Lecture notes for Mr. English's Sociology class

1. Origins of
Sociology
From Europe to the United States: The Minds
Behind the Theories

2. Objectives
• - Students will identify key figures in
development of sociology.
• - Students will discuss changing roles in
society with "McDonaldization"

3. Vocabulary
• positivism: the belief that knowledge should be derived from scientific observation.
• social statics: the study of social stability and order
• social dynamics: the study of social change
• bourgeoisie: class owning the means for producing wealth
• capitalist: person who owns or controls the means for producing wealth
• proletariat: working class; those who labor for bourgeoise
• class conflict: the ongoing struggle between the bourgeoise (owners) and the proletariat
(working) classes
• mechanical solidarity: social dependency based on a widespread consensus of values and
beliefs, enforced conformity, and dependence on tradition and family
• organic solidarity: social interdependency based on a high degree of specialization in roles
• verstehen: understanding social behavior by putting yourself in the place of others.
• rationalization: the mind-set emphasizing knowledge, reason and planning.

4. European Origins
• Relatively new science - late 1800s
• Heavily influenced by industrial revolution
• Intellectuals desired to better understand
changes to society as more and more
people moved from the farms to factories
• Lose of a sense of community

5. August Comte
• Considered the father of sociology
• Bright, challenging child - expelled
from Ecole Polytechnique
• Believed to for society to improve,
scientific study needed to occur

6. Positivism
• Comte wanted to use scientific observation to study
social behavior
• He called this positivism - should be a science on
knowledge of which we can be “positive”, or sure
• He also distinguished between studying social stability
and order (social statics) and study of social
change (social dynamics)

7. Harriet Martineau
• British woman who translated
Comte’s writing and published
several books herself
• Introduced many ideas about
research method, political economy
• Considered the pioneer in
feminism; saw link between slavery
and oppression of women

8. Herbert Spencer
• Compared society to the human body
• Composed of parts working together
to promote its well-being and
survival.
• brains, stomachs, nervous systems,
limbs : economies, religions,
governments, families

9. Social Darwinism
• Modeled after Darwin’s theory of evolution, Spencer
thought that evolutionary social change led to
progress (as long as people didn’t interfere)
• Survival of the fittest (for societies)
• He opposed social reform: poor deserved to be poor
and the rich to be rich - let evolution sort it out
• Supported in America in 1882 - by corporate leaders

10. Karl Marx
• Most concerned in class struggle in
society
• Predicted that all society would settle
into two classes: bourgeoisie
(owners of wealth) & proletariat
(workers)
• Owners would want to continue to
gain more wealth and continue
capitalist society

11. Class Conflict
• The different interests of the different
classes leads to constant class conflict
• Marx predicted that eventually proletariate
would rise up against bourgeoise and
overtake the capitalists
• Create a classless society where no one
would be powerless

12. Emile Durkheim
• French thinker who said that society
exists because of broad consensus
• Members of society agree to
certain expectations
• In pre-industrial times, consensus of
values and beliefs surrounded
family, tradition and conformity
called mechanical solidarity

13. Post-Industrial Society
• Change happened with industrial revolution
• Organic solidarity - social
interdependence based on a web of
specialized roles.
• These specialized roles make members
of society rely on each other for goods
and services

14. Scientific Methodology
• Durkheim helped to develop research
techniques to validate theories
• Replace speculation with observation,
collect and classify data and use that data
for testing social theory
• Durkheim introduced use of statistical
techniques in research (suicide research)

15. Max Weber
• Writer on a number of topics
• Human beings act on the basis of
their own understanding of a
situation
• Weber believed that sociologists
must discover the personal
meanings, values, beliefs and
attitudes underlying human social
behavior.

16. Verstehen
• Weber’s concept of verstehen involved an
understanding of the personal intentions of
people in groups can be accomplished
through empathy
• By ‘putting yourself in someones’ shoes’,
you can temporarily shed your values
and see things from a different point of
view

17. Rationalization
• Weber also identified rationalization as a
key influence in the change to an
industrialized society
• Tradition, emotion, superstition ➱
knowledge, reason and planning
• Agriculture: belief in luck, fate or magic ➱
grounded science

18. Jane Addams
• Early social reformer in America
• Seeing a lot of corruption in government,
she began her life’s work seeking social
justice
• Focused on problems caused by the
imbalance of power among the social
classes.
• Active in women’s suffrage movement
• Won Nobel Peace Prize (1931) - only
sociologists to ever win.

19. W.E.B. DuBois
• African-American educator and
social activist
• Analyzed social structure of
black communities to address
the “Negro problem”
• Racial discrimination and
segregation based on idea that
blacks were an inferior race