People

Question 1

Confucius

Answer 1

(551-479 BCE) perhaps the earliest person whose recorded writings reflect a true sociological imagination

Question 2

Ibn Khaldun

Answer 2

(1332-1406) the first person to carry out a systematic study of sociological subjects and set his thoughts down in writing

Question 3

Augustus Comte

Answer 3

Formulated Positivism. Coined the term ‘Sociology’. Comte considered himself a scientist and believed the techniques used in the hard sciences (physics, chemistry, etc.) to explain the physical world should be applied to the social world as well

Question 4

Emile Durkheim

Answer 4

Formulated the ‘Sociological Fact’
He helped establish sociology as an academic discipline in the universities of France.
Was one of the first sociologists to hold a university post.
Followed Comte’s commitment to positivism. He always assumed that human actions originate in the collective rather than the individual (all “personal problems” were, in fact, “social issues”).

Question 5

Issac Newton

Answer 5

(1646-1747) One of the most influential physicists of all time, but was not a scientist (esp. as we define one today). He belonged in all 3 stages of Comte’s stages.
Would be defined today as having a very “religious outlook”. Wrote more theological books than books on physics.
Loved being a natural philosopher because it allowed him to discourse about God.
His physics are still taught to physicists, engineers, astronauts, and are still used whenever NASA sends anything into space because the equations are relatively simple and they work (within our solar system).

Question 6

Karl Marx

Answer 6

Did his work in philosophy and social movements before sociology existed.
Founded communism
Had his ideas mined by sociologists.
His concepts like alienation and class are used.
Often his ideas were unclear: good at defining something as wrong but horrible at defining what was “right”
Viewed social change in terms of economic factors

Question 7

Max Weber

Answer 7

Law Professor and famous scrapper/dualist.
Founding Father of sociology.
Did sociology in his spare time.
Founded Sociology of Religion.
Later in life, claimed that he was not a sociologist.
Created the set of values called the ‘Protestant (work) ethic.

Question 8

C. Wright Mills

Answer 8

Summarized the definition of sociology. Argues that we create and communicate sociological knowledge, our ideas must show ‘how society works’ in terms of our personal lives.

Question 9

Harriet Marineau

Answer 9

Widely viewed as the first woman sociologist. She wrote extensively on social, economic, and historical topics and translated several of Comte’s works

Question 10

Herbert Spencer

Answer 10

Social evolutionist who sought to apply Darwin’s theory of natural selection to human societies and coined the term ‘survival of the fittest’

Question 11

Friedrich Nietzsche

Answer 11

Philosopher that rejected christianity’s compassion for the weak and championed the ‘will to power’ and the (‘superman’), who could rise above the restrictions of ordinary morality.

Question 12

Thorstein Veblen

Answer 12

Economist and social critic attacked American ‘conspicuous consumption’

Question 13

Georg Simmel

Answer 13

Father of microscopy studied the way people experience the minutiae of daily life

Question 14

George Herbert Mead

Answer 14

Father of ‘symbolic interactionism’ looked t who the self is constructed through personal exchange with others

Question 15

Robert Park

Answer 15

urban sociologist was the founding member of the ‘Chicago School’ of sociology

Question 16

W.E.B. Du Bois

Answer 16

Documented the experience of American blacks from a sociological perspective

Question 17

Thomas Malthus

Answer 17

A forerunner of moder sociologists, started to wonder whether Europe’s cities could cope with with tremendous population growth

Question 18

Robert K. Merton

Answer 18

Identified the three types of functions (manifest, latent, and latent dysfunctions)

Question 19

Herbert Blumer

Answer 19

A pupil of Mead’s who coined the term ‘symbolic interactionism’.

Question 20

Erving Goffman

Answer 20

The pioneer of microsociology

Question 21

Dorothy Smith

Answer 21

A Canadian sociologist who developed standpoint theory out of her own experiences with discrimination
Sociology had developed from a “male” standpoint.
The “female” standpoint is still being validated.
True of many disciplines, including scientific ones.
1) That the “objective” approach to research is more truthful.
2) That the subjective position was “ideological”, based on biases and prejudices, and therefore distorted.

Question 22

Michel Foucault

Answer 22

Created the term ‘totalitarian discourse’ and discussed it’s misleading nature in his article ‘Two Lectures’

Question 23

Michael Burawoy

Answer 23

Divided sociology into 4 types

Question 24

Leonard Marsh

Answer 24

Prepared ‘Report on Social Security in Canada’ which was a plan for a comprehensive social program to eliminate poverty

Question 25

Carl Addington Dawson

Answer 25

The first professional, institutionalized sociologist in Canada. Founded McGills sociology department.
His work reflected two aspects of Canadian sociology: The Social Gospel and hands-on social work

Question 26

Warren E. Gettys

Answer 26

Helped Dawson to write the first Canadian sociology textbook

Question 27

Everett C. Hughes

Answer 27

Focused on the term ‘ethnic division of labour’ when studying at McGill

Question 28

Horace Miner

Answer 28

another American sociologist who put the study off French Canada in the forefront of Canadian sociology. His work was best described as Ethnography.

Question 29

Harold Innis

Answer 29

Pioneer of the field of political economy. Argues the availability of ‘staples’

Question 30

Samuel Delbert Clark

Answer 30

Student of Innis and important sociologist (field of political economy)

Question 31

John Porter

Answer 31

Wrote ‘The Vertical Mosaic: An Analysis of Social Class and Power in Canada’

Question 32

Annie Marion MacLean

Answer 32

First Canadian woman to receive a PhD in sociology. Pioneered the sociological study of working women especially ‘wage earning women’

Question 33

Aileen Ross

Answer 33

First woman hired in a Canadian university.

Founding member of the Canadian human Rights Foundation.

Question 34

Helen C. Abell

Answer 34

Founder of rural sociology in Canada.
Also a nutritionist.
Studied role women play on a farm