SOC101 Handouts 2024

Lesson-01 · THE ORIGIN OF SOCIOLOGY · Lesson Overview

Meaning of sociology Scientific thinking vs tradition August Comte Herbert Spencer Karl Marx Emile Durkheim

Topic-001: Meaning of Sociology

Sociology is the systematic and scientific study of human behavior, social groups, and society. Sociologists study structural and institutional forces that shape our everyday lives, behaviors, and social values and delve into how we help create those social structures and institutions. Sociology is an academic discipline, but this does not mean that it is simply “a thing to be studied . . . sociology is, first of all, a thing lived” (Lemert, 2008: xv). Perhaps sociologist Peter Berger (1963:4) rightly said when he wrote, “Sociology is not a practice but an attempt to understand.” This requires that sociologists deal with everyday events a little differently from the way most people do (Thomson and Hickey 2016).

Sociology provides us with the tools to analyze and interpret social phenomena. Sociology can be used to address social issues and promote social change. It is a broad and diverse field that covers a range of topics and approaches. Sociology is relevant to our everyday lives and the world we live in.

Topic-002: Scientific Thinking vs Tradition

The scientific revolution in the 17th century paved the way for a new approach to understanding the world. The scientific method emphasized empirical evidence and systematic observation. This approach challenged traditional beliefs and authority. It led to the development of new fields of study, including sociology. Sociology emerged as a response to the social changes and challenges of the modern era. It sought to apply the scientific method to the study of social phenomena. Sociology aimed to provide a rational and systematic understanding of society and human behavior. It challenged traditional ways of thinking and offered new insights into the social world.

Some Major Sociologists

Topic003: Positivism August Comte (1798-1857)

According to Blumberg (1974) August Comte was born into an aristocratic Catholic family in France; he studied science and for many years was the private secretary and collaborator of Claude Henri de Saint-Simon (1760–1825), who emphasized an observation based, positivist social scientific method. Comte elaborated a “Positive Philosophy” for the study of humanity, and won renown for coining the term “sociology,” a word designed to capture his belief that a social physics, a science that would emulate the natural sciences, could discover laws explaining society (Dillon 2014).

Focus on Objectivity

In Comte’s view, sociology would focus only on observable data, and approach its subject matter with the same objectivity and impartiality, and the same systematic attention to processes and causes, that physical scientists use; what, for example, biologists do in studying plants. We don’t expect the biologist’s empirical observations of plant life to be impacted by his or her values or social background; and so too, Comte believed that social life could be similarly studied (Dillon 2014).

Positivism

Applying the scientific method to the social world, a process known as positivism, apparently was first proposed by Auguste Comte. Reflecting on the upheavals of the French Revolution and on the changes, he experienced when he moved to Paris from the small town in which he had grown up, Comte became interested in what holds society together. He began to ask what creates social order, instead of anarchy or chaos. And once society does become set on a particular course, what causes it to change, he wondered. Comte decided that the scientific method was the key to answering such questions. Just as the scientific method had revealed the law of gravity, so, too, it would uncover the laws that underlie society. Comte called this new science sociology— “the study of society” (from the Greek logos, “study of,” and the Latin socius, “companion,” or “being with others”). The purpose of this new science, he said, would be not only to discover social principles but also to apply them to social reform. Comte developed a grandiose view: Sociologists would reform the entire society, making it a better place to live (Henslin 2010).

Law of three Stages

Comte viewed sociology as the product of a three-stage historical development. During the earliest, the theological stage, from the beginning of human history to the end of the European Middle Ages about 1350 C.E., people took a religious view that God’s will is expressed through society. With the rise of the Renaissance in the fifteenth century, the theological approach gave way to a metaphysical stage of history in which people perceived society as a natural rather than a supernatural system. What Comte called the scientific stage of history began with the work of early scientists such as the Polish astronomer Copernicus (1473 1543), the Italian astronomer and physicist Galileo (1564–1642), and the English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton (1642–1727). Comte’s contribution came in applying the scientific approach to the study of society which was first used to study the physical world. (Macionis 2012).

Topic-004: Social Darwinism Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

Spencer was born on 27 April 1820 in England. He is popularly known as the British Aristotle and often called the second founding father of sociology. The succeeding writers were highly influenced from his thoughts. The name of spencer cannot be separated from the birth of sociology in England. He can be thought in terms of original and independent thinker. His contributions in the fields of knowledge like philosophy, biology, psychology, anthropology, and sociology are manyfold. Following are some of the important books written by Herbert Spencer.

1. Social Statics (1850)
2. First Principles (1862).
3. The study of Sociology (1873)
4. The Principles of Sociology in three volumes (1876-96)
5. The Man verses the State (1884)

Spencer’s evolutionary theory and Sociology

Societies go through a natural evolution, he said, evolving from lower (“barbarian”) to higher (“civilized”) forms. This natural process improves societies. As generations pass, the most capable and intelligent (“the fittest”) members of a society survive, while the less capable die out. The fittest members will produce a more advanced society—unless misguided dogooders get in the way and help the less fit (the lower classes) survive. Spencer called this principle the survival of the fittest. Although Spencer coined this phrase, it usually is attributed to his contemporary, Charles Darwin, who proposed that organisms evolve over time as they adapt to their environment (Henslin 2010). Spencer and social Darwinism: Where Darwin refers to the evolution of organisms, Spencer refers to the evolution of societies. Because Darwin is better known, Spencer’s idea is called social Darwinism. (If fame had gone the other way, we might be speaking of “biological Spencerism.”). Spencer’s idea that it was wrong to help the poor offended many. Many wealthy businessmen of the time, however, liked the concept of the survival of the fittest: They saw themselves as “the fittest”—and therefore superior. I’m sure that Spencer’s views also helped some of them avoid feeling guilty for living like royalty while people around them went hungry (Henslin 2010).

Ethics and Politics

According to Spencer, moral law was derived from individuals, yet, good and evil are determined by God. Evil resulted from non adaptation to external conditions which would diminish in a society which is [perfectly evolved. We can characterize Spencerian politics as libertarian because he was against state intervention in daily life matters especially economic matters. He also disapproved state centered charity, education, and other services such as garbage removal. Private philanthropy was also rejected by him because he was the advocate of survival of the fittest. According to him, charity, whether from state or private hands facilitated unhealthy and nonproductive members in society.

Topic-005: Origin of Sociology: Capitalism Karl Marx (1818-1883)

He was a German political philosopher and economist born in 1818 in Prussia. The year 1848 was the “Year of Revolutions” in Europe, as workers and ordinary people revolted against the ruling monarchies in Germany, Italy, Austria, Hungary, and France. Marx himself had participated in the German revolutionary movement, and that same year he and Friedrich Engels published their famous treatise The Communist Manifesto. Marx was expelled from Germany and subsequently too from France because of his revolutionary views. He died in 1883 (Dillon 2014).