Early origins of Sociology,present day approach of sociology

1. Sociological theory
• We know that sociology is the study of human society, human behavior
and human life
• Since the subject matter is vast and complex it is very difficult to find a
single theoretical standpoint
• Rather lots of debates are noticed on the ways of studying human society
and how to interpret the research results
• Therefore, in order to have a proper idea about sociological theories we
may discuss the following topics:
• --early origins
• --later developments
• --present-day approaches

2. Sociological theory
• Early origins
• August Comte (1789-1857)
• Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
• Karl Marx (1818-1883)
• Max Weber (1864-1920)

3. August Comte (1789-1857)
• French author Comte coined the term
‘sociology' in order to refer to the new field of
study
• He used to believe that this new science
would be useful for the welfare of humanity

4. Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
• French writer E.Durkheim was influenced by A. Comte
• However, he also criticized Comte and mentioned the importance of
studying ‘social facts’ in order to establish sociology as a scientific
discipline
• The question is what do we mean by social facts? In this context Durkheim
emphasized upon the following facts:
• --analysis of social institutions in such a way as if scientists are studying
nature (objectivity)
• --‘ study social facts as things’
• --rigorous analysis of social life
• Transformation of society through changes, in that context he studied the
development of division of labour,
• Study of suicide in a sociological way(influence of social factors on suicide)

5. Karl Marx (1818-1883)
• Marx’s ( origin in Germany and died in England) ideas are the contrasts of
Comte and Durkheim
• Mainly he focused on economic issues, but in that context he always tried
to explain economic problems relating them to social institutions.
Therefore, sociologists can get insights from Marxist thought
• Materialist conception of history
• Not the ideas or values, instead social changes are regulated mainly by
economic influences, class conflicts driven by economic interests
introduce historical development of societies
• Changes in industrialization, capitalism

6. Max Weber (1864-1920)
• Born in Germany and developed whole of his ideas there
• Though his ideas were influenced by Marx, he also developed lots of
critics regarding the major concepts of Marx
• Materialist conception of history was rejected by him, likewise he did not
give special importance on class conflict as Marx did
• According to Weber, ideas and values may be the major causes of social
change like economic factors, that means both economic issues and the
ideas/values have same power in creating major changes in society
• Weber criticized Durkheim or Marx because of their ideas on sociology, in
his opinion, the field of sociology is human being and their society, which
is very complex and quite different than physical world. Consequently,
sociologists cannot get a proper idea of their subject matter if they follow
the methods of natural science
• Human being attach meaning and significance of their acts and
sociologists must take into account of this meaning

7. Sociological theory
• Later developments
• G.H.Mead (1863-1931): symbolic
interactionism
• Talcot Parsons (1902-1979): functionalism
• Claude Levi-Strauss (1908-2009): structuralism

8. Sociological theory
• Present-day approaches
• Continuation of previous theoretical divisions like
• --Functionalism
• --Structuralism
• --Symbolic interactionism
• --Marxism

9. Different theoretical approaches
• Functionalism
• Pioneer Comte, Durkheim---they tried to apply functionalist thought in sociological
research
• Modern functionalist thinking is strongly regulated by anthropologists
• Though 19th
century anthropologists did not rely on fieldwork, instead depended
on secondary sources of data, but later modern anthropology was developed
focusing on intensive field research in different cultures
• In this context the names and contributions of anthropologists like A.R. Radcliffe
Brown and Bronislaw Malinowski are praiseworthy
• They posited the need of full fledged study if we want to understand major
institutions of a society or a culture and explain why its members behave as they
do
• Different parts of a society develop in close relation to one another
• To study the function of a social practice or institution is to analyze the
contribution which that practice or institution makes to the continuation of the
society as a whole

10. Different theoretical approaches
• Functionalism in sociology
• Talcot Parsons and Robert K. Merton
• Functionalist analysis is the key of sociological theory and research
• Merton’s idea of ‘manifest’(known and intended) and ‘latent’
(consequences of activities, unaware) functions
• Example: rain dance of Hopi Indians of Mexico (manifest-rain is needed
for crops, latent-promoting social cohesion through dance)
• Uncovering the latent functions of social activities and institutions is a
major part of sociological research (Merton)
• Functions and dysfunctions

11. Different theoretical approaches
• Structuralism
• Though Durkheim’s ideas had a impact on structuralism, but Swiss linguist
Ferdinand de Saussure made a profound influence to structuralist ideas
through his work on linguistics
• According to him, analyzing the structures of language means looking the
rules which underlie our speech. Most of these rules are known to us only
implicitly: we could not easily state what they are. The task of linguistics,
in fact, is to uncover what we implicitly know, but know only on the level
of being able to use language in practice.
• Language and meaning
• Structuralism and semiotics

12. Different theoretical approaches
• Symbolic interactionism
• Active, creative individual is more important
• Though many writers contributed, but Mead had a special contribution
• According to Mead, through symbol language helps us to become self-
conscious beings
• A symbol is something which stands for something else, the word ‘tree’ is a
symbol by means of which we represent the object tree
• We have learned to think of the object symbolically. Symbolic thought frees us
from being limited in our experience to what we actually see, hear or feel.
• Sociologists influenced by symbolic interactionism usually focus on face-to-
face interaction in the contexts of everyday life.
• Symbolic interactionism directs our attention to the detail of interpersonal
interaction, and how that detail is used to make sense of what others say and
do.

13. Different theoretical approaches
• Marxism
• There prevail numerous interpretations of Marx’s major ideas
• In all of its versions, Marxism differs from non-Marxist traditions of
sociology
• Marxists put more emphasis on class divisions, conflict, power and
ideology than many non-Marxist sociologists, especially most of those
influenced by functionalism.
• However, non-Marxist sociology and Marxism have always existed in a
relationship of mutual influence and opposition