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Oxford Handbooks Online. Publications Pages Publications Pages. Recently viewed 0 Save Search. The Evolutionary Turn in Positivism: G. Lewes and Leslie Stephen. Read More. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Subscriber sign in You could not be signed in, please check and try again. Username Please enter your Username. Password Please enter your Password. Forgot password? He claimed all things—the physical world, the biological realm, and human society—underwent progressive development.
This social evolution, he argued, exemplifed the universal evolutionary process from simple, undifferentiated homogeneity to complex, differentiated heterogeneity. As he elaborated the theory, he proposed two types of society: militant and industrial. Militant society, structured around relationships of hierarchy and obedience, was simple and undifferentiated.
Industrial society, based on voluntary behavior and contractually assumed social obligations, was complex and differentiated. Spencer questioned whether the evolution of society would result in peaceful anarchism as he had first believed or whether it pointed to a continued role for the state, albeit one reduced to minimal functions—the enforcement of contracts and external defense. Spenser believed, as society evolved, the hierarchical and authoritarian institutions of militant society would become obsolete.
As the number of people in a given area increase, he posited, so does the number of interactions, and the society becomes more complex. Population growth creates competition and incentives to trade and further the division of labor. But as people engage in more economic activity with neighbors or distant traders, they begin to loosen the traditional bonds of family, religion, and moral solidarity that had previously ensured social integration.
Durkheim worried that modernity might herald the disintegration of society. Following a socioevolutionary approach reminiscent of Comte, Durkheim described the evolution of society from mechanical solidarity to organic solidarity. Simpler societies, he argued, are based on mechanical solidarity, in which self-sufficient people are connected to others by close personal ties and traditions e. Also, in such societies, people have far fewer options in life.
Modern societies, on the other hand, are based on organic solidarity, in which people are connected by their reliance on others in the division of labor. Because modern society is complex, and because the work that individuals do is so specialized, individuals can no longer be self-sufficient and must rely on others to survive.
Thus, although modern society may undermine the traditional bonds of mechanical solidarity, it replaces them with the bonds of organic solidarity. Further, Durkheim argued, the organic solidarity of modern societies might have advantages over traditional mechanical solidarity. In traditional societies, people are self-sufficient, and therefore society has little need for cooperation and interdependence.
Institutions that require cooperation and agreement must often resort to force and repression to keep society together. Traditional mechanical solidarity may tend, therefore, to be authoritarian and coercive.
In modern societies, under organic solidarity, people are necessarily much more interdependent. Specialization and the division of labor require cooperation. Thus, solidarity and social integration are necessary for survival and do not require the same sort of coercion as under mechanical solidarity.
In organic solidarity, the individual is considered vitally important, even sacred. In organic solidarity, the individual, rather than the collective, becomes the focus of rights and responsibilities, the center of public and private rituals holding the society together—a function once performed by the religion.
Weber departed from positivist sociology, instead emphasizing Verstehen , or understanding, as the goal of sociology.
Max Weber was a German sociologist and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself. In , he established a sociology department at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Along with Marx and Durkheim, Weber is considered one of the three principal forefathers of modern social science. That being said, Weber developed a unique methodological position that set him apart from these other sociologists.
As opposed to positivists like Comte and Durkheim, Weber was a key proponent of methodological antipositivism. He presented sociology as a non-empiricist field whose goal was not to gather data and predict outcomes, but instead to understand the meanings and purposes that individuals attach to their own actions.
Weber viewed religion as one of the core forces in society. Weber proposed that ascetic Protestantism had an elective affinity with capitalism, bureaucracy, and the rational-legal nation-state in the Western world. By elective affinity, Weber meant something less direct than causality, but something more direct than correlation.
In other words, although he did not argue that religion caused economic change, Weber did find that ascetic Protestantism and modern capitalism often appeared alongside one another in societies. Additionally, Weber observed that both ascetic Protestantism and capitalism encouraged cultural practices that reinforced one another. He never claimed that religion was the complete, simple, isolated cause of the rise of capitalism in the West.
Instead, he viewed it was part of a cultural complex that included the following:. In the end, the study of the sociology of religion, according to Weber, focused on one distinguishing fact about Western culture, the decline of beliefs in magic. As evidence for his study, Weber noted that ascetic Protestantism and advanced capitalism tended to coincide with one another. Weber observed that, after the Reformation, Protestant countries such as the Netherlands, England, Scotland, and Germany gained economic prominence over Catholic countries such as France, Spain, and Italy.
Furthermore, in societies with different religions, the most successful business leaders tended to be Protestant. John Calvin, the first capitalist? To explain these observations, Weber argued that Protestantism, and especially the ascetic Protestant or Calvinist denominations, had redefined the connection between work and piety.
