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41 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Age of Enlightenment |
-people were emerging from centuries of darkness and ignorance into a new age enlightened by reason, science, and a respect for humanity. -period of dramatic intellectual development and change in philosophical thought |
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Claude-Henri Saint-Simon |
-organic structure (the society was born and grew, like an organism) |
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Auguste Comte (book) |
-proclaimed the validity of emotion over intellect, of feeling over mind -referring to himself "the founder of universal religion and great priest of humanity -his concept of social statics can be directly traced to the tradition of order -Sociology (social physics) -everything in society is observable and subject to patterns or laws. -purpose of sociology is to define and create social patterns of development in society. -Division of labor (functionalist approach, where all the parts function for the greater good of the whole) -positive religion urged everyone to live for others -emphasized positivism (the ideas that the social world can be studied in the same manner as the natural world with its various laws) -Methods for sociology (observation, experiments, comparison, and historical research)
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Course of positive philosophy (3 stages) |
-theological (relies on supernatural of religious explanations to explain what man otherwise could not) -metaphysical (centers on the belief that abstract, even mysterious forces control behavior. Or natural explanation) -Positive (through the use of reason and observation to study the social world, human behavior can be explained rationally) |
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Research Methods |
-Observation (looks for specific social facts in order to validate laws or theories involving the phenomena of social behavior) -experimentation (very rare, because there is a near infinite number of variables to control.) -comparison (compare humans to animals, compare different societies from different part of the world or same part of the world) -historical (provides general direction for humans to proceed) |
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social statics |
-Comte -the social processes that hold society together |
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social dynamics |
-Comte -mechanisms of change |
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positivism vs. communism |
-P focuses on moral responses rather than political -P encourages individuality -P deems leaders of society as essential -C seeks to eliminate inheritance |
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William Graham Sumner |
first person to teach a course in the US that could be called sociology |
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Thomas Malthus |
-Believed that humans tend to reproduce in numbers greater than could be easily supported by available resources |
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Super Organic and the organism, 6 similarities |
-society and individuals grow -as size increases so does complexity -progression in structure is accompanied by a differentiation in function -parts of the whole are interdependent of one another -every organism is a society -some parts die, and some parts go on. |
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differences between Super organic and the organism |
-the degree of connectedness (in the organism there is a concrete hold, close contact. society has a discrete hold) -communication (the organism communicates in molecular waves. society has language) -differences in consciousness (organism the units exist for the benefit of the whole. the society, the whole exists for the good of the people) |
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Herbert Spencer |
-believed in Darwin's idea of Natural selection (individuals born with advantageous genetic traits were the ones that survived to reproduce and contribute to the evolution of the species) -believed that humans adapt to changes in our environment through the use of culture rather than biological adaption. -survival of the fittest (those who are most successful at adapting to the changing environment are most likely to survive.) -Spencer's ideas were very influential because he wrote in English. Also his theory was soothing and reassuring to a society undergoing the wrenching process of industrialization. -as the population increases, people will have harder time to survive and will face greater conflicts. -Social Darwinist -practiced cerebral hygiene (did not read the work of others) -influenced Functionalism -his population declined due to economic depression, WWII, and social evolution didn't fit the world scene -social evolution (described in his book, the principle of sociology) |
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Herbert Spencer's classification of societies |
-Militant (simple and homogeneous, relying aggression and conflict) -industrial (complex and heterogeneous, relying on cooperation and altruism |
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simple societies (Spencer) |
-characterized as "headless" because they form a "single working whole unsubjected to any other." |
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compound societies |
when simpler societies merge together, either through peaceful cooperation or because of war |
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Doubly compound societies |
it possess a formal legal system and have progressed by demonstrating value placed on education ad the arts. it has a single authority and the societies emerged either through peaceful means or by conquest |
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Trebly compound societies |
the great civilized nations of the past and present in which the complexity of structures and the increased mutual dependence is very apparent. |
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Christian Theology vs. Sociology |
-sociology began as a rejection of, or counter to, theology. vs. Christianity stresses the importance of theology -Sociology predicted the decline of religion vs. Christianity teaches there is eternal life. -sociology claims man is basically good vs Christianity claims man is bad. -sociology claims reality and truth are socially constructed vs. Christianity claims reality and truth are divinely constructed. |
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Christianity vs. sociology Part II |
-sociology relies on stats for its compelling evidence vs. C relies on God and His word -S is interested in the majority vs. C is interested in the individual. -S promotes value-neutrality (no bias) vs. C promotes compassion and involvement -S is fascinated w/ social change vs. C is fascinated w the changeless one -S contends that God is the dependent variable (God is created) vs. C contends that God is the independent variable (God is the Creator) |
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Sociology |
-not the source of all truth -a way of looking at the world -has some insightful ideas and explanations -it's like thermometer. it registers the temp |
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Sociologist |
-for one with an earned Ph.D in sociology -who contributes to a further understanding of human groups and social behavior -sociology is a very broad field but most sociologists specialize in one or 2 areas. -they question, read, observe, analyze, write, and speak. |
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History of Sociology (beginning) |
sociology traces its roots back to European intellectual circles of the early 1800s, and to various social phenomena that took place throughout the 19th century |
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some important antecedents |
-Gutenberg's printing Press (it challenged how info was disseminated) -Columbus' discovery of the New World (it challenged the scope of the world) -Niccolo Machiavelli's book, the Prince (it challenged man's understanding of power) -Luther's 95 theses (it challenged religious authority) |
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Enlightenment |
-primary the 1700s -Greek philosophers were more concerned with the way things should be than with the way they actually were -influential thinkers (Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau) |
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Thomas Hobbes |
-English philosopher who emphasized the right of the individual. -political power demands the consent of the people |
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John Locke |
-English philosopher known for his anti-authoritarian view of the state -ind. freedom and the natural right to private property were foundational for democracy -his work pared the way for the US constitution |
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
-French who argued that humans are basically good by nature, but corrupted by historical events -wrote social contract, stating that people and not monarchs had sovereign power to rule -influenced the French Rev. |
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Ph. D |
-Early 1800s, first Ph.D awarded for an advanced research degree in Germany -1861, first Ph. D awarded in America, at Yale |
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Emile Durkheim (major France theorist) |
-interested in social order -looked for social facts (forces, and causes) |
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Karl Marx (German theorist) |
-economist more than sociologist -critiqued capitalism and called for a revolution |
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Max Weber (German) |
-interested in religion (Protestantism) -emphasized the process of rationalization |
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Georg Simmel (German) |
- focused on small-scale issues and interactions -influenced the Chicago School (interactionism) |
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factors in development of early American sociology |
-post civil war industrialization -the growth of protestant christianity -emergence of universities and academics -emphasis on science and quantitative methods, rather than history -influence of European sociology and social theory |
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University of Chicago |
-Home of the American Journal of sociology -Albion Small helped found the ASA -symbolic interactionism became major theory |
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Charles Cooley (Chicago) |
-attended U of M but adopted symbolic interactionism |
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George Mead (Chicago) |
-students published his class lecture notes. |
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Harvard University |
-department of sociology begun by Pitirim Sorokin -leading center of American sociology through the middle of the 20th century -structural functionalism became major theory |
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Talcott Parsons (Harvard) |
-major structural functionalist -developed elaborate grand action theories |
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George Homans |
-Critiqued Parsons' grand theories -placed more emphasis on observation and empirical studies -emphasized exchange theory (similar to B.F. Skinner's behaviorism) |
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social theory |
-Classical social theory (emphasis on great thinkers) -Dominant social theory (big ideas) -Postmodern social theory (conversations and narratives) |
