History Os Sociology

History of sociology
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Sociology emerged from enlightenment thought, shortly after the French Revolution, as a positivist science of society. Its genesis owed to various key movements in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of knowledge. Social analysis in a broader sense, however, has origins in the common stock of philosophy and necessarily pre-dates the field. Modern academic sociology arose as a reaction to modernity, capitalism, urbanization, rationalization, and secularization, bearing a particularly strong interest in the emergence of the modern nation state; its constituent institutions, its units of socialization, and its means of surveillance. An emphasis on the concept of modernity, rather than the Enlightenment, often distinguishes sociological discourse from that of classical political philosophy.[1]
Within a relatively brief period of time the discipline greatly expanded and diverged, both topically and methodologically, particularly as a result of myriad reactions against empiricism. Historical debates are broadly marked by theoretical disputes over the primacy of either structure or agency. Contemporary social theory has tended toward the attempt to reconcile these dilemmas. Whilst postmodernist trends in recent years have seen a rise in highly abstracted theory, new quantitative data collection methods have also emerged, and remain common tools for governments, businesses and organizations.
Social research sprang from sociology, but has since gained a degree of autonomy as practitioners from other disciplines share its purpose. Similarly, "social science" has come to be appropriated as an umbrella term to refer to various disciplines which study society or human culture. Contents[hide] * 1 Precursors * 1.1 Ancient times * 2 Origins * 2.1 Comte, Spencer and Marx * 2.2 Other precursors * 3 Foundation of the academic discipline * 3.1 The canon: Durkheim, Marx, Weber * 4 19th Century: From positivism to antipositivism * 5 20th Century: Critical theory, postmodernism, and positivist revival * 6 See also * 7 References * 8 Further reading * 9 External links |
[edit] Precursors
[edit] Ancient times
Sociological reasoning may be traced back at least as far as the ancient Greeks (cf. Xenophanes′ remark: "If horses would adore gods, these gods would resemble horses"). Proto- sociological observations are to be found in the founding texts of Western philosophy (Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, Polybius and so on), as well as in the non-European thought of figures such as Confucius.[2] The characteristic trends in the sociological thinking of the ancient Greeks can be traced back to the social environment. Because there was rarely any extensive or highly centralized political organization within states this allowed the tribal spirit of localism and provincialism to have free play. This tribal spirit of localism and provincialism pervaded most of the Greek thinking upon social phenomena.[3] The origin of the survey can be traced back to the Doomesday Book ordered by king William I in 1086.[4][5] There is evidence of early Muslim sociology from the 14th century. Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406), in his Muqaddimah (later translated as Prolegomena in Latin), the introduction to a seven volume analysis of universal history, was the first to advance social philosophy and social science in formulating theories of social cohesion and social conflict. He is thus considered by some to be the forerunner of sociology.[6][7][8][9][10][11]
[edit] Origins
[edit] Comte, Spencer and Marx

Auguste Comte
The term ("sociologie") was first coined by the French essayist Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (1748–1836).[12] (from the Latin: socius, "companion"; and the suffix -ology, "the study of", from Greek λόγος, lógos, "knowledge" [13][14]).
The term was independently re-invented, and introduced as a neologism, by the French thinker Auguste Comte (1798–1857) in 1838.[15] Comte had earlier expressed his work as "social physics", but that term had been appropriated by others, most notably a Belgian statistician, Adolphe Quetelet (1796–1874). Writing after the original enlightenment political philosophers of social contract, Comte hoped to unify all studies of humankind through the scientific understanding of the social realm. His own sociological scheme was typical of the 19th century humanists; he believed all human life passed through distinct historical stages and that, if one could grasp this progress, one could prescribe the remedies for social ills. Sociology was to be the "queen science" in Comte 's schema; all basic physical sciences had to arrive first, leading to the most fundamentally difficult science of human society itself.[15] Comte has thus come to be viewed as the "Father of Sociology".[15] Comte delineated his broader philosophy of science in The Course in Positive Philosophy [1830-1842], whereas his A General View of Positivism (1865) emphasised the particular goals of sociology.

The Positivist temple in Porto Alegre
In later life, Comte developed a 'religion of humanity ' for positivist societies in order to fulfil the cohesive function once held by traditional worship. In 1849, he proposed a calendar reform called the 'positivist calendar '. For close associate John Stuart Mill, it was possible to distinguish between a "good Comte" (the author of the Course in Positive Philosophy) and a "bad Comte" (the author of the secular-religious system).[16] The system was unsuccessful but met with the publication of Darwin 's On the Origin of Species to influence the proliferation of various Secular Humanist organizations in the 19th century, especially through the work of secularists such as George Holyoake and Richard Congreve. Although Comte 's English followers, including George Eliot and Harriet Martineau, for the most part rejected the full gloomy panoply of his system, they liked the idea of a religion of humanity and his injunction to "vivre pour altrui" ("live for others", from which comes the word "altruism").[17]

Karl Marx rejected the positivist sociology of Comte but was of central influence in founding structural social science.
