Download Auguste Comte - Doral Academy Preparatory

What factors led to the development
of Social Sciences?
• French Revolution: A new social order was
needed
• Industrial Revolution: Industries were replacing
agriculture
• City life started to replace country life
• The scientific method could be applied to
understand human life and behavior
Auguste Comte
• Auguste Comte -“father” or “founder” of sociology
(coined the term)
• Positivism – view that information derived from logic
and mathematics is the only accurate source of
knowledge
• He focused on social order and social change
– Social statics: processes that hold society together
– Social dynamics: processes that change society
Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)
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Respected British author
“Society in America” – democracy in the United States
Talked about marriage, race relations, education, etc.
Study of social systems was “a science of morals and
manners”
Set standards for objectivity in Sociology
Translated Comte’ work for English speakers
Believed scholars should look to solve the issues they studied
Spoke out in favor of women’s rights, religious tolerance, and
the end of slavery
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
• Studied natural and social sciences
• He studied society like biology (influenced by Charles
Darwin)
• Believed society functions like a living organism, with a
set of independent parts that work together to maintain
the system
• Change in societies is part of evolution.
• Survival of the fittest: Believed fittest societies (like
organisms) would survive over time.
• Spencer’s view on Society is known as Social Darwinism
Theoretical Perspectives of Sociology
• Sociology employs three major theoretical perspectives:
functionalism, conflict, and interactionism.
• Each of these perspectives is linked to one of the following
people:
• Conflict = Marx
• Functionalism = Durkheim
• Interactionism = Weber
Early
European
Conflict
PerspectiveScholars
(Marx) -Macro• Conflict perspective
– Focuses on elements that create competition and change between
social classes
• Materialism: theory that historical change is about class conflict
over concrete things (material goods, resources)
•Marx distinguished two important class groups in society:
–Bourgeois (capitalists): wealthy people who owned the means of
production (ex. factories and farmlands)
–Proletariat (workers): people who only own the labor and must
work for the bourgeois.
• There is conflict between classes because of imbalance in power.
Functionalist Perspective (Durkheim) –Macro1. View of society as a set of interrelated parts that work
together to produce a stable social system
2. Viewed segments of society by their function
3. Emphasized cooperation rather than conflict
• Dysfunction
– A negative consequence of an element of society
• Manifest function
– The intended and recognized consequence of an element of society
• Latent function
– Unintended and unrecognized consequence of an element of society
Symbolic Interactionist Perspective (Weber)
• Interested in separate groups of society instead of the whole (Micro)
• Believes that sociology should try to understand the meaning that
each individual gives to a situation. “Definition of a Situation”
• People act toward things based on the meaning those things have for
them; and these meanings are derived from social interaction and
modified through interpretation.
• Studies how people interpret symbols (ex. How we interpret words in
a conversation)
• Verstehen (to understand): Understanding the meaning of actions from
the individual’s point of view. Put yourself in the place of others.
American Scholars
The University of Chicago department of sociology became
known for the idea that sociologists should look for solutions to
social problems.
Jane Addams
W.E.B. Du Bois
• Published a series of surveys about
the problems of the urban poor in
Chicago.
• Examined life in African American
neighborhoods
• Encouraged scholars to examine
the problems of race and be more
involved in social change.