Auguste Comte Positivism Empiricism
Auguste Comte -outlined how the moral, intellectual, and social landscape of Europe should be changed -Believed that human societies and the knowledge that structured them progressed through three stages-theological -metaphysical -positivist -development of knowledge proceeded along the hierarchy of complexity-from astronomy and physics, the least complex, to chemistry and physiology, ultimately reaching social physics (social science) -Positivism- systematic, observationally based knowledge -Sociology-the highest, most encompassing and complex form of knowledge -focuses human association on more than mathematical terms -change through scientifically informed, ordered progress -Advocate for the unity of the sciences- the uses of the scientific method in the study of both natural and social phenomena
Positivism -reason needs foundations to structure its development -Three moments in a Hegelian dialectic-Auguste Comte: thesis -Ernst Mach: antithesis -Vienna Circle: synthesis -fundamentally ambiguous:-implies that it’s in everyone’s interest to pursue their ends by scientific means, but on the other hand, science can unify the polity by authoritatively resolving, containing or circumventing social conflict
Empiricism -Aristotle, David Hume, and John Locke -knowledge should be based experience -foster modern science and the Industrial Revolution Rationalists-knowledge gained though intellect and intuition -Rene Descartes Observer Effect- people who are aware they are under scientific observation may change their behaviours to conform to the researcher’s expectations, and social pressures cannot be measured directly
Max Weber- argued that the Protestant belief system provided a strong foundation for the growth of capitalism Emile Durkheim-helped found the scientific approach to study society -sociology depended on the observation and measurement of the effects of social forces on people through measurable phenomena -the hermeneutic approach to sociology provides an alternative approach toward understanding the effects of society on human behaviour, by using methods such as interview, textual analysis, and self-observation -roughly corresponds to the modern quantitative and qualitative approaches to sociology Deductive or Theory-Driven Approach- argues that studies should focus on testing existing social theories Inductive or Data-Driven Approach- argues that researchers should approach social phenomena with few preconceived notions and then allow their theories and research questions to evolve over the course of their research
Scientific Knowledge, Sociology of -sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) emerged from sociological, historical, and philosophical reflections upon the direction, content, and truth statues of scientific knowledge -rationality should systematically be investigated and explained in terms of its social origin Strong Program- the systematic investigation should be causal, impartial, symmetrical, and reflexive -Originated from the critique against Robert Mertons’ sociological work and the post-Kuhnian problematic- relationship between the sociology of science and the sociology of knowledge Ethnographic Approach-empirical access to the everyday life worldly experiences and negotiations at the ‘lab bench’ gives a dimension of insight into the very reality of social life inside technoscience -study of what Bruno Latour and Steeve Woolgar would call Laboratory Life -inspired by the Nietzschean and Wittgensteinian philosophes of language and meaning -enthomethdological researchers Actor-Network Theory or Sociology of Translation -the ‘hardness’ of scientific facts simply relies on changing networks of heterogeneous actors or actants and their ongoing interactions -related to Laboratory Studies
-Bruno Latour, Michel Callon, John Law, and Madeline Akrich
Scientific Revolution -new way of studying the natural, physical world became accepted by a small community of scholars -Cohen stresses the stages involved from initial creative to dissemination and then acceptance -uses Kuhn’s theory of an oscillation between ‘normal science’ and ‘paradignatic revolutions’ -paradigatic revolution involved Descartes, Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, and von Helmont -Newton’s laws of gravitational attraction, motion, and force led to British Newtonianism -botany and zoology became more systematic with the use of binomial nomenclature, although Linnaeus’ theories of nature and society was flawed -Boolean and Fregan mathematical and symbolic logic and non-Eucildean geometry revolutionized science -Comte argued that scientific thinking moves only gradually throughout everything -Wissenchaft- encompasses all sciences -leaps beyond Aristotelianism and rationalism -distinction between true science and proto-science or pseudo-science -importance of nuances of general theoretical assumptions covering ontology and epistemology -Francis Bacon’s New ‘Organon’- simple inductive reasoning was rejected