Comte 's account of social evolution bears similarity to Karl Marx 's (1818–1883) view that human society would progress toward a communist peak. This is perhaps unsurprising as both were profoundly influenced by the early Utopian socialist, Henri de Saint-Simon (1760–1825), who was at one time Comte 's mentor. Both thinkers intended to develop a new scientific ideology in the wake of European secularisation. Marx, in the tradition of Hegelianism, rejected the positivist method, but in attempting to develop a science of society nevertheless became recognized as a founder of sociology later as the word gained wider meaning. Isaiah Berlin described Marx as the "true father" of modern sociology, "in so far as anyone can claim the title."[18]
To have given clear and unified answers in familiar empirical terms to those theoretical questions which most occupied men 's minds at the time, and to have deduced from them clear practical directives without creating obviously articifial links between the two, was the principle achievement of Marx 's theory ... The sociological treatment of historical and moral probelms, which Comte and after him, Spencer and Taine, had discussed and mapped, became a precise and concrete study only when the attack of militant Marxism made its conclusions a burning issue, and so made the search for evidence more zealous and the attention to method more intense.
– Isaiah Berlin Karl Marx 1967, [19]
The early sociology of Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) came about broadly as a reaction to Comte; writing after various developments in evolutionary biology, Spencer attempted (in vain) to reformulate the discipline in what we might now describe as socially Darwinistic terms. (Spencer was in actual fact a proponent of Lamarckism rather than Darwinism).
[edit] Other precursors
Many other philosophers and academics were influential in the development of sociology, not least the Enlightenment theorists of social contract, and historians such as Adam Ferguson (1723–1816). For his theory on social interaction, Ferguson has himself been described as "the father of modern sociology"[20] Other early works to appropriate the term 'sociology ' included A Treatise on Sociology, Theoretical and Practical by the North American lawyer Henry Hughes and Sociology for the South, or the Failure of Free Society[21] by the American lawyer George Fitzhugh. Both books were published in 1854, in the context of the debate over slavery in the antebellum US. The Study of Sociology by the English philosopher Herbert Spencer appeared in 1874. Lester Frank Ward, described by some as the father of American sociology, published Dynamic Sociology in 1883. Harriet Martineau, a Whig social theorist and the English translator of many of Comte 's works, has been cited as the first female sociologist.
Various other early social historians and economists have gained recognition as classical sociologists, perhaps most notably Robert Michels (1876–1936), Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859), Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923) and Thorstein Veblen (1857–1926). The classical sociological texts broadly differ from political philosophy in the attempt to remain scientific, systematic, structural, or dialectical, rather than purely moral, normative or subjective. The new class relations associated with the development of Capitalism are also key, further distinguishing sociological texts from the political philosophy of the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras.
[edit] Foundation of the academic discipline

Vilfredo Pareto
Classical theorists of sociology from the late 19th and early 20th centuries include Ludwig Gumplowicz (1838–1909), Ferdinand Tönnies (1855–1936), Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), Georg Simmel (1858–1918), Max Weber (1864–1920), and Karl Mannheim (1893–1947). Many of these figures did not consider themselves strictly 'sociologists ' and regularly contributed to jurisprudence, economics, psychology, and philosophy.
Formal academic sociology began when Durkheim set up the first European department of sociology at the University of Bordeaux in 1895, publishing his Rules of the Sociological Method. In 1896, he established the journal L 'Année Sociologique. Durkheim 's seminal monograph, Suicide (1897), a case study of suicide rates amongst Catholic, Protestant and Jewish populations, distinguished sociological analysis from psychology or philosophy. It also marked a major contribution to the concept of structural functionalism.[22]
A course entitled "sociology" was in the United States taught under its own name for the first time in 1875 by William Graham Sumner, drawing upon the thought of Comte and Herbert Spencer rather than the work Durkheim was advancing in Europe.[23] In 1890, the oldest continuing sociology course in the United States began at the University of Kansas, lectured by Frank Blackmar. The Department of History and Sociology at the University of Kansas was established in 1891 [24][25] and the first full fledged independent university department of sociology was established in 1892 at the University of Chicago by Albion W. Small (1854–1926), who in 1895 founded the American Journal of Sociology.[26] American sociology arose on a broadly independent trajectory to European sociology. George Herbert Mead and Charles H. Cooley were influential in the development of symbolic interactionism and social psychology at the University of Chicago, whilst Lester Ward emphasised the central importance of the scientific method with the publication of Dynamic Sociology in 1883.
The first sociology department in the United Kingdom was founded at the London School of Economics in 1904. In 1919 a sociology department was established in Germany at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich by Max Weber, who had established a new antipositivist sociology. In 1920 a department was set up in Poland by Florian Znaniecki (1882–1958). The Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt (later to become the 'Frankfurt School ' of critical theory) was founded in 1923.[27] Critical theory would take on something of a life of its own after WW2, influencing literary theory and the 'Birmingham School ' of cultural studies.
International cooperation in sociology began in 1893 when Rene Worms (1869–1926) founded the small Institut International de Sociologie, eclipsed by much larger International Sociological Association from 1949. In 1905 the American Sociological Association, the world 's largest association of professional sociologists, was founded, and Lester F. Ward was selected to serve as the first President of the new society.
[edit] The canon: Durkheim, Marx, Weber
Durkheim, Marx, and Weber are typically cited as the three principal architects of modern social science. The sociological "canon of classics" with Durkheim and Weber at the top owes in part to Talcott Parsons, who is largely credited with introducing both to American audiences.[28] Parsons ' "Structure of Social Action" (1937) consolidated the American sociological tradition and set the agenda for American sociology at the point of its fastest disciplinary growth. In Parsons ' canon, however, Vilfredo Pareto holds greater significance than either Marx or Simmel. His canon was guided by a desire to "unify the divergent theoretical traditions in sociology behind a single theoretical scheme, one that could in fact be justified by purely scientific developments in the discipline during the previous half century."[29] Whilst the secondary role Marx plays in early American sociology may be attributed to Parsons,[29] as well as to broader political trends,[30] the dominance of Marxism in European sociological thought had long since secured the rank of Marx alongside Durkheim and Weber as one of the three "classical" sociologists.[31]
[edit] 19th Century: From positivism to antipositivism
The methodological approach toward sociology by early theorists was to treat the discipline in broadly the same manner as natural science. An emphasis on empiricism and the scientific method was sought to provide an incontestable foundation for any sociological claims or findings, and to distinguish sociology from less empirical fields such as philosophy. This perspective, called positivism, is based on the assumption that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can come only from positive affirmation of theories through strict scientific and quantitative methods. Émile Durkheim was a major proponent of theoretically grounded empirical research,[32] seeking correlations to reveal structural laws, or "social facts". For him, sociology could be described as the "science of institutions, their genesis and their functioning".[33] Durkheim endeavoured to apply sociological findings in the pursuit of political reform and social solidarity. Today, scholarly accounts of Durkheim 's positivism may be vulnerable to exaggeration and oversimplification: Comte was the only major sociological thinker to postulate that the social realm may be subject to scientific analysis in the same way as noble science, whereas Durkheim acknowledged in greater detail the fundamental epistemological limitations.[34][35] History of science | | Background | Theories/sociology | Historiography | Pseudoscience | By era | In early cultures | in Classical Antiquity | In the Middle Ages | In the Renaissance | Scientific Revolution | Romanticism in science | By culture | Islamic | Medieval Byzantine | Chinese | Indian | African | By topic | Natural sciences | Astronomy | Biology | Botany | Chemistry | Ecology | Geology | Paleontology | Physics | Mathematics | Algebra | Calculus | Combinatorics | Geometry | Logic | Probability | Statistics | Trigonometry | Social sciences | Anthropology | Economics | Geography | Linguistics | Political science | Psychology | Sociology | Sustainability | Technology | Agricultural science | Computer science | Materials science | Medicine | Navigational pages | Timelines | Portal | Categories | This box: view · talk · edit |
Reactions against positivism began when German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) voiced opposition to both empiricism, which he rejected as uncritical, and determinism, which he viewed as overly mechanistic.[36] Karl Marx 's methodology borrowed from Hegel dialecticism but also a rejection of positivism in favour of critical analysis, seeking to supplement the empirical acquisition of "facts" with the elimination of illusions.[37] He maintained that appearances need to be critiqued rather than simply documented. Marx nonetheless endeavoured to produce a science of society grounded in the economic determinism of historical materialism.[37] Other philosophers, including Wilhelm Dilthey (1833–1911) and Heinrich Rickert (1863–1936) argued that the natural world differs from the social world because of those unique aspects of human society (meanings, signs, and so on) which inform human cultures.
