Founders of Sociology

Sociology is a relatively new science; beginning in the late 19th century

European Intellectuals began studying the major social changes caused by the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution.

Auguste Comte

Auguste Comte

• Father of Sociology
• Wanted to study society as a science
• Distinguished between Social Statics and Social Dynamics

Social Statics: study of social stability and order
Social Dynamics: study of social change

Harriet Martineau

Harriet Martineau

• Contributed to Sociological research methods
• Contributed to feminist theory (link between slavery and opression of women)

Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer

• Compared social stability to parts of the human body
• Introduced Social Darwinism (based on Darwin's theory of Evolution); opposed social intervention

Social Darwinism

• "Survival of the fittest"
• The poor deserve to be poor, and the rich deserve to be rich
• Society benefits by allowing individuals to find their own social class without outside help or hinderance
• To "interfere" with poverty is harmful to society
• Adopted by American Industrialists

Karl Marx

Karl Marx

• Focused on ending inequality between social classes; Anti-Capitalist
• Believed history was made from conflicts between the wealthy (Bourgeoisie) and the workers (Proletariat)
• Believed these conflicts would result in a bloody revolution

Emile Durkheim

Emile Durkheim

• Mechanical solidarity: social dependency on values of tradition and family (pre Industrial Revolution)
• Organic Solidarity: social dependence based on specialized roles (post Industrial Revolution)
• First to use statistics in studyin human behavior

Max Weber

Max Weber

• Affected by the differences in his parent's world views (lawyer vs. devout Calvinist)
• Believed humans act on the basis of their own understanding of the situation
• Verstehen: understanding social behavior by putting yourself in the place of others

W.E.B. Du Bois

W.E.B. duBois

• African American educator/social activist
• Hypothesisized that racists policies were based on the assumption that African Americans were inferior race

Jane Addams

Jane Addams

• Criticized capitalism for the mistreatment of workers
• Sought social justice for workers and immigrants
• Focused on the imbalance of powers among the social classes