Sociology’s Genesis

Sociology’s Genesis

The Men and Women That Created the Field.

The Men and Women That Created the Field.

Origins• The origins of Sociology were based in philosophy and religion

• Ibn Khaldun was a Muslim scholar writing about tribal and clan dynamics in the late 1300’s in Northern Africa

• He is considered by some to be a founding father of sociology.

• Plato was a philosopher who wrote about the appropriate ways that people should act.

• He strove for what he called Virtú or the ideal behaviors.

• he did not really try to explain behaviors, but to establish the most desirable.

• Religion

• Religion was incredibly important for people

• it gave their lives purpose and meaning

• old them how they should act

• Like Plato, religion points out undesirable and desirable traits

• it does not attempt to explain them. ibn Khaldun

Auguste Comte• Comte was the first person to approach the study of people in groups in a

scientific way.

• He adapted the theory of evolution to the realm of society with his “Law of Three Stages”

• The law states that society progresses through three distinct stages:

• the Theological Stage

• itself divided into 3 stages

• Fetishistic

• Polytheistic

• Monotheistic

• the Metaphysical Stage

• and the Positive Stage

Law of Three Stages

• 1.Theological

• People explain the world around them using religion.

• God or supernatural powers are responsible for world being the way that it is, and people behave as such.

• 2. Metaphysical

• The world is being explored and questioned.

• People are beginning to see concepts of rights and freedoms to be above the authority of mankind, and to question the existence of deities.

• 3. Positive

• People are using science to solve their problems.

• They are relying almost entirely on science to explain life rather than philosophical concepts or religion to explain their lives.

Emile Durkheim

• Emile Durkheim brought sociology as a study to prominence.

• His primary goal was to extract sociology from philosophy and make it into its own scientific field.

• His was a functionalist theory of psychology.

Functionalism• Society is a mix of social

institutions that join together like organs in the body to create the society as a whole.

• These institutions can include trade, government, religion, the nuclear family unit, the extended family, educational systems, etc.

• The functionalist asks “How does this affect a stable society.”

Herbert Spencer

• Herbert Spencer was a functionalist that applied Darwin’s theory of Evolution to society.

• Societies grow and adapt to their environment, but the adaptation creates new pressures.

• Thus, societies grow, change to meet that growth, and then if a society can no longer adapt, begin to fall apart. Then a new society rises in its place and the cycle starts again.

Society in Spencer’s Model

Max Weber• Weber wanted to analyze

concrete phenomena, that is, something that can be measured and observed, and then use them to understand and make generalizations about sociological phenomena from history.

• He maintained a rigorous adherence to scientific principles.

Max Weber

• He used his methodology to analyze religion and economics.

• He insisted that teachers of sociology should focus on facts and avoid personal viewpoints.

Karl Marx

• Karl Marx laid the groundwork for the Conflict Theory of Sociology.

• He stated that conflict exists between those who own the factors of production (land, capital, and equipment) and those who perform labor.

Karl Marx

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Karl Marx

• The Bourgeoise

• Own the factory, the land and the equipment.

• They make tons of money on the products their factories produce

Karl Marx

• The Proletariat

• Work in the factories

• They work long hours

• They don’t get paid enough.

The Conflict

• The Bourgeoise want the proletariat to work more for less money.

• The proletariat want to work less for more money.

• The Bourgeoise put a system in place to protect their wealth.

The conflict

• There are many more Proletariat than Bourgeoise

• Eventually, Marx says, the unrest will grow to the point that the “have nots” overthrow the “haves.”

• In this scenario, the excesses of capitalism are its own downfall.

Belshevik (1920) by Kustodiev

Conflict theories

• Conflict theories have grown from Marx’s First theory.

• Unlike the Structural functionalism of Weber and Durkheim, which sought out directly observable (concrete) phenomena, Marx and conflict theorists focus on abstract processes.

• Why we get into conflict with some, but not others

• Why some have and others do not

• Why some succeed and others fail

W E B DuBois• DuBois was an American

historian, sociologist, and leader of the African American community in the early 1900’s.

• He helped found the NAACP

• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

• DuBois wrote about life as an African American in the United States.

DuBois• DuBois felt that if African

Americans were going to find success in American society, they needed to have:

• Full civil rights

• Access to advanced education

• An increase in political power

• He was the editor of a newspaper that wrote about those things called the Crisis.

The Waco Horror

• Dubois had a direct impact on this area

• In his newspaper, he had a reporter investigate the lynching of Jesse Washington in Waco, TX in 1916.

• Washington was accused and found guilty of raping and murdering the wife of his employer.

• The members of the community dragged him out of the courthouse, mutilated his body, then hung him over a bonfire.

• They then took his charred body and cut off limbs, selling them as souvenirs.

The Waco Horror

Du Bois

• By publishing the story of Washington in his paper, DuBois exposed the evils of Lynching

• The practice sharply fell, as people began to realize how truly awful the practice was.

• DuBois also disproved racial stereotypes using scientific methods, which he published in his book The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study

• The ideas of DuBois strongly influenced the Civil rights movement of the 60’s.

Booker T Washington

• Washington was born into slavery in the mid 1850’s

• After emancipation, he became a leader among newly freed men in the south and eventually the entire country.

Booker T Washington• WEB DuBois thought that African Americans should

demand their civil rights and fight for them.

• Washington thought that demanding these things so soon after emancipation was dangerous and would not be successful.

• His approach was long-term. He suggested that the African American community advance through:

• Educational achievement

• Economic advancement

• Solidarity

Booker T Washington

• Washington’s approach was the more popular of the two.

• Washington himself was good at public relations

• he could raise money

• navigate tricky political situations

• network with new people.

• This made him very influential.

Harriet Martineau• Martineau was a leading

feminist theorist in the mid 1800’s

• She believed that men used the as a way to limit a woman’s power and make them dependent on men.

• She saw a link between Slavery and women’s rights, and sought freedom for both woman and slave.

Jane Addams

• Jane Addams’ focus was on the imbalance of power between social classes and the problems that arose from them.

• She was also active in the women’s suffrage movement.

Jane Addams

• During her life time, she was never considered a sociologist.

• This is because she was a woman and because she worked with the poor.

• She was the first American woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize.