Sociology Early Thinkers

Abstract Many of the Early Thinkers have gone through events that shaped them into the person they had become. Different events influenced different theories. For each Early Thinker, the more of an impact the affair had on their life, it had on their theories. There are three main Early Thinkers, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Karl Marx. Emile Durkheim had many contributions to sociology, including his work on suicide. Durkheim was appointed one of the first professors of sociology in France. He developed a fundamental thesis to help explain all of the aspects of society. He studied the Arunta, which is an Australian tribe, and focused on the functions religion had on the group. He discovered that religion reinforces a group’s solidarity. Emile Durkheim was also very intrigued by the consequences of work in modern societies. He came up with the term “Anomie” which refers to the loss of direction felt in a society when social control of individual behavior has become ineffective. The state of anomie usually takes place when there is an enormous social change. In some cases, in a period of anomie, people are very lost and are not able to manage with the new social environment that they may resort to suicide. Because this certain situation was rising and people were becoming more and more concerned, Durkheim advocated the creation of new social groups. They would provide a sense of belonging for members of impersonal societies. Max Weber was another important Early Think who contributed a lot to sociology. Max Weber studied legal and economic history but eventually developed an interest in sociology. Weber told his students in Germany that they should employ “verstehen”. Verstehen is the German word for understanding or insight in their intellectual work. He announced that we cannot nit pick out social behavior by the same type of material we use to measure wight or temperature. Weber said that