At the turn of the 20th century the first generation of German sociologists formally introduced methodological antipositivism, proposing that research should concentrate on human cultural norms, values, symbols, and social processes viewed from a subjective perspective. Max Weber argued that sociology may be loosely described as a 'science ' as it is able to identify causal relationships—especially among ideal types, or hypothetical simplifications of complex social phenomena.[38] As a nonpositivist, however, one seeks relationships that are not as "ahistorical, invariant, or generalizable"[39] as those pursued by natural scientists. Ferdinand Tönnies presented Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft (lit. community and society) as the two normal types of human association. Tönnies drew a sharp line between the realm of conceptuality and the reality of social action: the first must be treated axiomatically and in a deductive way ( 'pure ' sociology), whereas the second empirically and in an inductive way ( 'applied ' sociology). Both Weber and Georg Simmel pioneered the Verstehen (or 'interpretative ') approach toward social science; a systematic process in which an outside observer attempts to relate to a particular cultural group, or indigenous people, on their own terms and from their own point-of-view. Through the work of Simmel, in particular, sociology acquired a possible character beyond positivist data-collection or grand, deterministic systems of structural law. Relatively isolated from the sociological academy throughout his lifetime, Simmel presented idiosyncratic analyses of modernity more reminiscent of the phenomenological and existential writers than of Comte or Durkheim, paying particular concern to the forms of, and possibilities for, social individuality.[40] His sociology engaged in a neo-Kantian critique of the limits of perception, asking 'What is society? ' in a direct allusion to Kant 's question 'What is nature? '[41]
[edit] 20th Century: Critical theory, postmodernism, and positivist revival
In the early 20th century, sociology expanded in the U.S., including developments in both macrosociology, concerned with the evolution of societies, and microsociology, concerned with everyday human social interactions. Based on the pragmatic social psychology of George Herbert Mead (1863–1931), Herbert Blumer (1900–1987) and, later, the Chicago school, sociologists developed symbolic interactionism.[42] In the 1920s, Georg Lukács released History and Class Consciousness (1923), whilst a number of works by Durkheim and Weber were published posthumously. In the 1930s, Talcott Parsons (1902–1979) developed action theory, integrating the study of social order with the structural and voluntaristic aspects of macro and micro factors, while placing the discussion within a higher explanatory context of system theory and cybernetics. In Austria and later the U.S., Alfred Schütz (1899–1959) developed social phenomenology, which would later inform social constructionism. During the same period members of the Frankfurt school, such as Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969) and Max Horkheimer (1895–1973), developed critical theory, integrating the historical materialistic elements of Marxism with the insights of Weber, Freud and Gramsci —in theory, if not always in name— often characterizing capitalist modernity as a move away from the central tenets of enlightenment.
During the Interwar period, sociology was undermined by totalitarian governments for reasons of ostensible political control. After the Russian Revolution, sociology was gradually "politicized, Bolshevisized and eventually, Stalinized" until it virtually ceased to exist in the Soviet Union.[43] In China, the discipline was banned with semiotics, comparative linguistics and cybernetics as "Bourgeois pseudoscience" in 1952, not to return until 1979.[44] During the same period, however, sociology was also undermined by conservative universities in the West. This was due, in part, to perceptions of the subject as possessing an inherent tendency, through its own aims and remit, toward liberal or left wing thought. Given that the subject was founded by structural functionalists; concerned with organic cohesion and social solidarity, this view was somewhat groundless (though it was Parsons who had introduced Durkheim to American audiences, and his interpretation has been criticized for a latent conservatism).[35]
In the mid-20th century there was a general—but not universal—trend for U.S.-American sociology to be more scientific in nature, due to the prominence at that time of action theory and other system-theoretical approaches. Robert K. Merton released his Social Theory and Social Structure (1949). By the turn of the 1960s, sociological research was increasingly employed as a tool by governments and businesses worldwide. Sociologists developed new types of quantitative and qualitative research methods. In 1959, Erving Goffman published The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, whilst C. Wright Mills presented The Sociological Imagination, encouraging humanistic discourse and a rejection of abstracted empiricism and grand theory. Parallel with the rise of various social movements in the 1960s, particularly in Britain, the cultural turn saw a rise in conflict theories emphasizing social struggle, such as neo-Marxism and second-wave feminism.[45] Ralf Dahrendorf and Ralph Miliband presented pioneering theory on class conflict and industrialized nation statess. The sociology of religion saw a renaissance in the decade with new debates on secularisation thesis, globalization, and the very definition of religious practise. Theorists such as Lenski and Yinger formulated 'functional ' definitions of religion; enquiring as to what a religion does rather than what it is in familiar terms. Thus, various new social institutions and movements could be examined for their religious role. Marxist theorists continued to scrutinize consumerism and capitalist ideology in analogous terms. Antonio Gramsci 's Selections from the Prison Notebooks [1929-1935] was finally published in English during the early 1970s.[46]
In the 1960s and 1970s so-called post-structuralist and postmodernist theory, drawing upon structuralism and phenomenology as much as classical social science, made a considerable impact on frames of sociological enquiry. Often understood simply as a cultural style 'after-Modernism ' marked by intertextuality, pastiche and irony, sociological analyses of postmodernity have presented a distinct era relating to (1) the dissolution of metanarratives (particularly in the work of Lyotard), and (2) commodity fetishism and the 'mirroring ' of identity with consumption in late capitalist society (Debord; Baudrillard; Jameson).[47] Postmodernism has also been associated with the rejection of enlightenment conceptions of the human subject by thinkers such as Michel Foucault, Claude Lévi-Strauss and, to a lesser extent, in Louis Althusser 's attempt to reconcile Marxism with anti-humanism. Most theorists associated with the movement actively refused the label, preferring to accept postmodernity as a historical phenomenon rather than a method of analysis, if at all. Nevertheless, self-consciously postmodern pieces continue to emerge within the social and political sciences in general.

