Chapter 2: Origins of sociology Flashcards
Who is Auguste comte?
a frenchman who coined the term sociology
What did comte discover?
that society is a type or organism, and is interconnected. that society evolves and is not constant.
What is a social dynamic?
a way to describe a flow of energy in a situation. Eg. social pressures/ conflict
What are comtes 3 historical stages?
Theological stage
Metaphysical stage
Scientific stage
What is the Theological stage
society is the result of divine will
what is the Metaphysical stage
human behaviour governed by natural biological instincts
what is the Scientific stage
develop a social physics to understand human behaviour
What did herbert spencer think
he opposed comtes idea that sociology should intefere in social pressures. Coined the term survival of the fittest. He first to believe that human societies evolved according to the principles of natural laws.
what does the term survival of the fittest mean?
Just as natural selection favors particular organisms and permits them to survive and multiply, societies that have adapted to their surroundings and can compete will survive. (societies differentiate and become more complex as they get bigger. Bigger pop . put pressure on social institutions to evolve or change)
What did Karl Max think?
Strong critic of capitalism. Believes social institutions are going to perform as comte implies but not always follow a common good. He argued that social conflict—struggle and strife—was at the core of society, the source of all social change.
why might social insituitions not follow a common good? ( comte)
created by ppl and are likely to inherit their biases.
What did Emilie Durkheim think?
argues that we have to be careful of what social phenomena we are going to study. Humans interact and social facts persist over time and culture is created.
What is a social fact?
elements of society or sociology that should be studied on their own
Example of social fact?
state of job market when u graduate college is fact that will interfere with your life, however it cant be measured.
What is collective conscious? (durkehim)
shared values and beliefs of people. only functional in small groups.
Durkheim’s suicide study shows what?
that suicide is a social fact that can be measured and applied. rate of suicide changes in relation to other social facts.
Society needs to be in the middle of what two things to not have social problems?
Integration ( needs to be held together) and Regulation ( behaviours corrected)
Max webers conflict theory
- notion that insuitions may or may not actually decrease inequality
that we need to investigate the motives of inds. and the kinds of inds. who are making decisions.
What does Verstehan mean?
empathetic understanding that comes from studying the subjective meanings that ppl attach to things in the world.
What type of actions should be studied?
Only socially meaningful actions, actions due to culture and history.
Harriet Martineau
marginalized due to gender, translated some of comtes earlier works.
George Simmel
Conflict theorist who developed many theories about urban life and social conflict
WEB Dubois
did research on black identity in the US as well as black US relations
what is a social static
comtes term for for the stable structure of a society.
comte first called sociology what?
social physics
Marx believed society was comprised largely of two social classes:
the bourgeoisie (the owners and rulers) and the proletariat (the industrial workers of his day) He argued that conflict between the rich and the poor, the owners and the workers (the haves and have-nots),
Class consciousness
Awareness among members of a society that the society is stratified and that they share the same plight
Jane Addams
they opened Hull House—America’s first settlement house and a place to serve Chicago’s immigrant population. first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
