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| Offers a perspective, a view of the world. |
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| Stresses the social contexts in which people live. It examines how these contexts influence peoples lives. Main question is how groups influence people, especially how people are influenced by their society. |
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| A group of people who share a culture and a territory. |
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| The corners in life that people occupy because of where they are located in a society. |
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| First to propose positivism. Moved to Paris after the upheaval of the French Revolution. He applied the scientific method to his questions about the social changes in his world. He is the father of sociology. Stressed that this new science would discover social principals, and would apply them to social reform. He believed that sociologists would reform the entire society, making it a better place to live. His practice was called "armchair philosophy", which was drawing conclusions from innformal observations of social life. |
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| Sometimes called the second founder of sociology. Disagreed profoundly with Comte's belief in positivism and reform. He thought that societies evolve from barbarian form to civilized form. As generations passed, the most capable and intelligent members of society survive while the less capable die out. This principal was called "survival of the fittest". Often associated with Darwinism. Spencer's views of the evolution of society became known as Social Darwinism. |
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| Came from England after being exiled from his native Germany for proposing revolution, believed that the reason for human conflict throughout history has been "class conflict". He believed that the bourgeoisie who owned the means to wealth and production were in constant conflict with the proletariat workers who do not own the means of production. He said this struggle can only end when members of the working class violently break their chains of bondage. He said this would leave a "classless" society, which would make everyone equal. People will work according to their abilities and recieve goods and services according to their needs. This is not the same as communism. |
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| Primary professional goal was to get sociology recognized as a separate academic discipline. He grew up in Eastern France and was educated in both France and Germany. He became the world's first professor of Sociology at the University of Bordeaux. His other goal was to show how social forces affect people's behavior. To accomplish this, he studied suicide rates of European countries and found that each country has its own rate and they remain relatively constant year after year. He stated that social factors underlie suicide. One of the social factors he believed in was "social integration". |
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| The degree to which people are tied to their social group. If people have weaker social ties, they are more likely to commit suicide. |
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| Emile Durkheim's central principal |
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| Human behavior cannot be understood only in terms of the individual; we must always examine the social forces that affect people's lives. |
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| German sociologist and a contemporary of Durkheim's. Also became a professor in sociology. Disagreed with Marx that the central force in social change was economics. He believed the social change was due to religion. Roman Catholics were always taught that they were going to heaven so there was a peace among them. Protestants never knew whether they were going to heaven until judgement day so they were constantly seeking signs from God. Money was a blessing so they began to live frugaly and saved and invested their money. This change in the way money was viewed produced capitalism. He called this the "Protestant Ethic". |
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| Self-denying approach to life. Frugality of money. Associated with Max Weber's views about Capitalism. |
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| Readiness to invest capital in order to make more money. Associated with Max Weber. |
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