Zygmunt Bauman
In the 1980s, theorists outside of France tended to focus on globalization, communication, and reflexivity in terms of a 'second ' phase of modernity, rather than a distinct new era per se. Jürgen Habermas established communicative action as a reaction to postmodern challenges to the discourse of modernity, informed both by critical theory and American pragmatism. Fellow German sociologist, Ulrich Beck, presented The Risk Society (1992) as an account of the manner in which the modern nation state has become organized. In Britain, Anthony Giddens set out to reconcile recurrent theoretical dichotomies through structuration theory. During the 1990s, Giddens developed work on the challenges of "high modernity", as well as a new 'third way ' politics that would greatly influence New Labour in U.K. and the Clinton administration in the U.S. Leading Polish sociologist, Zygmunt Bauman, wrote extensively on the concepts of modernity and postmodernity, particularly with regard to the Holocaust and consumerism as historical phenomena.[48] Whilst Pierre Bourdieu gained significant critical acclaim for his continued work on cultural capital,[49] certain French sociologists, particularly Jean Baudrillard and Michel Maffesoli, were criticised for perceived obfuscation and relativism.[50][51]
Functionalist systems theorists such as Niklas Luhmann remained dominant forces in sociology up to the end of the century. In 1994, Robert K. Merton won the National Medal of Science for his contributions to the sociology of science.[52] The positivist tradition is popular to this day, particularly in the United States.[53] The discipline 's two most widely cited American journals, the American Journal of Sociology and the American Sociological Review, primarily publish research in the positivist tradition, with ASR exhibiting greater diversity (the British Journal of Sociology, on the other hand, publishes primarily non-positivist articles).[53] The twentieth century saw improvements to the quantitative methodologies employed in sociology. The development of longitudinal studies that follow the same population over the course of years or decades enabled researchers to study long-term phenomena and increased the researchers ' ability to infer causality. The increase in the size of data sets produced by the new survey methods was followed by the invention of new statistical techniques for analyzing this data. Analysis of this sort is usually performed with statistical software packages such as SAS, Stata, or SPSS.
Social network analysis is an example of a new paradigm in the positivist tradition. The influence of social network analysis is pervasive in many sociological sub fields such as economic sociology (see the work of J. Clyde Mitchell, Harrison White, or Mark Granovetter, for example), organizational behavior, historical sociology, political sociology, or the sociology of education. There is also a minor revival of a more independent, empirical sociology in the spirit of C. Wright Mills, and his studies of the Power Elite in the United States of America, according to Stanley Aronowitz.[54]
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Religion, Emotion and Morality ' Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. 36. ^ Ashley D, Orenstein DM (2005). Sociological theory: Classical statements (6th ed.). Boston, MA, USA: Pearson Education. p. 169. 37. ^ a b Ashley D, Orenstein DM (2005). Sociological theory: Classical statements (6th ed.). Boston, MA, USA: Pearson Education. pp. 202–203. 38. ^ Ashley D, Orenstein DM (2005). Sociological theory: Classical statements (6th ed.). Boston, MA, USA: Pearson Education. pp. 239–240. 39. ^ Ashley D, Orenstein DM (2005). Sociological theory: Classical statements (6th ed.). Boston, MA, USA: Pearson Education. p. 241. 40. ^ Levine, Donald (ed) 'Simmel: On individuality and social forms ' Chicago University Press, 1971. pxix. 41. ^ Levine, Donald (ed) 'Simmel: On individuality and social forms ' Chicago University Press, 1971. p6. 42. ^ The Mead Project 43. ^ Elizabeth Ann Weinberg, The Development of Sociology in the Soviet Union, Taylor & Francis, 1974, ISBN 0710078765, Google Print, p.8-9 44. ^ Xiaogang Wu, Between Public and Professional: Chinese Sociology and the Construction of a Harmonious Society, ASA Footnotes, May–June 2009 Issue • Volume 37 • Issue 5 45. ^ Haralambos & Holborn. 'Sociology: Themes and perspectives ' (2004) 6th ed, Collins Educational. ISBN 978-0-00-715447-0. 46. ^ http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/books/archive/prison_notebooks.html 47. ^ 'Cultural Studies: Theory and Practise '. By: Barker, Chris. Sage Publications, 2005. p446. 48. ^ Bauman, Zygmunt. Postmodernity and its discontents. New York: New York University Press. 1997. ISBN 0-7456-1791-3 49. ^ Bourdieu The Guardian obituary, Douglas Johnson 28 January 2002 50. ^ Norris, Christopher. Uncritical Theory: Postmodernism, Intellectuals and the Gulf War Lawrence and Wishart. 1992. 51. ^ Serge Paugam, La pratique de la sociologie, Paris, PUF, 2008, p. 117 ; cf. Gérald Houdeville, Le métier de sociologue en France depuis 1945. Renaissance d 'une discipline, Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2007, p. 261-302 (ch. 7, "La sociologie mise en cause"), and Bernard Lahire, "Une astrologue sur la planète des sociologues ou comment devenir docteur en sociologie sans posséder le métier de sociologue ?", in L 'esprit sociologique, Paris, La Découverte, 2007, p. 351-387. 52. ^ http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/03/02/robertKMerton.html 53. ^ a b Positivism in sociological research: USA and UK (1966–1990). By: Gartrell, C. David, Gartrell, John W., British Journal of Sociology, 00071315, Dec2002, Vol. 53, Issue 4 54. ^ "Stanley Aronowitz". Logosjournal.com. http://www.logosjournal.com/aronowitz.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-20. * Gerhard Lensky. 1982. Human societies: An introduction to macrosociology, McGraw Hill Company. * Nash, Kate. 2000. Contemporary Political Sociology: Globalization, Politics, and Power. Blackwell Publishers.