Division of Labour Durkheim-structural functionalists -occupational structure- new form of social solidarity- organic solidarity- that integrates the members of industrial societies in contrast to the mechanical solidarity of traditional societies -globalization is the consequence of technological change Marx-conflict theory -double division of labour- the technical division of labour in the enterprise that broke down the production process into a sequence of tasks, and the social division of labour among enterprises, industries, and social classes that was meditated thorough commodity exchanges in market relations -saw contradictions and class exploitation and domination in the social division of labour-> increased by globalization, neocolonialism and colonization Henri Lefebvre-extended Marx
-production of relations in the social division of labour consumption and the reproduction of the relations of production but incorporating cultural processes as well as relations of demotion and subordination -capitalism undergone mutation- working class failed to become a revolutionary agent, the technocrats brought stability and cohesion to a society that lacked deployment of bureaucratic forms of organization and the ideology of technological modernism -production rights should be extensions of citizenship rights -New ‘state mode of production’- state plays a critical role in promoting economic growth and reproducing the relations of production
Collective Consciousness -Emile Durkheim: -establishes sociology as its own discipline -to understand and demonstrate the dependence of human beings upon their societies -the crucial role that the social plays in human behaviour, the common beliefs and sentiments common in an average society -Mechanical Society- a traditional, simpler society composed of economically self-sustained members who, living in close proximity, are more alike than different -Organic Society- difference in division of labour and occupational specialization led to individuality
Solidarity, Mechanical and Organic -Emile Durkheim -state of unity that exists when people are integrated by strong social ties and shared beliefs and are regulated by well-developed guidelines for actions -happens at different rates and different times -Mechanical and Organic Societies: -way where individuals are connected to each other and identify with groups and societies in which they live -types of social organizations -distinctions between them identifies: •
Extent (degree of complexity) of the division of labourlevel of differentiation of an activity into distinct functions or roles
•
Extent of the collective consciousness- number of values, beliefs, norms, emotions, and ways of acting that are shared within a group or society, and the intensity
with which members share and experience these practices -division of labour becomes more complex, then the collective conscience changes
From Descartes to Durkheim: Towards a Science of Society Emile Durkheim -founder of sociology as an empirical discipline -believed that society had to change to become more stable and gain greater social justice -state needed to be restructured to ensure greater justice, but it would not occur at the expense of individual freedom -socialism -methodology Talcott Parson-emphasizes the holistic, functionalist, organic, and positivist dimension of Durkheim’s work at the expense of the more historically and empirically based accounts of the dynamic tensions in social life -critiques with Durkheim the utilitarian theory and individualist accounts of social perspective -Descartes, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Saint-Simon, and Comte influenced Durkheim -criticized the materialist reductionism of the orthodox Marxists- the social whole cannot be reduced to the instrumental rationality of economic man, nor is the superstructure simple a direct, automatic reflection of the economic infrastructure -emphasis on the role of ideas and of the collective consciousness more than the orthodox of Marxist -rejected the ahistorical and metaphysically based arguments of the idealist holists, such as Hegel’s absolute reason, or of those proposing a universal moral imperative, such as Kant’s categorical imperative -One must start with the complex moral rules that actually exist within a society and determine how those arose from particular social arrangements -morality, cohesiveness, and solidarity are created within a social whole -the changing form of solidarity within advanced societies developed society as a sui generis phenomenon that pre-exists individuals and the internalization of an externally existing conscience collective -division of labour causes the integration of the social body to assure unity -the empirical study of social solidarity presents one fundamental problem: social solidarity is a completely moral phenomenon which doesn’t lend itself to exact observation nor indeed measurement
