Forerunners of Sociology

•credited for formulating the term

SOCIOLOGY (Socius – society, Logos –
knowledge

•considered Sociology as “Queen of the

Sciences”

•advocated the idea of “positivism” or the use

of empirical investigation to
understand society and social phenomenon

Father of Sociology
Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
Comte believed that society has passed 3 stages of
intellectual development:
1. Theological (religiously base)– thoughts were guided by religious ideas
and society is an expression of God’s will. It is where the universe was
explained in terms of gods, demons, and mythological beings.

2. Metaphysical (transition period or abstract)– reality was explained in

terms of abstractions such as essence, existence, substance, and accident.
Accounted through the Renaissance Period as society is seen as natural
and not supernatural

3. Positive (scientific stage)– explanation could be based only on scientific

laws discovered through experimentation, observation, or logic.
Encouragement of the application of scientific knowledge to analyze
society
Comte was also interested in 2 major social concerns:

1. The Law of Dynamics – the study of social change

2. The Law of Statics – the study of social order

 •Martineau wrote 35 books and a multitude of
essays from a sociological, holistic, religious,
domestic, and, perhaps most controversial, a
feminine perspective

•she also translated various works from Comte . She

is best known among sociologist for her translation
and condensation of Comte’s Positive Philosophy.
But her legacies revolved around her two books:

•-- “How to Observe Manners and Morals” (1838)

•--- “”Society in America”

•Martineau has said of her approach: "when one

studies a society, one must focus on all its aspects,
including key political, religious, and social
institutions“

First Female Sociologist •She believed a thorough societal analysis was

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) necessary to understand woman's status.
 •He is considered as the second founder of
sociology basically because of the publication of
the first sociological textbook in 1855 entitled
“Social Statics”.
•compared society to human organism (as a
structure that functioned interdependently to
maintain existence)

•He was inspired by Darwin’s study of the origin of

the species. He used this concept of evolution of
animals to explain how society change overtime.
He believed that social change is the result of
evolutionary laws. Social Darwinism (conflict is
inevitable and productive)

•hisrole for sociologists was to discover laws of

human evolution to prevent interference with those
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) laws.
Second Founder of Sociology
•major focus of sociology should be social
evolution rather than the suggestion and
implementation of strategies for social
improvement
The main themes run throughout Spencer’s major works are:

 Antigovernment Individualism
Asserts that society function best when governmental regulations and controls are reduced to a

minimum involving only military defense and protection of individual rights;

 Naturalistic Evolutionism
Posits causal sequences of growth and development

 Positivistic Uniformitarianism

Maintains that the same processes of evolutionary progress were applicable to all areas of existence; inert,
living, psychological and social
 •influenced by Comte

•introduced the concept of solidarity —that is,

a kind of social integration as the glue
necessary to make society function. When
this glue, or solidarity, is lacking, human
beings no longer feel a sense of belonging
(anomie).

•Durkheim wrote a book entitled Suicide, in

which he studied the causes underlying the
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) decision to take one’s own life.
[Functionalism]
Types of Suicide
Emile Durkheim classified different types of suicides on the basis of different types of relationship between the actor and his
society.

 (1) Egoistic suicide:

According to Durkheim, when a man becomes socially isolated or feels that he has no place in the society he destroys himself.
This is the suicide of self-centred person who lacks altruistic feelings and is usually cut off from main stream of the society.

 (2) Altruistic suicide:

This type of suicide occurs when individuals and the group are too close and intimate. This kind of suicide results from the
over integration of the individual into social proof,

 (3) Anomic suicide:

This type of suicide is due to certain breakdown of social equilibrium, such as, suicide after bankruptcy or after winning a
lottery. In other words, anomic suicide takes place in a situation which has cropped up suddenly.

 (4) Fatalistic suicide:

This type of suicide is due to overregulation in society. Under the overregulation of a society, when a servant or slave commits
suicide, when a barren woman commits suicide, it is the example of fatalistic suicide
 •believedthat the misery and exploitation of
the working lower classes in society was
caused by capitalism-the existing industrial
order.

•questioned industrial development as

capitalists (bourgeoisie) exploited laborers
(proletariat)

•the proletariat become alienated from

themselves due to their exploitation. thus, this
alienation prevented them from reaching their
potential

•“Class Conscious” members of proletariat

would revolt, hence classes were identified as
central forces in history
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
 •new social order was based upon Formal
Rationality wherein all actions of new
industrial order would be circumscribed by
rules that were abstract and formal

•inother words, bureaucracy and restriction

on human freedom and creativity

•focused on subjective meanings (values and

attitudes placed on life situations) – Symbolic
Interactionism

•believed in the independent force of ideas

Max Weber (1864-1920)

 •his neo-Kantian approach laid the
foundations for sociological antipositivism,
presenting pioneering analyses of social
individuality and fragmentation.

•recognized, designated, and analyzed the

impact of social differentiation, expansion of
social groups, structure of the economy and
other developmental and environmental
influences in the development of the human
personality.

Georg Simmel (1858-1918)