[edit] Further reading * Samuel William Bloom, The Word as Scalpel: A History of Medical Sociology, Oxford University Press 2002 * Raymond Boudon A Critical Dictionary of Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989 * Craig Calhoun, ed. Sociology in America. The ASA Centennial History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. * Deegan, Mary Jo, ed. Women in Sociology: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook, New York: Greenwood Press, 1991. * A. H. Halsey, A History of Sociology in Britain: Science, Literature, and Society, Oxford University Press 2004 * Barbara Laslett (editor), Barrie Thorne (editor), Feminist Sociology: Life Histories of a Movement, Rutgers University Press 1997 * Levine, Donald N. (1995). Visions of the Sociological Tradition. University Of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-47547-6. * T.N. Madan, Pathways : approaches to the study of society in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994 * George Steinmetz, 'Neo-Bourdieusian Theory and the Question of Scientific Autonomy: German Sociologists and Empire, 1890s-1940s ', Political Power and Social Theory Volume 20 (2009): 71-131. * Wiggershaus, Rolf (1994). The Frankfurt School : its history, theories and political significance. Polity Press. ISBN 0-7456-05346. * Kon, Igor, ed. (1989) (DOC, DjVu, etc.) A History of Classical Sociology Moscow: Progress Publishers ISBN 5-01-001102-6 http://www.archive.org/details/AHistoryOfClassicalSociology
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Sociology 318
Fall 2002
Notes on the Enlightenment and Liberalism
The Enlightenment refers to an intellectual movement, primarily in France and Britain, that spans approximately one hundred years from the 1680s to 1789. Adams and Sydie state that these "thinkers put society and social relations under intense scrutiny." (p. 11) Preceding and setting the stage for the Enlightenment were writers and scientists who investigated the natural world and systems of thought, writers such as Galileo (Italian), Newton (English), Francis Bacon (1561-1626, English), René Descartes (1596-1650, French). Enlightenment writers include Hobbes, Locke, Diderot, Montesquieu, and Rousseau – the French writers were sometimes called the philosophes. The leading representatives were religious skeptics, political reformers, cultural critics, historians and social theorists (Zeitlin, p. 1).
The writings of the Enlightenment profoundly affected politics and the development of sociology. The French Revolution (1789) and the American Revolution (1776) had many causes but many Enlightenment ideas and ways of thinking had a great effect on these political and social changes. The slogans of "liberty, equality, fraternity" and "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" state the political ideals of these revolutions and reflect the ideas of Enlightenment thought.
a. Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679, English) "contribution was the suggestion that the social order was made by human beings and therefore could be changed by human beings" (Adams and Sydie, p. 14). Hobbes looked on the individual as selfish, concerned with self-preservation, searching for power, and (potentially at least) at war with others. For Hobbes, in the state of nature, there was a war of all against all and life is nasty, brutish, and short. Since individuals are rational, they agree to surrender their individual rights to the sovereign in order to create a state whereby they can be protected from other individuals. Locke and Rousseau further developed this idea of a social contract, although in a somewhat different form than Hobbes.
Contributions of Hobbes include the recognition of the existence of the individual and individual rights along with the concepts of rationality, self-interest, competitiveness, and calculation as individual attributes. Adams and Sydie also point out (p. 14) that Hobbes did not consider the ruler or monarch to be ordained by God (as monarchs often claimed in the divine right of kings) or some external force, but by the people themselves since "authority is given by the subjects themselves." This is important in the development of ideas of political democracy in western Europe and North America.
b. Locke
John Locke (1632-1704, English) had a more optimistic view of human nature than did Hobbes, looking on humans as good, rational, social, cooperative and tolerant, at least in a state of nature. He believed in a certain original equality of all individuals, male and female, in the state of nature, where everyone had a right to autonomy and freedom. "The organization of the State evolved as a result of free individuals consenting to be governed by an abstract authority in the interests of protecting private property." (Sydie, p. 1). Locke believed that if each individual rationally pursues happiness and pleasure, this promotes cooperation so that in the long run individual and the general welfare coincide.