-One needs an observable indicator of social solidarity that one can empirically study and measure- the indicator Durkheim selected was the law -Decision is critical: -moves the analysis of social solidarity- the basis for a moral order- away from abstract philosophy directly into the concerns of sociology -sociology can develop an empirically based understanding of moral order within a society -Durkheim suggests, to inform social policy, social solidarity can and should be studied through an empirically based sociology rather than through the well-worn paths of abstract philosophical arguments -different types of laws are indicative of different types of social conscience or consciousness and different types of social solidary -conscience collective is a product of individuals but it is external to individuals and is there before they are born -Repressive or Restitutive Laws serves as an indicator for a particular form of social solidarity and the implications that this has for life in the modern world and conscience collective -Repressive Law-highly intense response on the part of the individuals in a society in which this form of law dominates to anyone who has transgressed the ideals embodies in the conscience collective -consistent with traditional, face-to-face societies -societies characterized by mechanical solidarity -Restituive Law-doesn’t involve the suffering of the individual but the reestablishment of troubled relations to their normal state -only possible in societies in which individuals are increasingly dependent upon other individuals carrying out specialized social function, and advanced division of labour- organic solidarity -opposed Herbert Spencer who advocated of viewing societies as if they were natural organisms -questions social order -focuses on sociology -finding an empirical indicator for ‘moral life’ -Contrast with German approach- focused on conceptual
Descartes -divide questions into simplest parts -Begin with most simple- move to more complex -review thoroughly -opposed the classical tradition in philosophy
-shifts the focal point for the pursuit of true knowledge from metaphysical contemplation or religious doctrine to a method involving rigorous observation of the world -accept nothing and reject prejudice and question everything -supported the then-emerging inductive methodologies of the natural sciences and maintained that the scientific method should apply to all forms of human knowledge in order for that knowledge to be reliable, unbiased, and certain -sociologists argue that sociology could only develop further if it broke away from philosophy completely and pursued the systematic collecti520on of ‘social facts’ or empirical information -goes against the Great Chain of Being
Montesquieu -influenced by Hobbes and influenced Rousseau -concerned with forms of government -understanding the state and the social order is highly sociological -argues that one can virtually predict the histories of the nations under study -laying the groundwork for an empirical approach to the study of social and political life -classifies societies on the basis of how they are governed, Spirit of the Laws, and identifies three types: • Despotic Governments-despot is the nature -fear is the principle • Monarchies-king is the nature -honor is the principle • Republics-aristocratic or a democratic form -legislative body is the nature -virtue is the principle -each form of government is characterized by a nature (who or what group holds power) and a principle (the passion or spirit that animates those who govern) and represents social progress -good governments have a nature and principle that are consistent with the dominant spirit of the people who make up the society as a whole -to comprehend the laws of a society fully, one has to see them as part of a larger system within which they serve a particular purpose, and to understand the different parts of a social system as they both develop over time, physically and morally -physical causes changes the social system’s development -moral causes changes a society’s spirit
-law is the only way to control people’s conduct -spirit of a society resonates with Durkheim’s concept of conscience collective- both see the spirit or consciousness developing within the social whole and changing as the social formation and the relationships among individuals change -Two different types of law- repressive and restitutive- to serve as indicators of which form of social solidarity mechanical or organic, dominates within a social formation -Persian Letters-two men criticizes French nobility -satire -Holism- whole is greater than sum of its parts
Saint-Simon -concerned with the unity of knowledge based on Newton’s law of gravitation -aimed to establish a new sense of religiosity, one appropriate to an industrial society and able to constitute the cohesive force that religions had provided through human history -development of an empirically based science of society -reinforced the break from metaphysical and speculative social thought and affirmed the use of an empirical, scientifically inspired approach to the study of society -sought to establish a ‘social physics’ which would lay out the laws of social development and would complement his ‘social physiology’ which would focus on the scientific study of human interaction -Medieval society comprised of different orders: -spiritual elite -governing elite or temporal elite -productive elite -the different orders became the template for the conception of social structure and the evolutionary development of societies throughout history -viewed society as holistic and functional terms and an evolutionary and development entity -‘The Law of Three Stages’- human history moves through an identified progression of stable, organic civilizations where Comte would later articulate: -Classical Greece and Rome: -a polytheistic ideology -a slave economy -a monolithic state -Medieval society: -Roman Catholic theology -a feudal economy -a ruling nobility
