Founding fathers of sociology

August Comte "Sociology", Positivism

Excerpt from Positive Philosophy (1798 – 1857)
"The Positive Philosophy offers the only solid basis for that
Social Reorganization which must succeed the critical
condition in which the most civilized nations are now
living.... The fact is incontestable. Some may deplore it, but
none can destroy it, nor therefore neglect it but under penalty
of being betrayed by illusory speculations."

Auguste Comte, the French Philosopher, is traditionally

considered the "Father of Sociology". Comte who invented
the term "Sociology" was the first man to distinguish the
subject-matter of sociology from all the other sciences. It
would be more appropriate to regard him as a philosopher of
science rather than a sociologist. He argued that sociology can and should study
society and social phenomena following the pattern and procedures of the natural
science. Comte believed that a theoretical science of society and the systematic
investigation of human behavior were needed to improve society. He argued that the
new science of society could and should make a critical contribution towards new and
improved human society.

He concentrated his efforts to determine the nature of human society and the laws
and principles underlying its growth and development. He also labored to establish the
methods to be employed in studying social phenomena.
Comte defined sociology as the study of social dynamic and social static, the former
signifying the changing, progressing and developmental dimensions of society, while
the latter refers to the social order and those elements of society, major institutions
such as family, economy or polity. If Statics examines how the parts of societies are
interrelated, social dynamics focuses on whole societies as the unit of analysis and
how they developed and changed through time.

"Survival of Fittest" Herbert Spencer "The

Conservative British Social Philosopher, (1820-1903)
"Society is an organism... It undergoes continuous growth; as it
grows, its parts, becoming unlike, exhibit increase of structure;
the unlike parts simultaneously assume activities of unlike kinds.
Spencer was a prominent social philosopher of the 19th century. He was
famous for the
organic analogy of human society. He forwarded areas to which the discipline must
study: These were, the family, politics, religion, social control, and industry and work,
community, associations, division of labour, social differentiation or stratification,
aesthetics, the study of arts, and the sociology of knowledge He viewed society as an
organic system, having its
own structure and functioning in ways analogous to the biological system. Spencer's
ideas of the evolution of human society from the lowest ("barbarism") to highest form
("civilized") according to fixed laws were famous. It was called "Social Darwinism",
which is analogous to the biological evolutionary model. Social Darwinism is the
attempt to apply by analogy the evolutionary theories of plant and animal
development to the explanation of human society and social phenomena. Spencer like
Comte believed that the whole society must be studied as a unit of analysis

Karl Marx (1818-1883)

"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of
class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebian, lord
and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor
and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another,
carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a
fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary
reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the
contending classes....Working men of all countries, unite!"

Marx was a world remarkable social philosopher, sociologist

and economic historian. He made remarkable contributions to
the development of various social sciences including
Sociology. He contributed greatly to sociological ideas. He introduced key concepts in
sociology like social class, social class conflict, social oppression, alienation, etc.
Marx believed that there were two classes in conflict with each other: bourgeois and
proletariat. Marx, like Comte, argued that people should make active efforts to bring
about societal reforms. According to Marx, economic forces are the keys to
underestimating society and social change. He believed that the history of human
society has been that of class conflict. He dreamed of, and worked hard towards
realizing, a classless society, one in which there will be no exploitation and
oppression of one class by another, and wherein all individuals will work according to
their abilities and receive according to their needs. Marx introduced one of the major
perspective in sociology, called social conflict theory.
 Emile Durkheim French Sociologist, (1858-1917)

"Before beginning the search for the method appropriate to the study of
social facts it is important to know what are the facts termed 'social'. ..
When I perform my duties as a brother, a husband or a citizen and carry
out the commitments I have entered into, I fulfill obligations which are
defined in law and custom and which are external to myself and my
action”

Durkheim was the most influential scholar in the academic and

theoretical development of sociology. He laid down some of the
fundamental principles, methods, concepts and theories of sociology; he
defined sociology as the study of social facts. According to him, there
are social facts, which are distinct from biological and psychological facts. By social facts, he
meant the patterns of behavior that characterize a social group in a given society. They should be
studied objectively. The job of a sociologist, therefore, is to uncover social facts and then to
explain them using other social facts.
Durkheim wanted to comprehend how society functioned. One of his major contributions to
Sociology was Mechanical and Organic solidarity. This concept leads on to his views on why
people commit suicide (anomie) and crucially, division of labor. Despite the claim of many
sociologists that Durkheim’s work on suicide represents the primal piece of social work that
substantiates the validity that the discipline can be studied scientifically
Mechanical solidarity basically means what holds society together some regard Durkheim as the
first sociologist to apply statistical methods to study of social phenomena.