In terms of the mind and knowledge, Locke looked on the individual mind as beginning blank and empty, but gaining ideas through experience. Knowledge could be increased by further experience, and the mind collects these impressions.
Locke looked on women as having "natural differences" from men, one that justified domination of women by men. While property rights were an extremely important individual right for Locke, because of what he regarded as the natural differences between men and women, he did not believe property rights should be extended to women – thus denying women equality.
c. Rousseau
One of the major influences on western thought, and an important Enlightenment writer was Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778, French). Rousseau is best known for the concepts of the social contract and the state of nature. He stated "Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains." (Zeitlin, p. 23). Rousseau begins with an optimistic view of human nature, that man is perfectible, that men are equal and have sympathy with one another. This creates the possibility of a better society. People are generally isolated in a state of nature, but with the development of cooperation, society begins to develop, and it is society that creates inequality and war.
Rousseau was critical of existing society, claiming that "private property brought about war, conflict, and thus the need for a civil state" (Adams and Sydie, 17) but thought that society could be improved "if all individuals shared equally in the construction of laws for their common general happiness." (Adams and Sydie, 18). Rousseau was looking for "a social order whose laws were in greatest harmony with the fundamental laws of nature." (Zeitlin, p. 17) This is the social contract, whereby the individual is absorbed into the common, general will, without losing his own will ... He loses nothing and gains in return the assurance that he will be protected by the full force of society against the encroachment of individuals and groups. He is now a member of a society of equals and has regained an equality not unlike the one he enjoyed in nature – but in a new form and on a higher level. (Zeitlin, p. 25).
Zeitlin views Rousseau as a forerunner of sociology because he understands the notion of culture – what people acquire from society. He was one of the first to discuss inequality in society and he argued that change could occur in a way that would overcome some of the inequalities. Many earlier writers had viewed these forms of inequality as natural and good.
d. Wollstonecraft (1759-1799)
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1799) was an English author and feminist, who wrote The Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), one of the first great feminist documents. She lived in France during much of the French Revolution and was mother of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, who wrote Frankenstein. Wollstonecraft adopts the "liberal model of the rational, self-determining individual" (Eisenstein, pp. 89-90) from Locke. She did not view women as different than men by nature, attributing the observed differences to "socially constructed gender roles." She placed strong emphasis on reason and argues that women are rational beings, and just like men, should be allowed an equal opportunity to develop their rational and moral capacities. Women should be educated in much the same manner as men, in order to develop "virtues such as courage, temperance, justice, and fortitude," the characteristics that men should develop. (Tong, p. 14). If women develop these characteristics, they will be able to develop into better wives and mothers, and this will also allow them to develop economic independence from men. In arguing in this manner, she takes the liberal vision of the rational and autonomous man and extends this to women. That is, she takes the liberal ideas of freedom and individuality and extends them to all people. Just as Locke criticized the divine right of kings, so Wollstonecraft contests the divine right of husbands.
Wollstonecraft does not view women as inferior to men in any way, and argues that "when women are ruled by reason ... they will be able to share in the equality of opportunities in society." (Eisenstein, p. 92). Because of this, it is important for women to cultivate reason, acquire strength of body and mind, see through the language of femininity, and obtain educational equality with men. Through this, women would become, and be treated as, autonomous decision makers and as persons.
Note that in Canada, women were not given the right to vote until 1918 in federal elections, and two years earlier in the Prairie provinces. Quebec women did not receive the vote in provincial elections until 1940. In terms of property ownership, this also rested with men through most of the nineteenth century, with changes that allowed property purchasers to become owner, regardless off sex, coming between 1872 and 1940. "By 1897 in English Canada and 1931 in Quebec, a wife employed outside the home was allowed to retain her wages." (Burt, p. 214). Also note that in Canada it was not until the 1969 amendments to the Criminal Code that sales of contraceptives became legal, or that abortions became legal.
e. Summary of enlightenment thought
Enlightenment writings demonstrate a shift away from the view that society and estates (ranks of nobility and the common people) are the basic unit of social analysis and toward the view that the individual is the basis. In this approach, individuals have inherent qualities, abilities, and rights and society emerged and developed as the result of a social contract among these individuals. Those writers who supported an earlier social order would have viewed Locke 's notion that the state is the result of "individuals consenting to be governed" to be unacceptable – supporters of an earlier order viewed society as the basic unit, with people having to fill their place in this structure.
In contrast to systems of thought where the sacred had dominated and where questioning was discouraged, Enlightenment thinkers viewed human reason as dominant. No subjects of study were to be forbidden, there were no unaskable questions, with all aspects of human life appropriate for examination and study. In doing this, Enlightenment thinkers combined the philosophic tradition of abstract rational thought (Descartes and other philosophers) with the tradition of experimentation or empirical philosophy (from Galileo, Newton, Bacon and others). The result was a new system of human inquiry that attacked the old order and privileges, put emphasis and faith on science, the scientific method and education, and acquired the practical function of asking critical questions about existing institutions and demanding that the unreasonable ones, those contrary to human nature, be changed. All social obstacles to human perfectibility were to be progressively eliminated. (Zeitlin, p.2).
