College of Education
School of Continuing and Distance Education 2014/2015 – 2016/2017
SOCI 101
Principles of Social
Organizations
Session 2 –The Founders of Sociology
Lecturer: Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo, UG Contact Information: [email protected]
Session Overview
OVERVIEW
In this session, students will be studying two major founders of sociology: (Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer) as well as their major ideas. The other founders: Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber will be considered in other sessions
Goals and Objectives
• Provide brief biographical backgrounds of Comte and Spencer
• Identify and examine their social contexts and intellectual forces that shape their thoughts
• Identify and explain their core ideas, concepts and theories
• Determine their contributions to sociology
Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo Slide 2
Session Outline
The two founders are examined under the following topics :
• Topic One : Auguste Comte (French)
• Topic Two : Herbert Spencer (British)
Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo Slide 3
Reading List
• Ballantine, J. and K. A. Roberts (2007) Our Social World: Introduction to
Sociology, Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press. • Berger P. L. (1963) Invitation to Sociology, New York: Anchor Books. • Dzorgbo D-B. S. (2013) Sociological Theory: Classical Ideas and their
Application in the African Context, Accra: Woeli Publishing Services • Giddens, A. (2004) Sociology: Introductory Readings, Cambridge: Polity
Press • Haralambos M. (1995) Sociology: Themes and Perspectives, London:
Collins Educational. • Robertson, Ian (1987) Sociology: The Basic Concepts, New York: Worth
Publishers. • Schaefer R. (2004) Sociology, New York: McGraw-Hill. • Turner, J. H. (2006) Sociology New Jersey: Pearson
Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo Slide 4
Topic One: Auguste Comte (1798-18570)
• Auguste Comte’s biography and “cerebral hygiene” • Heavily influenced by the scientific methods of the natural sciences • Coined the term sociology after “social physics” • “Socius” from Latin – meaning “companion”, or “associate”, or “being with others” • “Logos” from Greek—meaning “study of” • Sociology means the study of society • Sociology and the hierarchy of the sciences • Advocate of Positivism • Experimentation • Historical comparative method • Social Statics and social dynamism • The Law of Three stages: the theological (fictive), metaphysical and the
scientific (positivistic) stages • Sociology would unlock the secrets of society and guide social engineering
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Auguste Comte (Cont’d)
• Sociologists should scientifically study how society
functions
• Sociologists should study two main aspects of society: social statics and social dynamics
• Social statics is concerned with stability and social order: how and why do societies hold together and endure?
• Social dynamics refers to the problem of social change: what makes societies change and why do they change?
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Auguste Comte (Cont’d)
• Comte advocated the scientific study of
society
• Positivism: the application of the methods of the natural sciences to the study of the social world
• Sociology would discover social laws or social principles and those principles could be used for social reform.
Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo Slide 7
Auguste Comte (Cont’d)
• Comte also came out with his law of three stages to illustrate the evolution of society and social thoughts and also to advocate for the acceptance of sociology as a scientific discipline.
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Auguste Comte (Cont’d): The Law of Three Stages
The Theological State
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Auguste Comte: The Law of Three Stages The theological stage (cont’d)
• Explanations of the universe, events and social phenomena in terms of the powers of God and gods
• The theological stage is dominated religious and superstitious thoughts and beliefs
• People come to believe that all phenomena are created and influenced by gods and supernatural forces.
• Beliefs in the works of the devil, spirits, witchcrafts
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Auguste Comte: The Law of Three Stages The Metaphysical Stage
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Auguste Comte: The Law of Three Stages The Metaphysical Stage (cont’d)
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Auguste Comte: The Law of Three Stages
The Posivistic/Scientific Stage
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Auguste Comte: The Law of Three Stages
The Posivistic Stage (cont’d)
• Things are explained based on systematic observations and using scientific methods
• Historical comparative method
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Auguste Comte: The Hierarchy of the Sciences
• Based on the law of three stages, Comte ranked the science in order of their complexities
• Comte ranked sociology at the apex, above all the sciences.
• He argued that knowledge have gone through the law of the three stages and that sociology is the last stage being positivism therefore sociology should take it seat among the sciences
Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo Slide 15
Auguste Comte: The Hierarchy of the Sciences (cont’d)
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Auguste Comte: Cerebral hygiene, sociology as religion of humanity and sociology priests
• Comte and the practice of cerebral hygiene,
• sociology as the new religion of humanity
• Social problems and sociology priests
• Evaluation of Comte’s contribution to sociology: the praises and criticisms
Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo Slide 17
Topic Two: Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
• Born in Derby, England • Society evolves from one
stage to the other • Societal evolution entails
competition and results in social progress and human perfection
• coined the term “survival of the fittest”
• Social Darwinism • Society is like Living
organism • An advocate of non-
intervention in society by governments or states
Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo Slide 18
Herbert Spencer (cont’d): Society as Living Organism
• He conceived society as a living organism. For example, the human organism has parts such as the heart, lung, mouth, stomach, legs, etc. that are interdependent and all play their roles to ensure the survival of the human being.
• Like the above, society also has parts (the social institutions) that are interdependent and function to ensure survival of society—
• If the human being is a biological system, then society is a social system
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Herbert Spencer (cont’d): Society as System of Institutions
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• society
FAMILY
Religion
Health
Polity
Education
Herbert Spencer (cont’d): Evolution, Competition and Progress
• Social evolution entails competition and results in progress
• Spencer applied Darwin's theory of Evolution and the idea of “survival of the fittest” thereby improving society
• Societies evolve from simple homogeneous state to complex heterogeneous state
• From Headless society, to headed, to compound, doubly compound and triply compound society
• From militant society (militant) to industrial society (peaceful)
• The natural and unguided evolution of society leads to the most fit surviving and the poor and the unfit being eliminated
Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo Slide 21
Conclusion: Comte and Spencer
• In this section you have learnt about two important founders of sociology:
Auguste Comte (French) and Herbert Spencer (British) • We have learnt briefly their biographies, and the ideas associated with
each
• Both Comte and Spencer like other founders of sociology we shall study shared evolutionary ideas, although their evolutionary ideas differed
• Comte and Spencer shared a commitment to a science of society
• However, whereas Comte wanted social reforms through sociology, Spencer did not want reform through sociology but wanted social life to evolve freely not guided by any external force or governmental control
Dr. Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo Slide 22
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