Rise of Social Theory & Emile Durkheim

Question 1

Emergence of Classical Social Theory: Dominant Political Events/Technological Developments

Answer 1

French Revolution (right of kings -> secular democratic government)
Industrial Revolution (steam engine, cotton gin, rapid urbanization)
Urbanization (US 1850s: 15% urbanized, today 82%)
- Chicago School concerned with urban social problems, want to make them functional

Question 2

Emergence of Classical Social Theory: Concurrent Cultural/Economic Trends that Shaped Classical Sociological Theory

Answer 2

Rise of Scientific Inquiry
Secularization (separation of church and state–soc becomes pretty secular)
Capitalism/Socialism (everyone is interested in effects of capitalism–more German side tho like Weber and Marx than Durkheim)

Question 3

Emergence of Classical Social Theory: Intellectual Trends

Answer 3

Enlightenment (reason, empiricism, modernism, individualistic–social order based on reason & universal human rights for atomized individuals)
Counter-Enlightenment (Catholic intellectual movement emphasizing tradition, emotion)

Question 4

Auguste Comte

Answer 4

1798-1857
Coined “Sociology”
Mentor to Durkheim
Counter-Enlightenment positivist: social order over individual cos he saw French politics
Saw sociology as a functional replacement for religion: wanted to be high priest of sociology

Question 5

Auguste Comte: Evolutionary Theory

Answer 5

• Theological Stage (before 1300)
• Metaphysical Stage (1300-1800)
• Positivistic Stage (after 1800)–reliant on science, transcendence isn’t real, we build our own society

Question 6

Durkheim: Biography

Answer 6

Influenced by Comte
First Sociology Department in France, first academic journal
Major Works:
- Division of Labor in Society (1893)
- Rules of Sociological Method (1895)
- Suicide (1897)
- The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912)

Question 7

Durkheim: Themes of Writing

Answer 7

What is Sociology?

• Study of Social Facts (external–need methods to document)
• Study Social Facts Empirically and Inductively (start with observations, then figure out laws)

Question 8

Durkheim: Social Facts

Answer 8

Types of Social Facts:

• Material (directly observable, ex architecture/laws/clothing)
• Nonmaterial:
• – Morality (“ought”–society’s interests placed on you”)
• – Collective Conscience (exists at social level)
• – Collective Representations (like a flag)
• – Social Currents (intense collective experience like religious ceremony or sporting event)

Question 9

Definition of Social Facts (RSM)

Answer 9

“ways of acting, thinking, and feeling, external to the individual, and endowed with a power of coercion, by reason of which they control him.” These “types of conduct and thought are not only external to the individual but are, moreover, endowed with a coercive power, by virtue of which they impose themselves upon him, independent of his individual will.”

Question 10

Durkheim: Suicide

Answer 10

Application of RSM–suicide as a social fact (most rates are social facts)
Rates of suicide vary:
- Protestants > Catholics > Jews
- Peace time > Wartime
- economic crisis > economic stability
Social solidarity (all social facts are explained by other social facts)

Question 11

Durkheim: Suicide: Solidarity & Integration Graph

Answer 11

see notes

Question 12

Durkheim: Suicide: Types of Suicide

Answer 12

Altruistic / Egoistic / Fatalistic / Anomic

see notes

Question 13

Durkheim: Functionalism

Answer 13

Concern with what holds society together
Definition: “A sociological perspective that views society as a system of interdependent parts whose functions contribute to the overall survival and stability of the system.”
Normal vs Pathological (sick/dysfunctional)

Question 14

Durkheim: Division of Labor in Society

Answer 14

(1893)
Mechanical vs Organic Solidarity
Dynamic Density (population grows exponentially, but resources grow linearly--specialization)

Question 15

Durkheim: Elementary Forms of Religious Life

Answer 15

(1912)
Attempt to uncover social origins of religion
Australian Aboriginals (“basic/primitive”–problematic presuppositions and anthropological inaccuracy)
Key Ideas:
- Sacred & Profane
- Totemism (externalize social current to an object)
- The Soul (collective force of society in the individual, religious revolution: souls to spirit to heroes to gods)

Question 16

Durkheim: Legacy

Answer 16

Established Sociology as an Academic Discipline
Broad Theoretical & Methodological Programs:
- Functionalism
- Positivism
- Interaction Ritual (produces solidarity)
View of Persons? (negative–need society to be productive)
Ideal society? (everyone does their part–functionalist & conservative)