The new approach was an empirical and scientific one at the same time that it was philosophical. The world was an object of study, and the Enlightenment thinkers thought that people could understand and control the world by means of reason and empirical research. Social laws could be discovered, and society could be improved by means of rational and empirical inquiry. This form of thought was reformist, and one that challenged the old order. Enlightenment thinkers were generally optimistic in outlook, looking on their system of thought as a way of improving the social world.
Ritzer (pp. 10-11) summarizes the effect of the Enlightenment as follows:
 People can comprehend, change and perhaps control universe.
 Philosophy and science – combination of reason and empirical research.
 Abstract systems of ideas that made rational sense, but with study of the real social world.
 Application of scientific method to social issues – discover social laws.
 Social analysis and social scientists should be useful to the world – create better world.
 Criticism of traditional authority, institutions and beliefs – irrationality of these.
 Human growth and development of society occur if tradition gives way to reason.
 Emphasis on the individual rather than society.
Early sociology developed as a result of the new features of thought that emerged out of the enlightenment, and out of the conservative reaction to this. Sociology was first used as a term by Auguste Comte (French, 1798 - 1857) in 1822. He looked on sociology as a science, first calling it social physics. The idea of sociology as the science of society has been adopted by some later sociologists.
These new developments and ideas were important for the development of sociology in several ways. * Most discussions of the origins of sociology trace this to the Enlightenment and the conservative reaction against the Enlightenment from those who wished to preserve the old order. * Early sociologists such as Comte were part of this conservative reaction, although they did not think that a return to the old order was possible either. They took some of the ideas of the Enlightenment, and thought that social order could be preserved through some social reforms. In doing this though, this created a fairly conservative sociological school. * The Enlightenment forms a basis a more progressive sociological tradition. While sociology as a discipline did not first emerge out of this, today these ideas form a central part of sociology. The tradition of critical thought, empirical research, use of reason, urging social reforms, etc. all have become essential aspects of sociology.
If Comte represents the first systematic social theory inspired by the reaction to the Enlightenment, it is Marx who was the first theorist to fully work out the implications of the Enlightenment ideas. While Marx grew up and wrote in Germany, where the Enlightenment did not have such strong effects as early as in France, Britain or North America, Marxian thought can be seen as resulting partly from Enlightenment thought.
References
Burt, S., L. Code and L. Dorney, Changing Patterns: Women in Canada, second edition (Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1993). HQ1453 C48 1993
Columbia Encyclopedia, third edition, New York, Columbia University Press, 1963. AG5 C725 1963.
Eisenstein, Zillah, The Radical Future of Liberal Feminism (Boston, Notheastern University Press, 1986). HQ1154 E44 1986
Hunt, E. K., Property and Prophets: the Evolution of Economic Institutions and Ideologies, sixth edition, New York, Harper and Row, 1990.
Ritzer, G., Sociological, Theory, third edition, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1992. HM24 R4938
Sydie, R. A., Natural Women Cultured Men: A Feminist Perspective on Sociological Theory, Toronto, Methuen, 1987. HM51 S97 1987.
Tong, Rosemarie, Feminist Thought: A Comprehensive Introduction (Boulder, Westview Press, 1989). HQ1206 T65 1989
Zeitlin, Irving M., Ideology and the Development of Sociological Thought, fourth edition, Englewood Cliffs, N. J., Prentice Hall, 1990. HM19 Z4
Last edited September 22, 2002
Return to Sociology 318

References: Burt, S., L. Code and L. Dorney, Changing Patterns: Women in Canada, second edition (Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1993). HQ1453 C48 1993 Columbia Encyclopedia, third edition, New York, Columbia University Press, 1963. AG5 C725 1963. Eisenstein, Zillah, The Radical Future of Liberal Feminism (Boston, Notheastern University Press, 1986). HQ1154 E44 1986 Hunt, E. K., Property and Prophets: the Evolution of Economic Institutions and Ideologies, sixth edition, New York, Harper and Row, 1990. Ritzer, G., Sociological, Theory, third edition, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1992. HM24 R4938 Sydie, R. A., Natural Women Cultured Men: A Feminist Perspective on Sociological Theory, Toronto, Methuen, 1987. HM51 S97 1987. Tong, Rosemarie, Feminist Thought: A Comprehensive Introduction (Boulder, Westview Press, 1989). HQ1206 T65 1989 Zeitlin, Irving M., Ideology and the Development of Sociological Thought, fourth edition, Englewood Cliffs, N. J., Prentice Hall, 1990. HM19 Z4 Last edited September 22, 2002 Return to Sociology 318