Term
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Definition
| He came from the background of a self-serving Italian government. Saw political control as necessary. Saw humans seeking the gratification of their lust for power. He saw this through careful study of history and personal observation. He saw that morals and values (religion) are only relevant if they contribute to the gain of strategic political power. Winning is everything |
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Term
| Comte (early 1800’s, French) |
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Definition
| He grew up in the midst of the French revolution. He wanted to create a new order of political and social stability with sociology. He saw the family as the most important unit of society. Saw different social forces as being able to move the individual toward greater unity. (3 stage of social evolution). He saw the individual as someone who needed to be controlled by a social structure. |
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Term
| Durkheim (early 1900’s, French) |
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Definition
| He was a Jew turned agnostic. Society is a collection of psychological entities. The identity of the individual is a result of social evolution. He believes in the use of division of labor in order to help with that process. Sui generis - society is greater than the sum of its parts. If it’s broken up it you’ll lose essential parts. The collective conscience. |
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Term
| Spencer (late 1800’s, English) |
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Definition
| He was atheist and saw society as a type of “survival of the fittest” dynamic. He saw society as an organic entity that had parts that needed to function correctly in order for the whole to function properly. His views on the individual were lamarckianism, the dominance of emotion over intellect and the correlation of individual make-up to social make-up. Evil will eventually be evolved out of existence. |
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Term
| Hegel (mid 1800’s, German) |
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Definition
| He was going to be a priest but decided to be a scientist He argued that social and political formations change as the categories used to understand the world change. He relied on reasoning, rejected empiricism (assumes human senses allow us to grasp understanding of the world) and determinism. He wanted society to be changed by human reason as time goes on. |
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Term
| Marx (mid-late 1800’s, PRussian) |
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Definition
| He was a proud and egotistical opinionated individual who was also very smart. He wanted the members of society to wake up rise against the bosuisie. He saw human history is the story of a constant struggle among differently advantaged groups for the possession and control of scarce material resources. Saw humanity moving to a utopian society. |
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Term
| Weber (Early 1900’s, Prussian) |
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Definition
| He wrote the Protestant Ethic. He saw Individuals are social actors. He also saw society as a network of social relationships created by individuals who believe themselves to be meaningfully oriented. Didn’t believe you could separate the general form the specific. He thought we were doomed by bureaucratization and instrumentalism. |
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Term
| Simmel (Early 1900’s, German) |
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Definition
| He didn’t really care for the expectations that were placed on him as a professor and scholar. He thought that what we created controls us (society). He felt that individuals were made to organize their experience in a highly structured and systematic fashion when they make society itself an object of knowledge. |
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Term
| Mead (early 1900’s, American) |
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Definition
| He was the most normal of all theorists. He felt that you needed society to make humans and individuals but that society wouldn’t deterministically do so. He believed that society is made of “selves”. He saw gestures as the way we communicate in society. Mead was both positivistic and rational. Game stages. He saw the future as a result of collective actions of individuals in society. |
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