-more humane means of production -more systematic theology -separation of temporal and spiritual power within the state -Industrial Society-craftwork grew and independent worships -enlightenment rationality and science became a new spiritual system or theology -eliminates war and poverty -work is assigned on the basis of ability and merit -opportunity for advancement in an open, classless, knowledge-based society -continuous development -government characterized by social welfare or administration rather than class power and national rivalries -Influenced Pierre-Joseph Proudhon who wanted to organize society on the basis of a central bank and mutually cooperative enterprises -influenced socialist like Marx -influenced Raymond Aron, Daniel Bell, and Ralf Dahrendorf who argues that capitalist society, which was characterized by classes and class conflict, gave way to industrial society in which classes had disappeared or were no longer the divisive forces they had been and that class conflict transformed into the open and fair processes of collective bargaining between the interest of labour and those of management
Comte -human societies and human knowledge had progressed through three stages: •
To establish the positivist form in all branches of knowledge
•
Positivism- system of knowledge based exclusively on the methodology of the natural sciences
•
Understanding social change and social stability
-those who resisted the gains of revolution were motivated by irrational desires and lacked a coherent plan -conception of sociology as a science -believed that positive philosophy would ensure observation as the basis for knowledge rather than imagination -Positive Philosophy-rejects all absolute truths battering -gives the capacity for rational prediction
-Insisted that knowledge passes through three stages: •
Theological or Fictitious:- seeking first and final causes
•
Metaphysical or Abstract: -replaces supernatural forces
• Scientific or Positive- emphasizes the central importance of observation and rejects the theological and metaphysical conceptions of absolutes -scientifically based knowledge can inform social reform and thereby remove the treat of reaction or revolution and create a stable relationship between order and progress -Relative Truths- a gradualism of change -order and progress- not revolution Unity of the Sciences- belief that there is one true scientific method and that it can be applied to the natural and social phenomenon Communist Manifesto-document with a specific history -Imaginary and intellectual craftsmanship- foundation of sociology -dynamics of modernity -capitalist and overproduction -bougeriouse is a super structure and creates a large resistance -Two key focal points: -the ‘material relations’ of society- objective dynamic -‘Class structure’ (class consciousness) - subjective consciousness -change driven by internal contradictions and struggle -Karl Marx Marx- didn’t consider himself a sociologist Unam Sanctam-Great Chain of Being -hierarchy of people, from God to slaves
Positivism -reason needs foundations to structure its development -Three moments in a Hegelian dialectic-Auguste Comte: thesis -Ernst Mach: antithesis -Vienna Circle: synthesis -fundamentally ambiguous:-implies that it’s in everyone’s interest to pursue their ends by scientific means, but on the other hand, science can unify the polity by authoritatively resolving, containing or circumventing social conflict
Empiricism -Aristotle, David Hume, and John Locke -knowledge should be based experience -foster modern science and the Industrial Revolution Rationalists-knowledge gained though intellect and intuition -Rene Descartes Observer Effect- people who are aware they are under scientific observation may change their behaviours to conform to the researcher’s expectations, and social pressures cannot be measured directly
Max Weber- argued that the Protestant belief system provided a strong foundation for the growth of capitalism Emile Durkheim-helped found the scientific approach to study society -sociology depended on the observation and measurement of the effects of social forces on people through measurable phenomena -the hermeneutic approach to sociology provides an alternative approach toward understanding the effects of society on human behaviour, by using methods such as interview, textual analysis, and self-observation -roughly corresponds to the modern quantitative and qualitative approaches to sociology Deductive or Theory-Driven Approach- argues that studies should focus on testing existing social theories Inductive or Data-Driven Approach- argues that researchers should approach social phenomena with few preconceived notions and then allow their theories and research questions to evolve over the course of their research
