2] ” and from this, the
slogan of communism was evolved "Each according to his capacity. "
Karl Marx was concerned with class and by association class consciousness and focused his theories in
these two areas. He did not come up with the theory of class, but the process in which it was created.
Marx theorized that society was an organization that thrived off of material consumption and from this
obsession, class consciousness was created. Society looked down on those who had less material
objects than their own class did. He was very concerned with the working class, and attempted to bring it
to a higher class and level the playing field a bit for the workers. It revolted him that the nonworking,
wealthy class had the power that it had. They were the only group with the time and resources to be fully
informed of what the government was doing. Marx feared, as he had previously seen, the class with the
strongest resources can control the means of communication. With the communication controlled, the
interests of the one class become the only ones that are heard and contributed to. In this case, the upper
class would control the government's interests and agenda. Karl Marx also saw that this class, once in
control would change the economy to favor themselves and make the conditions for the other classes
worse off than they had previously started. He theorized that since the government creates private
property, it has the ability to abolish and in its place substitute socialism. As the industrial economy grew,
conflict would rise as the free market and the system of private property grew. With this foreseen conflict,
Marx predicted revolt among the classes.[2]
Both Comte and Marx intended to develop a new scientific ideology in the wake of
European secularization. Marx, in the tradition of Hegelianism, rejected the positivist method, but in
attempting to develop a science of society nevertheless became recognized as a founder of sociology
later as the word gained wider meaning. Isaiah Berlin described Marx as the "true father" of modern
sociology, "in so far as anyone can claim the title."[18]
To have given clear and unified answers in familiar empirical terms to those theoretical questions which most
occupied men's minds at the time, and to have deduced from them clear practical directives without creating
obviously artificial links between the two, was the principal achievement of Marx's theory ... The sociological
treatment of historical and moral problems, which Comte and after him, Spencer and Taine, had discussed and
mapped, became a precise and concrete study only when the attack of militant Marxism made its conclusions a
burning issue, and so made the search for evidence more zealous and the attention to method more intense.
The early sociology of Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) came about broadly as a reaction to
Comte; writing after various developments in evolutionary biology, Spencer attempted (in vain) to
reformulate the discipline in what we might now describe associally Darwinistic terms. (Spencer was in
fact a proponent of Lamarckism rather than Darwinism). Herbert Spencer used the phrase "survival of the
fittest" to describe his natural selection theories. He developed these theories focusing on entire species
and not the individual organism. In this theory, Spencer paralleled with Darwin. The "fittest" is said to have
referred to the elite of the species; the strongest, fastest, most efficient of a species would eliminate those
that are weaker, slower, and less resourceful. Spencer theorized on how entire cultures went extinct. Due
to the vagueness of the phrase "survival of the fittest" Spencer’s theory is no longer accepted by many
other theorists and scientists. His theory has been adapted and changed by other sociologists to be
applicable to society.
Other precursors
Many other philosophers and academics were influential in the development of sociology, not least the
Enlightenment theorists ofsocial contract, and historians such as Adam Ferguson (1723–1816). For his
theory on social interaction, Ferguson has himself been described as "the father of modern
sociology"[21] Other early works to appropriate the term 'sociology' included A Treatise on Sociology,
Theoretical and Practical by the North American lawyer Henry Hughes and Sociology for the South, or the
Failure of Free Society[22] by the American lawyer George Fitzhugh. Both books were published in 1854,
in the context of the debate over slavery in the antebellum US. The Study of Sociology by the English
philosopher Herbert Spencer appeared in 1874. Lester Frank Ward, described by some as the father of
American sociology, published Dynamic Sociology in 1883. Harriet Martineau, a Whigsocial theorist and
the English translator of many of Comte's works, has been cited as the first female sociologist.
Various other early social historians and economists have gained recognition as classical sociologists,
perhaps most notablyRobert Michels (1876–1936), Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859), Vilfredo
Pareto (1848–1923) and Thorstein Veblen (1857–1926). The classical sociological texts broadly differ
from political philosophy in the attempt to remain scientific, systematic, structural, ordialectical, rather than
purely moral, normative or subjective. The new class relations associated with the development of
Capitalism are also key, further distinguishing sociological texts from the political philosophy of the
Renaissance and Enlightenment eras.
Foundation of the academic discipline
Classical theorists of sociology from the late 19th and early 20th centuries include Ludwig
Gumplowicz (1838–1909), Ferdinand Tönnies (1855–1936), Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), Georg
Simmel (1858–1918), Max Weber (1864–1920), and Karl Mannheim(1893–1947). Many of these figures
did not consider themselves strictly 'sociologists' and regularly contributed to jurisprudence, economics,
psychology, and philosophy. In 1830, August Comte proclaimed that sociology should, and would one
day be on the same level of the other sciences. His prophecy seemed ridiculous to most at the time, until
much later in the 19th century, but it did prove true.[2]
Formal academic sociology began when Durkheim set up the first European department of sociology at
the University of Bordeauxin 1895, publishing his Rules of the Sociological Method. He showed that such
supposedly individual phenomena as suicide, crime, moral outrage, and even our concepts of time,
space, God, and the individual personality are socially determined.[2] In 1896, he established the
journal L'Année Sociologique. Durkheim's seminal monograph, Suicide (1897), a case study of suicide
rates amongst Catholic, Protestant and Jewish populations, distinguished sociological analysis from
psychology or philosophy. It also marked a major contribution to the concept of structural functionalism.[23]
A course entitled "sociology" was in the United States taught under its own name for the first time in 1875
by William Graham Sumner, drawing upon the thought of Comte and Herbert Spencer rather than the
work Durkheim was advancing in Europe.[24] In 1890, the oldest continuing sociology course in the United
States began at the University of Kansas, lectured by Frank Blackmar. The Department of History and
Sociology at the University of Kansas was established in 1891 [25][26] and the first full fledged independent
university department of sociology was established in 1892 at the University of Chicago by Albion W.
