Development and Emergence of Sociology

Auguste Comte (1798-1857), who is also known as, the ‘father of sociology’, argued that the methods used in physics should be used for the study of society. Such a study would reveal the laws of evolution and the laws of the functioning of society. Once this knowledge was available, we would be able to build society. Auguste Comte, who gave sociology its name, identified three stages of human society: Theological (various phenomena were explained in religious terms), Metaphysical (explanations were philosophical) and Positivism (phenomena were explained in terms of the scientific approach to the social world).

The idea of evolution was carried forward in the works of the British sociologist,

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903). He argued for the universality of the principle of evolution. His view of the evolution of societies is known as Social Darwinism.

The credit for developing sociology as an independent discipline and science goes to Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), a French sociologist. Durkheim said that sociologists study ’social facts’, which are objective and exist in the consciousness of the collectivity. Thus, social fact is exterior to human mind and but it constraints on human behaviour. Hence, social facts do not have their origin in the individual. Further, they should be explained by other social facts, rather than in terms of biological, psychological, environmental, or geographical acts.

In Germany, the most influential work was of Max Weber (1864-1920). In comparison to Durkheim, Weber said that the sociologist studies ’social action’, which is an act an individual performs and assigns meaning. The task of sociologists is to understand the subjective meaning of an act.

German social thinker Karl Marx’s ideas (1818-1883) were influential in Sociology. He argued that every society was divided into two classes, viz. ‘Haves’ and ‘Have-nots”. He believed that conflict was initiator of change in history. He, therefore, gave central importance to class and class-conflict.

Thus the development of Sociology in France (Comte, Durkheim), Germany (Marx, Weber) and England (Spencer) have been outlined as in above. Their contributions have profound influence in Sociology everywhere in the world.

Sociology thus flowered in precisely those societies that had experienced the most pronounced or greatest social changes. France, Germany and England underwent a truly revolutionary social transformation; and in all these countries, the study of Sociology had emerged by the end of the 19th century.

Bibliography

1. Nisbet, Robert A. The Sociological Tradition ( 1967)
2. Berger, Peter L. Invitation to Sociology (1965)
3. Inkeles, Alex. What is Sociology? (1977)
4. Bottomore, T. B. Socilogy: A Guide to Problems & Literature ( 1978)
5. Johnson, H.M. Sociology: A systematic Introduction (1970)