Scientific Knowledge, Sociology of -sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) emerged from sociological, historical, and philosophical reflections upon the direction, content, and truth statues of scientific knowledge -rationality should systematically be investigated and explained in terms of its social origin Strong Program- the systematic investigation should be causal, impartial, symmetrical, and reflexive -Originated from the critique against Robert Mertons’ sociological work and the post-Kuhnian problematic- relationship between the sociology of science and the sociology of knowledge Ethnographic Approach-empirical access to the everyday life worldly experiences and negotiations at the ‘lab bench’ gives a dimension of insight into the very reality of social life inside technoscience -study of what Bruno Latour and Steeve Woolgar would call Laboratory Life -inspired by the Nietzschean and Wittgensteinian philosophes of language and meaning -enthomethdological researchers Actor-Network Theory or Sociology of Translation -the ‘hardness’ of scientific facts simply relies on changing networks of heterogeneous actors or actants and their ongoing interactions -related to Laboratory Studies
-Bruno Latour, Michel Callon, John Law, and Madeline Akrich
Scientific Revolution -new way of studying the natural, physical world became accepted by a small community of scholars -Cohen stresses the stages involved from initial creative to dissemination and then acceptance -uses Kuhn’s theory of an oscillation between ‘normal science’ and ‘paradignatic revolutions’ -paradigatic revolution involved Descartes, Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, and von Helmont -Newton’s laws of gravitational attraction, motion, and force led to British Newtonianism -botany and zoology became more systematic with the use of binomial nomenclature, although Linnaeus’ theories of nature and society was flawed -Boolean and Fregan mathematical and symbolic logic and non-Eucildean geometry revolutionized science -Comte argued that scientific thinking moves only gradually throughout everything -Wissenchaft- encompasses all sciences -leaps beyond Aristotelianism and rationalism -distinction between true science and proto-science or pseudo-science -importance of nuances of general theoretical assumptions covering ontology and epistemology -Francis Bacon’s New ‘Organon’- simple inductive reasoning was rejected
Division of Labour Durkheim-structural functionalists -occupational structure- new form of social solidarity- organic solidarity- that integrates the members of industrial societies in contrast to the mechanical solidarity of traditional societies -globalization is the consequence of technological change Marx-conflict theory -double division of labour- the technical division of labour in the enterprise that broke down the production process into a sequence of tasks, and the social division of labour among enterprises, industries, and social classes that was meditated thorough commodity exchanges in market relations -saw contradictions and class exploitation and domination in the social division of labour-> increased by globalization, neocolonialism and colonization Henri Lefebvre-extended Marx
-production of relations in the social division of labour consumption and the reproduction of the relations of production but incorporating cultural processes as well as relations of demotion and subordination -capitalism undergone mutation- working class failed to become a revolutionary agent, the technocrats brought stability and cohesion to a society that lacked deployment of bureaucratic forms of organization and the ideology of technological modernism -production rights should be extensions of citizenship rights -New ‘state mode of production’- state plays a critical role in promoting economic growth and reproducing the relations of production
Collective Consciousness -Emile Durkheim: -establishes sociology as its own discipline -to understand and demonstrate the dependence of human beings upon their societies -the crucial role that the social plays in human behaviour, the common beliefs and sentiments common in an average society -Mechanical Society- a traditional, simpler society composed of economically self-sustained members who, living in close proximity, are more alike than different -Organic Society- difference in division of labour and occupational specialization led to individuality
Solidarity, Mechanical and Organic -Emile Durkheim -state of unity that exists when people are integrated by strong social ties and shared beliefs and are regulated by well-developed guidelines for actions -happens at different rates and different times -Mechanical and Organic Societies: -way where individuals are connected to each other and identify with groups and societies in which they live -types of social organizations -distinctions between them identifies: •
Extent (degree of complexity) of the division of labourlevel of differentiation of an activity into distinct functions or roles
•
Extent of the collective consciousness- number of values, beliefs, norms, emotions, and ways of acting that are shared within a group or society, and the intensity
with which members share and experience these practices -division of labour becomes more complex, then the collective conscience changes
