Nueva Ecija University of Science and TechnologySan Isidro Campus

College of Management and Business Technology

Social Science

(Famous Sociologists)Submitted by:

Submitted to:

Altamera, Greggy V.

PO1 Gerald Catacutan

Cruz, Aramy C.

Gabriel, Mirasol C.

Herrera, Jenalyn S.

Pascual, Ana Lee P.

Pascual, Charlaine G.

Talampas, Marilou S.

HERBERT SPENCER (1820-1903)

BORN: April 27, 1820

DIED: December 8, 1903

At the age of 13, he received his further education from his uncle. The education he learned from his father and uncle was scientific so Spencer decided to pursue his scientific interestThis shifting started Spencers contribution to Sociology. He became the sub-editor of The Economist in 1848, a financial weekly newspaper. He advocated the abolishment of Poor Laws. Although one of the most influential figures in Sociology and Philosophy, Spencer is the first to develop the theory of evolution before Charles Darwin seven years ago. This evolutionary stance led to be the Social Darwinism, the theory of biological evolution onto a social plane like the similarities between organism and state.

Spencer is also an editor, a philosopher and a sociologist. His first-ever book Social Statics in 1851 was well received by the public. By the time when hes writing his first book, he began to suffer from insomnia and a series of nervous breakdowns throughout the rest of his life. His second book The Principles of Psychology did not became popular and this led him to a serious nervous illness that he remain as a psychic cripple throughout his life.Even if he was suffering from his illness, he still manage to write a few more books such as First Principles, Principles of Biology, Principles of ethics, the Study of Sociology and a few more books.

Due to his detoriating body and mind, Spencer lived the last few years of his life from complete isolation from human society. He was admired by many intellectuals, including Charles Darwin and the American Philosopher William James, but he was frequently accused of being a petty and hypocrite man because of the way he thinks. He died on December 8, 1903 at the age of 83 and was buried at High gate cemetery near at the tomb of Georg Elliot and Karl Marx.EMILE DURKHEIM (1858-1917)

BORN: April 15, 1858

DIED: November 15, 1917

David Emile Durkheim was born in Epinal, France

His primary focus was on philosophy, but he already had the strong concern with political and social applications that he retained throughout his life. His attention was focused on psychology, philosophy and ethics and eventually in sociology. Durkheims views in life could not get him into any major academic appointment so he taught Philosophy in some provincial schools from 1882 to 1887. For two years, he studied sociology in Germany that resulted in the publication of his few articles on social science and philosophy. These articles gained him recognition in France that earned him a teaching appointment in University of Bordeaux in 1887.

Durkheim is the pioneer in giving sociology the status of science and its method of study. To become scientific according to Durkheim, sociology must study social facts like the aspects of social life that shape our actions as individuals.

Durkheims first work, The Division of Labor, which was published in 1893, introduced the concept of anomie. Anomie is the breakdown of the influence of social norms on individuals within a society. His second work, The Rules of Sociological Method, stated what sociology is according to his views. Durkheims third work which is a case study that focuses on the suicidal rates among Protestants and Catholics was entitled Suicide: A Study in Sociology. He defined suicide as every case of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act performed by the victim himself, which he knows will produce the result. He stated that suicide is a social fact and is due to social forces.

Durkheims response was of optimism and enthusiasm. Even though he was suffering from poor health, he devoted himself in teaching philosophy in the midst of the war. The devastating part of his life was when his son, Andrews, died. He collapsed from a stroke and recovered for a short period of time but his body cannot take it any longer so he died eventually.

ERVING GOFFMAN (1992-1982)

BORN: June 11, 1922

DIED: November 20, 1982

Goffman studied sociology at the University of Toronto and took his graduate degree in University of Chicago. Goffman pioneered the micro-sociology which is the study of the face to face encounter. He stated that all actions are social performances that aim to give off and maintain desired impressions of the self to others. In 1961, he published a book entitled Asylum: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and other Inmates in which he described institutionalization socializes people into the role of good patient. Another well-known book of Goffman was published in 1974, was entitled Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experiences. Frame analysis is the study of the organization of social experiences. He used the picture frame as an example and illustrates that the frame represents structure that was used to hold up the individuals context on what they experienced in life.

