Auguste Comte (1798-1857)

Responsible for coining the term sociology

Set out to develop the science of man that would be based on empirical observation
Focused on two aspects of society:
Social Staticsforces which produce order and stability
Social Dynamicsforces which contribute to social change
Developed the first complete approach to the scientific study of society
(coined the word sociology)
Father of Sociology
Published a book
Positive Philosophy (1855)
Viewed that societies can be studied using methods similar to those in the Physical
Sciences.
Positivism
emphasizes the techniques of observation, comparison and experimentation in the
development of knowledge concerning the nature of society and human action (the use
of scientific method).
Aguste Comte (1798-1857) - A French Philosopher who coined the term philosophy
form Latin word Socio- meaning society and Greek word logy- meaning science.
He lived during and after French revolution which brought disorder, material and cultural
poverty.
The revolution led to breakdown of agricultural way of life that was simple and
interactive.
Led to rural- urban migration
Defiance of customs
He believed that positive philosophy (positivism) Philosophy that examines the
phenomena of the environment using senses or the study of society using scientific
methods would help bring out social facts that would facilitate reconstruction of the
society.
According to Compte, Positivism employs human reason in the organization and
interpretation of the observed phenomena
Compte wanted to replace disorder with social order through total reconstruction of
society.
He contended that social events were not accidental and that they could be rationally
ordered and controlled through concerted efforts.

Compte identified two broad fields of study in sociology:

1. Social statistics
2. Social dynamics
Social statistics is the study of various institutions of the society like: the economy,
government, family, churches and other interrelated institutions.
Compte also looks at statistical study of sociology that deals with the investigation of
laws of action and reaction to the different parts of the social system

Social dynamics is the study of how societies developed and changed over time.
 He believed that societies move through fixed stages of development, from primitive age
towards increasing perfection. The stages include:

a) ) Theological stage- priestly class dominated this stage of development with the
dominant culture being military conquest, slavery, polytheism, devils and angels and
supernaturalism.

b) Metaphysical stage- Characterized by use of rationality in analyzing social

happenings.
People pursued meanings and explanations of terms and the society is more orderly as
rule of law prevailed and provided a secure basis for co-operative civil life.
c) Positive stage- Here people reject explanation based on supernaturalism and
metaphysical explanations that could not be supported by scientific facts.
All knowledge is human knowledge based on human thought. Human reason therefore
can restore social order

Shortcomings of Comptes conception of society

He contended that all societies progressed through fixed stages, not true since cultures
borrow some material as well as ideological aspects through diffusion.
He looked at the society from a unilineal perspective

Aguste Comptes Contribution to sociology

i) He founded the discipline of sociology

ii) He recommended the use and application of scientific methods in the study of society
iii) He identified two broad fields of sociology namely: social statics and social dynamics.

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

Authored the first sociology text, Principles of Sociology

Most well-known for proposing a doctrine called Social Darwinism
Suggested that people who could not compete were poorly adapted to the
environment and inferior
This is an idea commonly called survival of the fittest
He was a British Scholar (1920-1903) who believed that society progressed through
various socio-cultural stages i.e from primitive tribal societies which were on the
whole homogenous to large-scale industrial heterogeneous societies.
He was a social evolutionists who likened the society to an organism whose parts-
institutions function together harmoniously to form an integrated whole.
He saw the society as a resemblance of a human body organs, which work to sustain it.
For example the heart, brain, lungs, kidneys and others must function in harmony for the
bodys good health.
 His evolutionary theory of society was influenced by ideas of Charles Darwin, a believer
in evolution of species. Darwin theorized that weak species die while strong ones
survive.
Spencer likened the survival of strong species to the survival of strong societies. For him
weak societies and individuals will perish while strong ones will survive.
He concluded that the wealth of the haves was an evidence of their natural superiority
over the have-nots.
Therefore, re-distribution of wealth and power by providing services such as public
welfare and public education was seen by him as interference of social evolution since it
promoted the interest of the weak at the expense of the strong.
Spencers conception of the society would condemn giving help to the disadvantaged
groups in the society for this would translate to what he termed as social engineering

Contribution of Spencer to Sociology

He identified the family, politics, religion, social control, restraints, rules and
regulations, industry and work.
He stressed the need for sociological study of associations, communities, division of
labour, social differentiation, social stratification, sociology of knowledge, sciences and
the study of art and aesthetics.
He emphasized that Sociology was the study of the interrelatedness between various units
of the society-issues like how education is related to family life, morality, economy and
all other social institutions.

Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Marx is the father of conflict theory
Saw human history in a continual state of conflict between two major classes:
Bourgeoisieowners of the means of production (capitalists)
Proletariatthe workers
Predicted that revolution would occur producing first a socialist state, followed by a
communist society
Thesis vs. Anti-thesis Synthesis
Conflict Theory-Competition and social conflict as forming the basis of group or social
life. It is also the source of social change.
Karl Marx model of social evolution: History as the history of class struggle resulting to
social change.
Ancient-feudal-capitalism
Through each period of history and societal evolution, the exploited class comes to
recognize their exploitation and revolts against those in power.
A German scholar not considered to be a sociologist, his ideas have had a profound effect
on the field of sociology.
His ideas predicated an impeding revolution due to class conflict between the rich
capitalists and the poor working class, which made him persona non grata in his
country and sought refuge in Paris, France between 1843, Brussels- Belgium 1845-1849
and finally to London, Britain until his death in 1883
 He believed that human history and society are products of economic forces. He asserted
that the history of human society is the history of the struggle between people of different
social classes.
Karl Marx, a communist stated that societies were divided into two classes, i.e haves or
the bourgeoisie, and the have nots or proletariat
The bourgeoisie are owners of means of production, factories, machines and capital.
The workers, proletariats, or the have nots own nothing but labour (living labour) which
they sell at prices set by capitalists.
He felt that the worker was alienated from the means of production in which dead
capital or dead labour dominated the living labour, the worker.
He contended that society was infested with conflicts rather than integrative tendencies.
Conflicts in his opinion were those of economic nature and they force the society to move
from one stage to another.
For example French revolution forced society to move from feudalism and autocracy to
democratic institutions.
He also argued that capitalism would give birth to socialism and capitalists would
continue to exploit workers or proletariats in their quest to amass wealth widening the
gap between the haves and the have nots
He claimed that c governments only protected the interests of the capitalists and the
workers would take over ownership of equipment, factories and would thereafter share
out the products of their labour equally.
For him since the government protect the capitalists and the governing class and should
socialism replace capitalism, government would be replaced by series of associations to
manage the of goods and provision of services since socialism is a system that aims to
provide the greatest happiness to the greatest number
Socialism was a very powerful movement in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and
China.
Some of the African counties too embraces socialism to varying degrees in the late
1950s and early 1960s when they gained independence which later declined with the
fall of the Soviet Union in 1990s
Shortcomings of socialism
the workers did not unite to overthrow capitalism as predicted by Karl Marx which is
attributed to the fact that the capitalists gradually improved the working conditions of
workers and their remunerations.
The communist states did not seem to generate enough wealth for distribution to all its
citizens because the workers did not feel motivated enough to work for the good of
others.
The socialist governments also became oppressive in their attempt to force workers to
become productive

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

Durkheim moved sociology fully into the realm of an empirical science

Most well-known empirical study is called Suicide, where he looks at the social causes of
suicide
Generally regarded as the founder of functionalist theory
 Emile Durkheim was a French scholar who define sociology as the science of society.
He argued that society is a reality and that it exists independent of the individual and its
existence reflected beliefs, codes of human conduct and ideals.
He stated that man is who he is ( human being) because he/she lives in a society
He emphasized the importance of analyzing the relationship among institutions and
between them and their social-cultural settings.
He referred to various aspects of the society and human conduct as social facts and that
social facts act outside us to bring human beings in line with the moral demands of the
society.
He resisted the psychological approach that places individual action above society since
to him the society makes individuals behave the way they do and society is held together
by traditions, common beliefs and values- He termed them as collective conscience that
bound people together.
To him the society is autonomous, it exist independently of the will of any other
individual and so he attributed acts not to individual decisions and wills but to society. i.e
he viewed the phenomenon of suicide not as an individual act but as a social fact forced
on the individual by societal forces.
Durkheim analysis of Suicide
He analyzed that people of certain social categories had lower rates of suicide that
others for instance:
Fewer Jews committed suicide that Catholics;
Fewer Catholics that Protestants committed suicide
Fewer married people than single once committed suicide
Fewer civilians that those in military committed suicide
From the above findings, he concluded that suicide rates seemed directly related to
differing levels of social cohesion.
He identified three types of suicide:
i) Altruistic suicide- results from over-integration in to the group life
ii) Egoistic suicide- results from alienation from the society
Anomic suicide-results from lack of roles or guides to behavior, no meaning in life.
He also identified two types of societies, namely:
a) Mechanical solidarity society- primitive and folk types, relate to each other almost in
everything. A family relationship with desire to share everything.
b) Organic solidarity society- Are integrative, modern or organic as well as industrial held
together by a web or network of relationships based on contracts which are governed by
law

Contributions of Durkheim to Sociology

He was among the earliest scholars to use empirical method to study the society.
He developed the social theory of social cohesion and he demonstrated the impact of
social cohesion on society through his study of suicide phenomenon.
He developed the sociological concepts of social facts which stand for different aspects
of social phenomena; for instance, laws, family and education etc.
He further identified area of study in sociology as:
i) General sociology-includes personality of the individual as well as collective personality
 ii) Sociology of religion
iii) Sociology of law and morals, political organizations, social organizations, marriage and
family
iv) Sociology of crime
v) Sociology of economics that which includes measurements of value and on occupational
groups
vi) study of population figures
vii) Sociology of aesthetics or values and morality

Max Weber (1864-1920)

Much of Webers work was a critique or clarification of Marx
His most famous work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism directly
challenged Marxs ideas on the role of religion in society
Weber was also interested in bureaucracies and the process of rationalization in society
A German sociologist and economist.
To his sociology is a science which attempts the interpretive understanding of social
action in order to arrive at a causal explanation of its cause and effects.
He regarded the term social action as all human behavior to which acting individuals
attach subjective meaning.
He wrote extensively on religion, economic life- money, division of labour, bureaucracy
and large-scar organizations
He published an essay entitled The Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism where he
explained various Christian beliefs and material possessions.
He emphasized through the protestant religion that there was no conflict between material
possession and salvation and that possession of lots or material resources was viewed as a
manifestations.
He came up with the concept of bureaucratization in organizations in order to achieve the
greatest amount of productivity in modern economies.
He believed that the society would be run through rational principles that allowed no
room for emotional concerns or individual differences.
He is credited with identifying three distinct types of leadership. These types of authority
provide the relationship between a supreme ruler, for instance, a prophet, a King, or a
parliament:
a) Charismatic
b) traditional
C) bureaucratic legal authority
Ex. The class to name different types of leaders and their influence in the society.