From Descartes to Durkheim: Towards a Science of Society Emile Durkheim -founder of sociology as an empirical discipline -believed that society had to change to become more stable and gain greater social justice -state needed to be restructured to ensure greater justice, but it would not occur at the expense of individual freedom -socialism -methodology Talcott Parson-emphasizes the holistic, functionalist, organic, and positivist dimension of Durkheim’s work at the expense of the more historically and empirically based accounts of the dynamic tensions in social life -critiques with Durkheim the utilitarian theory and individualist accounts of social perspective -Descartes, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Saint-Simon, and Comte influenced Durkheim -criticized the materialist reductionism of the orthodox Marxists- the social whole cannot be reduced to the instrumental rationality of economic man, nor is the superstructure simple a direct, automatic reflection of the economic infrastructure -emphasis on the role of ideas and of the collective consciousness more than the orthodox of Marxist -rejected the ahistorical and metaphysically based arguments of the idealist holists, such as Hegel’s absolute reason, or of those proposing a universal moral imperative, such as Kant’s categorical imperative -One must start with the complex moral rules that actually exist within a society and determine how those arose from particular social arrangements -morality, cohesiveness, and solidarity are created within a social whole -the changing form of solidarity within advanced societies developed society as a sui generis phenomenon that pre-exists individuals and the internalization of an externally existing conscience collective -division of labour causes the integration of the social body to assure unity -the empirical study of social solidarity presents one fundamental problem: social solidarity is a completely moral phenomenon which doesn’t lend itself to exact observation nor indeed measurement
-One needs an observable indicator of social solidarity that one can empirically study and measure- the indicator Durkheim selected was the law -Decision is critical: -moves the analysis of social solidarity- the basis for a moral order- away from abstract philosophy directly into the concerns of sociology -sociology can develop an empirically based understanding of moral order within a society -Durkheim suggests, to inform social policy, social solidarity can and should be studied through an empirically based sociology rather than through the well-worn paths of abstract philosophical arguments -different types of laws are indicative of different types of social conscience or consciousness and different types of social solidary -conscience collective is a product of individuals but it is external to individuals and is there before they are born -Repressive or Restitutive Laws serves as an indicator for a particular form of social solidarity and the implications that this has for life in the modern world and conscience collective -Repressive Law-highly intense response on the part of the individuals in a society in which this form of law dominates to anyone who has transgressed the ideals embodies in the conscience collective -consistent with traditional, face-to-face societies -societies characterized by mechanical solidarity -Restituive Law-doesn’t involve the suffering of the individual but the reestablishment of troubled relations to their normal state -only possible in societies in which individuals are increasingly dependent upon other individuals carrying out specialized social function, and advanced division of labour- organic solidarity -opposed Herbert Spencer who advocated of viewing societies as if they were natural organisms -questions social order -focuses on sociology -finding an empirical indicator for ‘moral life’ -Contrast with German approach- focused on conceptual
Descartes -divide questions into simplest parts -Begin with most simple- move to more complex -review thoroughly -opposed the classical tradition in philosophy
-shifts the focal point for the pursuit of true knowledge from metaphysical contemplation or religious doctrine to a method involving rigorous observation of the world -accept nothing and reject prejudice and question everything -supported the then-emerging inductive methodologies of the natural sciences and maintained that the scientific method should apply to all forms of human knowledge in order for that knowledge to be reliable, unbiased, and certain -sociologists argue that sociology could only develop further if it broke away from philosophy completely and pursued the systematic collecti520on of ‘social facts’ or empirical information -goes against the Great Chain of Being
Montesquieu -influenced by Hobbes and influenced Rousseau -concerned with forms of government -understanding the state and the social order is highly sociological -argues that one can virtually predict the histories of the nations under study -laying the groundwork for an empirical approach to the study of social and political life -classifies societies on the basis of how they are governed, Spirit of the Laws, and identifies three types: • Despotic Governments-despot is the nature -fear is the principle • Monarchies-king is the nature -honor is the principle • Republics-aristocratic or a democratic form -legislative body is the nature -virtue is the principle -each form of government is characterized by a nature (who or what group holds power) and a principle (the passion or spirit that animates those who govern) and represents social progress -good governments have a nature and principle that are consistent with the dominant spirit of the people who make up the society as a whole -to comprehend the laws of a society fully, one has to see them as part of a larger system within which they serve a particular purpose, and to understand the different parts of a social system as they both develop over time, physically and morally -physical causes changes the social system’s development -moral causes changes a society’s spirit