Historically, Christian religious devotion had been accompanied by a rejection of mundane affairs, including economic pursuits. In contrast, Weber showed that certain types of Protestantism, notably Calvinism, supported worldly activities and the rational pursuit of economic gain. Because of the particularly Calvinist view of the world, these activities became endowed with moral and spiritual significance.
In these religions, believers expressed their piety towards God through hard work and achievement in a secular vocation, or calling. Because of this religious orientation, human effort was shifted away from the contemplation of the divine and towards rational efforts aimed at achieving economic gain.
Furthermore, the Protestant ethic, while promoting the pursuit of economic gain, eschewed hedonistic pleasure. Thus, believers were encouraged to make money, but not to spend it. This motivated believers to work hard, to be successful in business, and to reinvest their profits rather than spend them on frivolous pleasures.
The Calvinist notion of predestination also meant that material wealth could be taken as a sign of salvation in the afterlife.
Predestination is the belief that God has chosen who will be saved and who will not. Protestant believers thus reconciled, even encouraged, the pursuit of profit with religion. Thus, Weber explained the rise of capitalism by looking at systems of culture and ideas. Lester Ward, the first president of the American Sociological Association, is generally thought of as the founder of American sociological study.
Lester Ward is generally thought of as the founder of American sociological study. He served as the first president of the American Sociological Society, which was founded in and which later changed its name to its current form, the American Sociological Association , and was appointed Chair of Sociology at Brown University in Like Comte and the positivist founders of sociology, Ward embraced the scientific ethos.
In , Ward published his two-volume,1, page Dynamic Sociology, Or Applied Social Science as Based Upon Statistical Sociology and the Less Complex Sciences , with which he hoped to establish the central importance of experimentation and the scientific method to the field of sociology.
But for Ward, science was not objective and removed, but human-centered and results-oriented. As he put it in the preface to Dynamic Sociology :. Thus, Ward embodied what would become a distinctive characteristic of American sociology.
Though devoted to developing sociology as a rigorous science, he also believed sociology had unique potential as a tool to better society. He believed that the scientific methodology of sociology should be deployed in the interest of resolving practical, real-world problems, such as poverty, which he theorized could be minimized or eliminated by systematic intervention in society. Ward is most often remembered for his criticism of the laissez-faire theories advanced by Herbert Spencer and popular among his contemporaries.
Spencer had argued that society would naturally evolve and progress while allowing the survival of the fittest and weeding out the socially unfit. Thus, social ills such as poverty would be naturally alleviated as the unfit poor were selected against; no intervention was necessary.
Though originated by Spencer, these ideas were advanced in the United States by William Graham Sumner, an economist and sociologist at Yale. Ward disagreed with Spencer and Sumner and, in contrast to their laissez-faire approach, promoted active intervention. Ward believed that in large, complex, and rapidly growing societies, human freedom could only be achieved with the assistance of a strong democratic government acting in the interest of the individual. Ward had a strong influence on a rising generation of progressive political leaders, including on the administrations of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin D.
Roosevelt and on the modern Democratic Party. Johnson and the Vietnam war. The thing that made Ward most attractive in the 19th century, his criticism of laissez faire, made him seem dangerously radical to the ever-cautious academic community in early 20th century America.
This perception was strengthened by the growing socialist movement in the United States, led by the Marxist Russian Revolution and the rise of Nazism in Europe. Lester Ward : Lester Ward, the first president of the American Sociological Association, is generally thought of as the founder of American sociological study. Privacy Policy.
Skip to main content. Search for:. The History of Sociology. Tradition vs. Science Social scientists began to adopt the scientific method to make sense of the rapid changes accompanying modernization and industrialization. Learning Objectives Distinguish positivist from interpretive sociological approaches.
Key Takeaways Key Points Beginning in the 17th century, observation-based natural philosophy was replaced by natural science, which attempted to define and test scientific laws. Social science continued this trend, attempting to find laws to explain social behavior, which had become problematic with the decline of tradition and the rise of modernity and industrialization.
Sociology is not a homogeneous field; it involves tensions between quantitative and qualitative sociology, positivist and interpretive sociology, and objective and critical sociology.
But sociology may also use qualitative methods. Objective sociology tries to explain the world; critical sociology tries to change it. Key Terms Critical sociology : Critical theory is a school of thought that stresses the examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities.
Positivist sociology : The overarching methodological principle of positivism is to conduct sociology in broadly the same manner as natural science. An emphasis on empiricism and the scientific method is sought to provide a tested foundation for sociological research based on the assumption that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can only arrive by positive affirmation through scientific methodology.
Early Thinkers and Comte One of the most influential early figures in sociology was Auguste Comte who proposed a positivist sociology with a scientific base. Key Takeaways Key Points Auguste Comte was one of the founders of sociology and coined the term sociology. Comte believed sociology could unite all sciences and improve society. Comte was a positivist who argued that sociology must have a scientific base and be objective.
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