He published more books that focus on sociological and philosophical actions throughout his life. His other major books that were published were: Behavior in Public Places (1963), Interaction ritual (1967), Forms of Talk (1981).But on November 20, 1982 Goffman died due to stomach cancer.GEORGE HERBERT MEAD (1863-1931)

BORN: February 27, 1863

DIED: April 26, 1931

In 1887, Mead enrolled at Harvard University in which he focused on philosophy and psychology. In 1888, he left Harvard with only a Bachelor of Arts degree and eventually moved to Leipzig, Germany to study with psychologist Wilhelm Wundt. In 1891, he married Helen Kingsbury Castle and in that time he was able to obtain a post at the University of Michigan.

For the 40 years of his career, Mead wrote and published numerous articles and book reviews in philosophy and psychology. The two most famous works of Mead are the philosophy of pragmatism and nature of the self.

Pragmatists are the ones who believe and study pragmatism. For pragmatists, true reality doesnt exist in the real world. Second, people remember and base their knowledge of the world on what has been useful to them.

Social behaviorism is the concept of how the mind and self-emerge from the social process of communication. Mead developed more materialistic process that was based on human action and communicative action. The essence of Meads social behaviorism is that substance is located in reality. This approach opposed the traditional view of the mind as separate from the body.

Meads contribution in sociology is the mind as the individual importation of the social process. For Mead, existence in community comes before individual consciousness.

But due to a heart failure, Mead died on April 26, 1931.DR. GELIA T. CASTILLO

Dr. Gelia came from humble beginnings and she considered education as a way out of poverty. She devoted herself in teaching students.

Dr. Castillo is a pioneer in rural sociology. His research works focused on farmers and their adaptation on the new technology, gender issues and many more. In 1999, he was given the title of National Scientist by the president. In 2004, he was awarded as an outstanding Filipino, not only for her pioneering works in research that aimed in improving human development. In 2007, she received an award for the Most Distinguished Alumna award from the University of the Philippines Alumni Association. She was appointed to several board and committees of National and International research facilities that focus on agriculture, social health and socio-economic development. Her famous books are: All in a Grain of Rice, Beyond Manila and How Participatory is Participatory Development?

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a degree of Magna Cum Laude in the University Of Wogenegen Agricultural University in the Netherlands and from the Ateneo De Manila University.

As of now, she is currently working as a consultant at the International Rice Institute (IRRI) and a senior research consultant in a network of Asian researchers engaged in participatory research.JANE ADDAMS (1860-1935)

BORN: September 6, 1860

DIED: May 21, 1935

Lauren Jane Addams was the eight among the nine children of a state senator and businessman. Battling with health problems at an early age, she still managed to graduate from Rockford Female Seminary in Illinois and attend a medical school.

One of the major actions of Addams is when she co-founded the Hull house. The house provided services for the immigrant and poor population living in the Chicago area. For a few more years, the house expanded and eventually it covered child area, educational courses, and other social programs. She was also a prominent social reformer, a pacifist and a peace activist. After World War I, Addams became the chairman of the Womans Peace Party. From 1900 onwards, because of Addams there has been an interest in womans emancipation, new social laws and attention was paid to social and racial tensions. She was the first woman president of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections which is now the National Conference of Social Work. She succeeded in raising concerns about child labor and child deaths.

Jane Addams began to grow sick after suffering from a heart attack in 1926. Four years after her death, she was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize Award. ROBERT MERTON (1910-2003) BORN: July 4, 1910DIED: February 23, 2003

Mertons parents were of Jewish immigrants. His family is not that wealthy but still he pursue to go to a decent high school and eventually pursue his self-education.