Small (1854–1926), who in 1895 founded the American Journal of Sociology.[27] American sociology
arose on a broadly independent trajectory to European sociology. George Herbert Mead and Charles H.
Cooley were influential in the development of symbolic interactionismand social psychology at the
University of Chicago, while Lester Ward emphasised the central importance of the scientific method with
the publication of Dynamic Sociology in 1883.
The University of Chicago developed the major sociologists at the time. It brought them together, and
even gave them a hob and network to link all the leading sociologists. In 1925, a third of all sociology
graduate students attended the University of Chicago. Chicago was very good at not isolating their
students from other schools. They encouraged them to blend with other sociologists, and to not spend
more time in the class room than studying the society around them. This would teach them real life
application of the classroom teachings. The first teachings at the University of Chicago were focused on
the social problems that the world had been dealt. At this time, academia was not concerned with theory;
especially not to the point that academia is today. Many people were still hesitant of sociology at this time,
especially with the recent controversial theories of Weber and Marx. The University of Chicago decided to
go into an entirely different direction and their sociology department directed their attention to the
individual and promoted equal rights. Their concentration was small groups and discoveries of the
individual’s relationship to society. The program combined with other departments to offer students wellrounded studies requiring courses in hegemony, economics, psychology, multiple social sciences and
political science. Albion Small was the head of the sociology program at the University of Chicago. He
played a key role in bringing German sociological advancements directly into American academic
sociology. Small also created the American Journal of Sociology. Robert Park and Ernest Burgess refined
the program’s methods, guidelines, and checkpoints. This made the findings more standardized, concise
and easier to comprehend. The pair even wrote the sociology program’s textbook for a reference and get
all students on the same page more effectively. Many remarkable sociologists such as George Hebert
Mead, W.E. Dubois, Robert Park, Charles S. Johnson, William Ogburn, Hebert Blumer and many others
have significant ties to the University of Chicago
In 1920 a department was set up in Poland by Florian Znaniecki (1882–1958).William I. Thomas
was an early graduation from the sociology department of the University of Chicago. His built upon his
teachings and his work changed sociology in many ways. In 1918, William I. Thomas and Florian
Znaniecki gave the world the publication of The Polish Peasant in Europe and America. This publication
combined sociological theory with in depth experiential research and thus launching methodical
sociological research as a whole. This changed sociologist’s methods and enabled them to see new
patterns and connect new theories. This publication also gave sociologists a new way to found their
research and prove it on a new level. All their research would be more solid, and harder for society to not
pay attention to it. In 1920, Znaniecki developed a sociology department in Poland to expand research
and teachings there.[2]
With the lack of sociological theory being taught at the University of Chicago paired with the new
foundations of statistical methods, the student’s ability to make any real predictions was nonexistent. This
was a major factor in the downfall of the Chicago school.[28]
The first sociology department in the United Kingdom was founded at the London School of Economics in
1904. In 1919 a sociology department was established in Germany at the Ludwig Maximilians University
of Munich by Max Weber, who had established a new antipositivist sociology. The "Institute for Social
Research" at the University of Frankfurt (later to become the "Frankfurt School" of critical theory) was
founded in 1923.[29] Critical theory would take on something of a life of its own after WW2, influencing
literary theory and the "Birmingham School" of cultural studies.
The University of Frankfurt’s advances along with the close proximity to the research institute for
sociology made Germany a powerful force in leading sociology at that time. In 1918, Frankfurt received
the funding to create sociology’s first department chair. The Germany’s groundbreaking work influenced
its government to add the position of Minister of Culture to advance the country as a whole. The
remarkable collection of men who were contributing to the sociology department at Frankfurt were soon
getting worldwide attention and began being referred to as the “Frankfurt school.” Here they studied new
perspectives of Marx theories, and went into depth of the works of Weber and Freud. Most of this men
would soon be forced out of Germany by the Nazis and arrive in America, influencing social research
there. This forced relocation of sociologists enabled sociology in America to bring up to the standards of
European studies of sociology by planting some of Europe’s greatest sociologists in America. [29]
Felix Weil was one of the students who received their doctorate on the concept of socialization from the
University of Frankfurt. He, along with Max Horkheimer and Kurt Albert Gerlach, developed the Institute of
Social Research and it was established in 1923. Kurt Albert Gerlach would serve as the institute’s first
director. Their goal in creating the institute was to produce a place that people could discover and be
informed of social life as a whole. Weil, Horkheimer, and Gerlach wanted to focus on interactions
between economics, politics, legal matters, as well as scholarly interactions in the community and society.
The main research that got the institute known was its revival of scientific Marxism. Many benefactors
contributed money, supplies, and buildings to keep this area of research going. When Gerlach, became ill
and had to step down as director, Max Horkheimer took his place. He encouraged the students of the
institute to question everything they studied. If the students studied a theory, he not only wanted them to
discover its truth themselves, but also to discover how, and why it is true and the theories relation to
society. The National Socialist regime exiled many of the members of the Institute of Social Research.
The regime also forced many students and staff from the entire Frankfurt University, and most fled to
America. Many people forced from the institute also left the war path, but unlike the university, the
institute lost too many people and was forced to close. In 1950, the institute was reopened as a private
establishment. From this point on the Institute of Social Research would have a close connection to
sociology studies in the United States.[29]
International cooperation in sociology began in 1893 when René Worms (1869–1926) founded the
small Institut International de Sociologie, eclipsed by much larger International Sociological
Association from 1949. In 1905 the American Sociological Association, the world's largest association of
professional sociologists, was founded, and Lester F. Ward was selected to serve as the first President of
the new society.