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: ddzorgbo@ug.edu.gh

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

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Session Outline

The two founders are examined under the following topics :

• Topic One : Auguste Comte (French)

• Topic Two : Herbert Spencer (British)

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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