At Temple, a school founded for the poor, Merton was introduced in sociology. Later on his life, he entered Harvard University and there he met Talcott Parsons that deepened his idea on sociology. Merton is among the clearset and most careful prose stylist in Sociology. He edited essays over and over again so it will be comprehensive enough.

Merton shaped the institution and style of American sociology. He sought to make the discipline academically respectable but also to make it better. Merton also introduced a new level of explicit theories in Sociology by teaching through conceptual frameworks, paradigms and middle range theories. Mertons influenced on the 2oth century sociology are: His passionate advocacy for an integration of theory and research, his emphasis on lucidity in place, analysis and concepts. He also formulated explanatory paradigms that deeply renewed the wholefields of research. Mertons influence is important in reinvigorating connections between theory and research in order to advance sociology in general. He also wrote numerous articles and essays like Civilization and Culture, The Course of Arabian Intellectual Development, Science and Military Technique and many more.

Merton died at the age of 92 due to cancer.

TALCOTT PARSONS (1902-1979)

BORN: December 13, 1902

DIED: May 8, 1979

Talcott Parsons was born in Colorado, U.S.A. His father was Edward Smith Parsons who was a minister and his mother was Mary Augusta Ingersoll. Parsons family is one of the oldest families in American history because his ancestors were the first to arrive in England in the first half of the 17th century.

Parsons took his undergraduate degree in Amherst College in which he studied Biology, Sociology and Philosophy. The first ever written paper of Parson is entitled The Theory of Human Behavior in Individual and Social Aspects. After finishing his studies, he moved to London School of Economics, University of Heidelberg where he received his Ph. D in sociology and economics.

At the University of Heidelberg, he encountered the works of Max Weber. Parsons would read extensively in religious literature and specially on works focusing on the society and religion. In 1927, Parsons entered Harvard University as an instructor. During that time, there has been no sociology department and he was one who pioneered in establishing it.

Parsons also contributed in developing some sociological theories. First, his theory of sick role the concept that concerns and social aspects of becoming ill and the privileges and obligations that comes from it. He is also one of the formulator of the Grand Theory which was an attempt to integrate the different social sciences into one theoretical framework.

He was one of the most influential structural functionalists in the 1950s. MAX WEBER (1864-1920)

BORN: April 21, 1864

DIED: June 14, 1920

Karl Emil Maximilian Weber was born in Saxony, Kingdom of Prussia.

Weber is often cited as one of the founding creator of Sociology together with Emile Durkheim and Karl Marx. Webers main intellectual concern was to understand the process of rationalization and which he saw as the result of a new thinking about the world. One of his famous works, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, he combined economic society and the sociology of religion. He showed the emerging values of Protestantism supported the development of modern capitalism.

Max Weber illustrated how social institutions are dependent on each other. In his major work, he showed that a change occurred in the religious institution during the sixteenth century. He also introduced the idea that bureaucracy would be the wave of the future. He also said that sociology must adopt Vershetan, a kind of subjective understanding of the phenomenon being studied.

After theFirst World War, Max Weber was among the founders of the liberalGerman Democratic Party. He also ran unsuccessfully for a seat in parliament and served as advisor to the committee that drafted the ill-fated democraticWeimar Constitutionof 1919. After contracting theSpanish flu, he died ofpneumoniain 1920, aged 56.KARL HEINRICH MARX (1818-1883)

BORN: May 5, 1818DIED: March 14, 1883

Max Weber was born into a wealthy middle class family in Trier, Germany. He studied at the University of the Bonn and the University of Berlin wherein he started to become interested in philosophy. In 1849, he was exiled and moved to London together with his family where he continued writing and formulating theories about social and economic activity. Marx also campaigned for socialism.

One of his famous theories is known as Marxism. It means that human societies progress through class struggle. He believed capitalism is to be run by wealthy classes only. Along with believing in the inevitability of socialism and communism, he actively fought for the implementation of it, arguing that social theorists and underprivileged people should carry out organized revolutionary action to topple capitalism and bring socio-economic change.