Max Weber, German Sociologist (1864-1920) - Social Action Theory

Weber was another prominent social scientist. His biggest contribution arguably is his view that
religion is central to what way a society acts. According to him, sociology is the scientific study
of human social action. Social action refers to any “action oriented to influence or influenced by
another person or persons. It is not necessary for more than one person to be physically present
for action to be regarded as social action….” It is concerned with the interpretive understanding
of human social action and the meaning people attach to their own actions and behaviors and
those of others. Weber was a renowned scholar who like Marx, wrote in several academic fields.
He agreed with much Marxian theses but did not accept his idea that economic forces are central
to social change. Weber argues that we cannot understand human behavior by just looking at
statistics. Every activity and behavior of people needs to be interpreted. He argued that a
sociologist must aim at what are called subjective meanings, the ways in which people interpret
their own behavior or the meanings people attach their own behavior.
FACTORS FOR THE EMERGENCE OF SOCIOLOGY

Sociology came to be established as an independent and a separate social science in the middle
of the 19th century. Various factors paved the way for its emergence. Ian Robertson in his book
"sociology" [pages: 11-12] has mentioned of three factors that hastened the process of the
establishment of sociology as a separate science. They are,

1. Industrial Revolution and Industrialization.

2. Inspiration from the Growth of Natural Sciences.
3. Inspiration provided by the radically diverse societies and cultures of the colonial
empires.

What social forces were at work that led to the emergence of sociology in the late 18th and
early 19th century? (2004)

 The emergence of sociology coincided with two of the most significant social and political
revolutions of recent times. In 1838 the French social thinker Auguste Comte was the first to use
the term sociology as a way of studying the world in terms of society, having grown up during
the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1789. Along with the industrial revolution in England
duringhe 18th century and the rise of urbanisation and mass social change, thinkers such as
Comte, Durkheim and Marx began to realise the need to study society in its current form as
opposed to the tendency of past philosophers on “imagining the ideal society” (Macionis,
Plummer, 1997, p.15).

This period of history is often described as ‘the great transformation’, which led to the
emergence of sociology. Around the late 18th century an intellectual period known as ‘the
Enlightenment’ challenged many of the established orders of society from an analytical and
scientific perspective.

 The French revolution of 1789 in many respects overshadowed the 19th century as a revolution
that challenged and successfully overthrew the old order of society. It was a revolution that
strengthened the state which aimed to represent the will of the people. It is important first
therefore to recognise that the political and cultural climate that existed before the revolution was
dominated by the church and the monarchy.

The Enlightenment was in many respects a renaissance of scientific thought and signalled the
beginning of sociology as a discipline. It changed the way philosophers looked at the world by
giving a scientific and analytical approach to their theories.

Various factors paved the way for its emergence. Ian Robertson in his book “Sociology” has
mentioned of three factors that hastened the process of the establishment of sociology as a
separate science. They may be briefed here.

(i) Industrial Revolution and Industrialisation:

Industrial Revolution that took place first in England during the 18th century brought about
sweeping changes throughout Europe. Never before in history did social changes take place on
such a massive scale. Sociology emerged in the context of the sweeping changes.

Industrialisation led to urbanisation. Peasants left rural areas and flocked to the towns, where
they worked as industrial labourers under dangerous conditions. Cities grew at an unprecedented
rate providing an anonymous environment for people.

Social problems became rampant in the fast developing cities. Aristocraties and monarchies
crumbled and fell. Religion began to lose its force as a source of moral authority. “For the first
time in history, rapid social change became the normal rather than an abnormal state of affairs,
and people could no longer expect that their children would live much the same lives as they had
done.

The direction of social change was unclear, and the stability of the social order seemed
threatened. An understanding of what was happening was urgently needed.

(ii) Inspiration from the Growth of Natural Sciences:

Nineteenth century was a period in which natural sciences had made much progress. The success
attained by the natural scientists inspired and even tempted good number of social thinkers to
emulate their example.

If their methods could be successful in the physical world to understand physical or natural
phenomena, could they not be applied successfully to the social world to understand social
phenomena? As an answer to this question Comte, Spencer, Durkheim, Weber and others
successfully demonstrated that these methods could be used to study the social world.

(iii) Inspiration provided by the radically diverse societies and cultures of the colonial
empires:

The colonial powers of Europe were exposed to different types of societies and cultures in the
colonial empires. Their exposure to such diversities in societies and cultures provided an
intellectual challenge for the social scientist of the day. Information about the widely contrasting
social practices of these distant peoples raised fresh questions about society:

Why some societies were more advanced than others? What lessons could the European
countries learn from comparisons of various societies’? Why the rate of social change was not
the same everywhere? The new science of society called “sociology” had emerged as an
independent science in an attempt to find convincing answers to these questions
Bibliography

 MORRISON, K (1995) Marx Durkheim Weber: Formations of Modern Social Thought, SAGE
Publications, London

 HUGHES, J, MARTIN, P, SHARROCK (1995), Understanding Classical Sociology Marx,

Weber, Durkheim, SAGE Publications, London

 MACIONIS, J, PLUMMER, K (1997), Sociology a global introduction, Prentice Hall Europe

 MARX, K, ENGELS, F (1888), The Communist Manifesto (English Edition), Penguin Group,
London

 ENGELS, F (1892), The Condition of the Working Class in England, Progress Publishers,
Moscow

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