Sociology: Origins and Classical Perspectives

Origins of Sociology

  • Sociology emerged from significant social transformations:

    • Political Revolutions: These suggested that people possessed the capacity to alter their society, fostering ideas of societal change.

    • Industrial Revolution and Urbanization: These profound shifts presented social thinkers with numerous urgent social problems that demanded solutions, such as poverty, class conflict, and urban squalor.

    • Scientific Revolution: This era cultivated the belief that a systematic, scientific approach could be applied to study and understand society, similar to natural sciences.

Main Founders of Sociology

Auguste Comte ($1798$-$1857$)

  • Credited with coining the term Sociology, although he initially preferred Social Physics.

  • His primary objective was to establish a scientific study of society.

  • He conceptualized society in terms of:

    • Social Statics: Pertaining to the aspects of social order and stability.

    • Social Dynamics: Pertaining to the aspects of social conflict and change.

Émile Durkheim ($1858$-$1917$)

  • Instrumental in formalizing sociology as an academic discipline.

  • Established the first formal rules of methods in sociology, providing a systematic framework for sociological inquiry.

  • Pioneered the integration of sociology into academia by:

    • Creating the first chair in sociology at la Sorbonne in Paris.

    • Training the first generation of students in the discipline.

    • Founding the first academic sociological journal, L'Année sociologique in $1898$.

Karl Marx ($1818$-$1883$)

  • Core focus on social conflict as a driver for further societal change and revolution.

  • Deeply concerned with issues of oppression, exploitation, and alienation within industrial societies.

  • Advocated economic determinism, positing that every aspect of social life fundamentally stems from economic relationships.

  • Identified class conflict as the key to human history, specifically the struggle between those who own the means of production and those who do not.

    • In industrial societies, this conflict manifests between the bourgeoisie (the capitalist, owning class) and the proletariat (the working, dispossessed class).

  • Envisioned societal progression toward:

    • Socialism: Described as a