-law is the only way to control people’s conduct -spirit of a society resonates with Durkheim’s concept of conscience collective- both see the spirit or consciousness developing within the social whole and changing as the social formation and the relationships among individuals change -Two different types of law- repressive and restitutive- to serve as indicators of which form of social solidarity mechanical or organic, dominates within a social formation -Persian Letters-two men criticizes French nobility -satire -Holism- whole is greater than sum of its parts
Saint-Simon -concerned with the unity of knowledge based on Newton’s law of gravitation -aimed to establish a new sense of religiosity, one appropriate to an industrial society and able to constitute the cohesive force that religions had provided through human history -development of an empirically based science of society -reinforced the break from metaphysical and speculative social thought and affirmed the use of an empirical, scientifically inspired approach to the study of society -sought to establish a ‘social physics’ which would lay out the laws of social development and would complement his ‘social physiology’ which would focus on the scientific study of human interaction -Medieval society comprised of different orders: -spiritual elite -governing elite or temporal elite -productive elite -the different orders became the template for the conception of social structure and the evolutionary development of societies throughout history -viewed society as holistic and functional terms and an evolutionary and development entity -‘The Law of Three Stages’- human history moves through an identified progression of stable, organic civilizations where Comte would later articulate: -Classical Greece and Rome: -a polytheistic ideology -a slave economy -a monolithic state -Medieval society: -Roman Catholic theology -a feudal economy -a ruling nobility
-more humane means of production -more systematic theology -separation of temporal and spiritual power within the state -Industrial Society-craftwork grew and independent worships -enlightenment rationality and science became a new spiritual system or theology -eliminates war and poverty -work is assigned on the basis of ability and merit -opportunity for advancement in an open, classless, knowledge-based society -continuous development -government characterized by social welfare or administration rather than class power and national rivalries -Influenced Pierre-Joseph Proudhon who wanted to organize society on the basis of a central bank and mutually cooperative enterprises -influenced socialist like Marx -influenced Raymond Aron, Daniel Bell, and Ralf Dahrendorf who argues that capitalist society, which was characterized by classes and class conflict, gave way to industrial society in which classes had disappeared or were no longer the divisive forces they had been and that class conflict transformed into the open and fair processes of collective bargaining between the interest of labour and those of management
Comte -human societies and human knowledge had progressed through three stages: •
To establish the positivist form in all branches of knowledge
•
Positivism- system of knowledge based exclusively on the methodology of the natural sciences
•
Understanding social change and social stability
-those who resisted the gains of revolution were motivated by irrational desires and lacked a coherent plan -conception of sociology as a science -believed that positive philosophy would ensure observation as the basis for knowledge rather than imagination -Positive Philosophy-rejects all absolute truths battering -gives the capacity for rational prediction
-Insisted that knowledge passes through three stages: •
Theological or Fictitious:- seeking first and final causes
•
Metaphysical or Abstract: -replaces supernatural forces
• Scientific or Positive- emphasizes the central importance of observation and rejects the theological and metaphysical conceptions of absolutes -scientifically based knowledge can inform social reform and thereby remove the treat of reaction or revolution and create a stable relationship between order and progress -Relative Truths- a gradualism of change -order and progress- not revolution Unity of the Sciences- belief that there is one true scientific method and that it can be applied to the natural and social phenomenon Communist Manifesto-document with a specific history -Imaginary and intellectual craftsmanship- foundation of sociology -dynamics of modernity -capitalist and overproduction -bougeriouse is a super structure and creates a large resistance -Two key focal points: -the ‘material relations’ of society- objective dynamic -‘Class structure’ (class consciousness) - subjective consciousness -change driven by internal contradictions and struggle -Karl Marx Marx- didn’t consider himself a sociologist Unam Sanctam-Great Chain of Being -hierarchy of people, from God to slaves
