Introduction to Sociology Who in the world thought this up?

Introduction to Sociology

Who in the world thought this up?

• The sociological perspective– Sociology – a reasoned rigorous study of social life.Sociology is an academic subject that developed largely in the 19th century (the 1800’s).It’s first major thinkers – the classical sociologists were Comte, Durkheim, Weber and Parsons – all European men.Sociology came about in Europe, as the result of social issues that resulted from revolution, industrialization and urbanization – in other words – societies in upheaval, whose whole way of governing and producing wealth was changing drastically.

• Sociology• Origin: born out of revolutions• In belief:

Scientific RevolutionScientist question prevailing views of the world which were based on religious faith

(Christianity), magical superstition, custom and tradition.

Sir Issaac Newton et alScientific method, Darwinism, etc.

• In Political Structure:• The American Revolution (1776)– led toThe French Revolution (1789)

which led toBefore AfterMonarchies Republican governmentAristocracies Beginning of human rightsElites ruled Europe

• In Economic Structure• Before After• Europe largely Industrial Revolution• Agricultural Rise of factory system• Most people farmed Mass Production• Few cities People move to cities• Cottage industries Growth of cities -

urbanization

• Auguste Comte – father of Sociology (1798-1857) French mathematician and philosopher, wanted to know what holds society together.His BIG QUESTIONS:

How was social order created?How was social order maintained? How did it change?

Comte’s BIG ANSWER:All human societies pass through 3 stages:

1) theoretical – order based on religious belief and religious controls. “Thou

shalt not…”2) metaphysical – transitional phase characterized by

upheaval and disorder. Science challenges religious order.

3) positive – science and reason reveal the nature of the social world and replace religion as the basis for social order.

• Positivism is the application of the scientific method to the study of the social world.

• Comte began to analyze the basis of social order but did not himself use the scientific method he advocated for others.

• Comte called his new science La sociologie the study of society.

• He stressed that sociology would discover social principles and apply them to social reform: the end goal was to make society a better place to live.

• Comte’s perspective was a “consensus” perspective, which means he believed that social order was created and maintained through human cooperation – human consensus.

• Karl Marx – ( 1818-1883) German philosopher and economist – Marx believed social order was created and maintained by

– Conflict!!!• Not cooperation.• Marx believed social development had passed through 4 epochs

(time periods):– Primitive communism (stone age)– Ancient society– Feudal or pre-industrial society– Capitalist or industrial society– Believed the roots of human misery lay in class conflict,

exploitation of workers by those who owned the means of production.

– Marx believed that social change in the form of the overthrow of capitalists by workers was inevitable.

– Marx’s ideas are influential with conflict theorists.

• Marx believed each time period had a different economic relationship (and that economic factors were the most influential factor in social order):– Feudal (pre-industrial) society - relationship between peasant and

lord.– Industrial (capitalist) society - owner/employer and

non-owner/employeeAll these relationships were based on conflict – the domination of one group by another.Under capitalism, the relationship was characterized by conflict because it was based on the domination by the power group – Marx called them the bourgeoisie.The bourgeoisie owned the means of economic production (land, factories, machines).Marx believed in a classless society, resulting from revolution, in which people worked according to their abilities and received goods according to their needs.

• The bourgeoisie dominated the vast majority of people, whom Marx called the proletariat, who owned nothing but their ability to work (labor power), which they exchanged for money.

• The bourgeoisie and the proletariat, according to Marx, were locked in an endless struggle; the class conflict between bourgeoisie and proletariat that is still significant in sociology today.

• Marx also believed social order was maintained through a mixture of force and persuasion:– Threat of imprisonment or death plus – religious teachings of belief in a higher power and an individual’s

predetermined place in the world – Another significant idea from class conflict theory is class

inequality – in capitalist societies, one small group owns most of the wealth, and the vast majority of people own little or nothing.

– Idea of class inequality emerged recently in the OCCUPY Movements – protests against social and economic inequality; sought to distribute power and wealth more evenly.