Marx is regarded as one of the most profound and original social thinker. He wrote brilliantly on subjects such as philosophy, political science and sociology. Marx attempted to explain ideas systematically in terms oftheir functions and to relate the thought of individuals to their social roles and class positions. In his further writings, Marx uses his functional analysis of the relations between the social positions of their proponents.

Marx died of pleurisy in London on March 14, 1883.

AUGUSTE COMTE (1798-1857)

BORN: January 19, 1798

DIED: September 5, 1857

Auguste Comte was the founder of the discipline of sociology and the doctrine of positivism. He first gave the name Social Physics before it was named Sociology. It is a mixed terms for Latin and Greek words to describe new science. The principle developed by Comte in the study of human thinking presumes gradually evolution and development in human thinking.

He studied in the University of Montpellier and later on he entered the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. This school was notable for its adherence to the French ideals of progress. During 1882, Comte published his first work but not under his name.

The systematic study of sociology was spearheaded by Auguste Comte. He tried to create a new science of society which not only explains the past of mankind but also the prediction of the future. His four contributions to sociology are: (1) classification and ordering of social sciences; (2) the nature, method and scope of sociology; (3) the plan for social reconstruction and (4) positivism. Positivism emphasizes on observation and classification of data and facts.

Max Weber advocates that the nature of progress of society should not be studied by the preconceived philosophical outlines. Weber died due to stomach cancer.

GEORG SIMMEL (1858-1918)

BORN: March 1, 1858

DIED: September 28, 1918

He was one of the foundations for sociological antipositivism presenting analysis of social individuality and fragmentation. Simmels father was a Jewish businessman who had become a Roman Catholic while his mother was of Jewish origin but a Lutheran.

He studied history, folk psychology, the history of art, and philosophy at the University of Berlin, where he received his doctorate in 1881.

Simmel is known for his Neo-kantian approach to sociology. Another significant aspect of Simmels work was Modernism it aims to continually renew and revise concepts. Georg Simmels ultimate project was not to find the essential nature behind his subjects but to align various disciplines to its study. For him, culture is the cultivation of individuals through the agency of external forms. Simmels second approach in considering the process of group expansion and social development would today be called functionalist. It derives from the influence of Spencerian evolutionism, which marked Simmels view on social differentiation as put forth in his first sociological publication in 1890. There he stated that the development of organisms is directed by a tendency toward greater efficiency, or as he put it, toward a relative saving of energy. Simmels third approach is relationism -- derives from his basic philosophical position that reality is essentially movement, continuity, process, and that only the human intellect, fashioned to serve as an instrument for action and not for gaining knowledge for its own sake, tends to perceive reality in terms of structures and substancessolid, fixed phenomena that are amenable to classification, ordering, and calculation.

At 1918, he died due to cancer.

HARRIET MARTINEAU (1802-1876)

BORN: June 12, 1802

DIED: June 27, 1876

Harriet was born in a middle class family. She experienced neither the privilege of aristocracy nor the oppression of the working classes, but had a consciousness of the meaning of both privilege and deprivation from her vantage point as a member of her particular family.

They first studied at home and the later on she went on a Unitarian school. By the late 1820s, Martineau, herself in her twenties, was a serious but little-known writer, whose boundaries were the Unitarian religion, its propagation and interpretation. She was, however, a quick and searching student, if a solitary one, open to new ideas.

She only wrote one book but multitude of essays from a sociological, holistic and feminine perspective. She also translated various works of Auguste Comte.

She formulated a comparative method for studying societies and analyzed the new American culture by measuring it against carefully stated principles. In addition to giving her individual attention to women and womens concern.

She authored the first systematic methodological thesis in sociology, conducted extended international comparative studies of social institutions, and translated August Comtes Cours de Philosophi into English, thus structurally facilitating the introduction of sociology and positivism in the United States. In her youth, she was a professional writer who captured the popular English mind by wrapping social scientific instruction in a series of widely read novels.