Auguste Comte (1798 – 1857)

was the founder of the discipline of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism. Comte developed the positive philosophy in an attempt to remedy the social problems that led to the French revolution. 

Adam Smith (1723 – 1790)

was a Scottish philosopher and a pioneer of the discipline of economics (which use to be part of sociology). He is a key figure of the Scottish Enlightenment and associated with the term “laissez-faire” and championed the idea of a “division of labour.” 

Karl Heinrich Marx (1818 – 1883) 

was a German philosopher, political economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist, communist, and revolutionary.

Herbert Spencer (1820 – 1903)

philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist. Spencer developed an all-embracing conception of evolution as the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human mind, and human culture and societies.He was a renaissance man - contributing to diverse fields such as ethics, religion, anthropology, economics, political theory, philosophy, biology, sociology, and psychology, even being nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature (1902).

David Émile Durkheim (1858 – 1917)

was a French sociologist, perhaps its first professional. Durkheim set up the first European department of sociology - University of Bordeaux in 1895.

George Herbert Mead (1863 – 1931) 

was an American. He was also a philosopher, sociologist and psychologist, from the University of Chicago. He is considered one of the distinguished American pragmatists and father of social psychology.

Maximilian Carl Emil "Max" Weber    

 (1864-1920)

 a German sociologist and political economist, who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself. 

Charles Horton Cooley (1864 - 1929)

American sociologist. Key focus was economics and sociology, taught at the University of Michigan and was a founding member and the eighth president of the American Sociological Association. Key terms/ideas – “looking glass self,” which is the concept that a person's self grows out of society's interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others. He also noted primary v. secondary groups.

Erving Goffman (1922 – 1982)

was a Canadian. He would go on to pioneer the study of face-to-face interaction, or micro-sociology, elaborate the "dramaturgical approach" to human interaction, and develop numerous concepts that would have a massive influence.

Jane Addams (1860 – 1935)

was the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She was a pioneer settlement worker and founder of Hull House in Chicago, public philosopher (the first American woman in that role), author, and leader in woman suffrage and world peace. 

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868 – 1963) 

was an American sociologist, civil rights activist, Pan- Africanist, historian, author, and editor. His focus was race research and he used a variety of means to help understand and overcome racism.