• Marx believed inequality was linked to • stratification

– The ranking of different social classes in order of:

»Wealth» Power» InfluencePOWER is a significant sociological concept. For Marx, power came from

Economic ownership.He who has the most toys wins. Those who control the most economic resources ($$$) also control all areas of society, from politics and religion to the media.Marx is credited with introducing one of the major perspectives in sociology: conflict theory.

• Marx’s contribution in sociological thinking was in the understanding of the role that conflict plays in bringing about social change.

• Marx also showed how competition for scarce resources can have significant influence on how societies are organized.

• Marx wrote primarily about class conflict.• Critics of Marx argue that he put too much emphasis on the role of

economic factors in shaping social institutions and how people behave.

• Critics argue that Marx fails to recognize the importance of other forms of conflict besides economic conflict, that may divide a society and lead to social change.

• Religion for example: the Reformation and Counterreformation• Conflict between the sexes is another example: Right to Vote, Equal

Rights Amendment, Fair and Equal Pay.• Critics also argue that Marx’s ideas of human behavior are too

“deterministic” – individual behavior is socially motivated and people don’t ‘choose” to behave in ways other than economically predicted.

• Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) Contributed many important concepts to sociology.

• He identified the key roll of social integration in social life – remains central to sociology today.– Studied suicide rates in several countries and discovered the

underlying social factor: people more likely to commit suicide if their ties to others in community are weak.

– This led to Durkheim’s idea of social integration – the degree to which members of a groups or society feel united by shared values and other social bonds – also called social cohesion.

Durkheim’s primary professional goal: get sociology recognized as a separate academic discipline (was viewed as part of history and economics).

Achieved goal in 1887 when he received the first academic appointment in sociology at the University of Bordeaux.

• Durkheim had another goal: to show how social forces affect people’s behavior.– He conducted rigorous research– Compared suicide rates of several European countries– Found each had different suicide rates.– But the rates remained the same year after year.– He found different groups within a country had different rates.• Protestants, males, unmarried killed themselves at a higher

rate than Catholics, Jews, females or the married.• Conclusion: Social factors underlie suicide and this keeps a

group’s rate constant over time.Durkheim identified social integration – the degree to which people are ties to their social group as the key factor in suicide.People with weaker social ties are more likely to commit suicide.

• Protestantism encourages greater freedom of thought and action than Catholicism or Judaism.

• Males tended to be more independent than females• The unmarried lacked ties and responsibilities that come with

marriage.• These groups have fewer social bonds – less social integration.• BUT• Durkheim also noted that in some instances, strong bonds

encouraged suicide (widowers who killed themselves when a spouse died.)

• Durkheim’s study still quoted, his research was so thorough, his principle still applies.

• Durkheim believed modern societies produce feelings of isolation, which comes from division of labor.

• Central principle of his suicide research: Human behavior cannot be understood only in individualistic terms; we must always examine the social forces that affect people’s lives.

• Max Weber (1864-1920) Held professorships in sociology. Considered one of the most influential of all sociologists.

• Used cross-cultural and historical materials to trace causes of social change and to determine how social groups affect people’s orientations to life.

• Weber looked at what he called the Protestant Ethic: the link between religion and the origin of capitalism – still controversial today.– While Marx claimed economics is the central force in social change, Weber

claimed the central force was religion.– In 1904, Weber theorized that the Roman Catholic belief system encouraged

followers to hold on to traditional ways of life while– Protestant belief system encouraged members to embrace change. Therefore:– Protestantism undermined people’s spiritual security. How did this work?

• Roman Catholics, by virtue of their church membership, believed they were going to heaven, while Protestants, largely Calvinists, would not know if they made it there till Judgment Day.

• This caused insecurity, so Protestants looked for ‘signs’ of God’s approval and concluded that

• Financial success was a major sign of God’s alliance.• To bring about this ‘sign’ and receive spiritual comfort, Protestants

began living frugal lives, saving and investing their surplus money in order to make even more.

• This, according to Weber, was the birth of Capitalism• Weber called this self-denying approach to life the Protestant Ethic.• He called the readiness to invest capital in order to make more

money the “spirit of capitalism”.• Weber tested his theory by comparing the extent of capitalism in

Roman Catholic and Protestant countries and found capitalism more likely to thrive in Protestant countries.

• Weber’s conclusion: Religion is the key factor in the rise of capitalism. This is till controversial and still debated.

• Weber also said: sociology should be value-free – a sociologists values (beliefs about what is good, worthwhile in life and the way life

ought to be) should not affect his research.• Weber wanted objectivity, total neutrality, to be the hallmark of

social research. Why?• If values influenced research, then sociological findings would be

biased in therefore incorrect.• Weber contributed the idea of “Verstehen” (German, “to

understand” – to grasp by insight.• Weber said to understand human behavior sociologists should use

Verstehen, by which he meant:• The best interpreter of human behavior is someone who can

understand the feelings and motivations of the people being studied. • In short, sociologists must pay attention to subjective meanings –

how people interpret their situation in life – how they view what they are doing and what is happening to them.

• By applying Verstehen, your understanding of what it means to be human and face some situation in life – you gain insight into other people’s behavior.

• Let’s compare Durkheim’s positivist approach to Weber’s use of Verstehen and Social Facts.– Durkheim stressed the patterns of behavior that characterize a

social group (like June is for weddings, suicide is higher among the elderly) – the social facts, to interpret other social facts or patterns because they do reflect some condition of society.

– Durkheim believed that patterns that hold true year after year indicate a decision making process that is a response by individuals to conditions in their society.

– Actually, Durkheim’s social facts and Weber’s Verstehen work together. For example: more people get married in June (fact) because it is the end of the school year (social fact); and now this month is locked by tradition, sentiment and the media into being the “best month” to marry (Verstehen).

• Summary:• So why did sociology develop?• The nature of social life and human interaction has been of interest

to scholars throughout history.• Several factors led to the development of sociology as a distinct filed

of study”• 1. Rapid social and political changes that took place in Europe• -as a result of the Industrial Revolution, were of primary

importance.• * The rural economy, with its farms and cottage industries,

gave way to an economy based on large-scale production.• * The factory replaced the home as the main site for

manufacturing.• * With the growth of factories came the growth of cities, as

people left their homes in the country in search of work.

• 2. Rapid growth of urban populations produced a multitude of social problems.

• -Number of people seeking work outpaced the number of available jobs.

• * Housing shortages developed.• * Crime increased.• * Pollution became a major problem.• -Many people found it difficult to adapt to the impersonal nature

of urban life.• - Over time it became difficult to ignore the effect of this new

society on the individual.• * Individual liberty and individual rights became the focus of a

wide variety of political movements .• *These gave rise to the American and French Revolutions.•

• 3. Sweeping political, social, and economic changes caused some scholars to question the traditional explanations of life.

• -This was similar to similar situations that developed in the physical sciences in the 1700s.

• * Many scientists rejected traditional religious explanations of the physical world and speculated that the physical world operated according to systematic properties and laws.

• * They attempted to prove their beliefs through observation, experiments, and careful collection and analysis of information.

• - In the 1800s some scholars believed that the social world was based on a set of basic principles that could be studies and analyzed through the use of scientific research methods.

• - Sociology too root in the 1800s primarily in France, Germany and Britain because these countries has most strongly felt the effects of the Industrial revolution.

• Auguste Comte (French)was one of the first scholars to apply the methods of the physical sciences to the study of social life and term the study of society as sociology. He is considered the founder of the subject.

• Karl Marx (German) Marx believed that the structure of a society is influenced by how its economy is organized. He emphasized the primary role that conflict plays in social change and advocated revolution to speed up the process of change; his ideas led to the development of the conflict perspective in sociology.

• Emile Durkheim (French) was concerned (like Comte) with social order and saw society as a set of interdependent parts that maintain the system throughput time. He viewed these parts in terms of their functions. He believed sociologists should focus on observable social phenomena and so was influential in the development of the functionalist perspective in sociology.

• Max Weber (Prussian) was interested in separate groups within a society rather than in society as a whole and led him to focus on individuals. He developed the concept of the ideal type, a model against which social reality can be measured. He believed that sociology should attempt to understand the meanings that individuals attach to their actions. His work influenced the development of the interactionist perspective in sociology.