Sociology is a complex field that examines human behavior on a mass scale. These matters can range from crime, religion, race and social class but do not consist of a final conclusion. There are many different approaches to examine the various phenomena. Auguste Comte’s study on positivism and Emile Durkheim’s investigation on anomie developed different approaches to studying human groups.
Auguste Comte’s study on positivism presented a tactic towards the study of human groups. Comte was referred to as the father of sociology. He simply defined sociology as a positive science. He believed that it’s possible to have a science of society which he named positivism. Positivism is the way of thinking based on the hypothesis that it is possible to observe social life and establish consistency on valid knowledge about how it works. Positivism simply differentiates between the phenomena that are comprehensible and incomprehensible. A phenomenon that’s comprehensible through scientific observations is identified as positivism while the existence of god would be considered unjustified positivism. According to positivism, all human behavior can be deciphered through the scientific sequence of observations. Therefore, other sociologists should not be focused with the internal meanings, feelings and emotions of an individual. “Since these mental states exist only in the person’s consciousness, they cannot be observed and so they cannot be measured in any objective way” . Basically, what an individual cannot see cannot be tested in an unbiased way. According to Comte, knowledge passes through different theoretical conditions. This is identified as the law of three stages. The first stage is the theological stage which looks toward the bizarr...
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... different types of suicide confides that there are numerous ways to approach the study of human groups.
Both Auguste Comte and Emile Durkheim produced a different view on society. Comte believed in the theory of positivism. If an individual does not physically see a situation occur then it cannot be tested. If the idea is knowledgeable it will pass the three stages that Comte believes is necessary. On the other hand Durkheim generally focuses on the anomie and takes closer notice on how the actions of an individual changes. He believes that the idea of suicide does not come within a personality but by the surroundings in society. As individuals, Auguste Comte and Emile Durkheim have their own theories but it does not mean that they are right. There are multiple ways to come across sociology just like the idea that there are countless ways to expand on a story.
Emile Durkheim, a French sociologist born in 1858, was a man on the leading edge of sociology in his time, but do his theories still hold up today? In 1897, he studied the French public records regarding suicides, and made some interesting connections. He found that people with a weaker connection to their community or family were more likely to commit suicide then those who had stronger ties in their social group. For instance, those who were married were less likely to end their lives than those who were single. A surprising example however would be that the wealthy had a much higher rate of suicide then the poor. Durkheim attributed this to the isolated and centric nature of wealthy members
Emile Durkheim is largely credited as the man who made Sociology a science. As a boy, he was enraptured by the scientific approach to society, but at that time, there was no social science curriculum. Vowing to change this, Durkheim worked scrupulously to earn his “degree in philosophy in 1882”. (Johnson 34) Unable to change the French school system right away, Emile traveled to Germany to further his education. It was there that he published his initial findings and gained the knowledge necessary to influence the French education system. Emile Durkheim is a distinguished and well versed man who, through his work, established a platform for other sociologist to build on.
The study of sociology enables us to understand the basis of human behaviour within different contexts, the interaction between different classes and social divisions, such as race, sex and age, and the factors that give rise to these different patterns of behaviour. Sociology is a study of human behaviour as constructed by the human race, as distinct from a study of those sciences which are dependent upon natural evolution. Although humans are basically similar, it helps us understand their behavioural attitudes towards any kind of situation, particularly where there are conflicts of interests such as those between the different classes, or communities of large cultural diversity. Sociologists believe that the way to adequately study and understand the behaviour and lives of individuals is to study the social contexts within which they live. It studies social patterns and trends and the phenomena that causes social change, how individuals adapt to that change and how that influences collective behaviour in groups: families, youth clubs and work places, as well as large-scale global problems such as poverty, helping to bringing forth solutions as a result. Sociology is not a precise science, and is dependent on outside influ...
The study of sociology is the issues, concepts, investigations, and more importantly, the systematic study of relationships among people. While the study of sociology focuses on groups, or society as a whole, it should not exclude an emphasis on individuals because individuals forms groups and groups produce individuals. We cannot study and fully understand one without the other nor can we study them as if they were merely in competition with each other. Rather, sociology is a personal encounter with the social force which shape our lives, especially those that affect our awareness and ignorance of how we create, maintain, and change those very social forces.
After reviewing the article titles given for this first assignment, I believe they indicate that Sociology, generally speaking, is not only a study of diversity or commonality in traits among people; it is also a science about factors in a person’s life and how these factors culminate responses. Interestingly enough, its topics of concern seem to be directly determined by current and common events of the world. Through the invention and expansion of new ideas, popular trends and fashions through time, Sociology adapts to responsibly to service the very subjects of interest it studies; for, even the slightest change of a person’s daily experience can have an insurmountable impact on attitude, personal growth, family dynamics and basic group behavior.
There exists conflicting theories among sociologists in the area of determining why a person is considered to be a deviant, and the reasons behind why he or she has committed a deviant act. From a positivistic perspective, deviance is based on biological or social determinism. Alternatively, from a constructionist perspective, deviance is created and assigned by society. Both perspectives seek to give a theory for why a person may become known as deviant. Although they both view similar acts as deviant, the basic differences between positivists and constructionists theories are clear.
Sociology emerged from the desire of humans to understand our behaviour. However, throughout the years the way humans behave and believe has been passed through generations; and it was mainly explained in religious terms. The origins of sociology started with the social movements of the late XVIII century such as the French Revolution in 1789 and the subsequent Industrial Revolution in Europe. (Giddens, 1997)
During the conflict surrounding the Dreyfus Affair, Durkheim used the new field of sociology to try to make sense of society and the world around him. The Dreyfus Affair was a government cover up framing a Jewish captain named Dreyfus. It turned into a political scandal splitting the people of France. As Collins & Makowsky (2010) stated, doing this allowed him to discover that “society is a ritual order, a collective conscience founded on the emotional rhythms of human interaction” (p. 92). The students at the University of Paris were not exempt from conflict and the professors gave lectures for the Dreyfusard cause. He was one of the most renowned of the professors at the University of Paris at the time. He went to Wilhelm Wundt’s laboratory to investigate the social sciences though he accepted Comte’s sociology over psychology. He wanted to take sociology and do what Wundt had done with psychology. Durkheim wanted sociology to be a researchable science instead of a philosophy. He became a professor at the Ecole Normale and then became the first chair of the science of Sociology in the early 1900’s. Durkheim published several works on different topics in sociology including suicide, religion, and the ...
A wide range of people all over the world inaccurately come to the conclusion that sociology is merely, ‘the study of the obvious’ and the application of common sense, this statement could not be further from the truth. Common sense derives from statements such as, ‘opposites attract’, however the Sociological sense takes this belief and carries out numerous tests to discover whether it is fact, or fiction.
Auguste Comte (Newman 2010) pointed out the need to keep society unified as many traditions were diminishing. He created the term sociology. Auguste Comte suggests that sociology is the product of a three-stage development.
Sociology is the study of the structure of groups, organizations, and societies, and how individuals interact within these environments. Sociology at one time was not a respectable or well-known field of study until Emile Durkheim, a college professor, made sociology a part of the French college curriculum. Durkheim is regarded as one of the founders of sociology. He introduced sociology as a branch of learning separate from other sciences by declaring that sociologists must examine specific characteristics of group life. In this paper, I plan to provide some insight into who Emile Durkheim was and his contributions to the field of sociology.
Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber are all important characters to be studied in the field of Sociology. Each one of these Sociological theorists, help in the separation of Sociology into its own field of study. The works of these three theorists is very complex and can be considered hard to understand but their intentions were not. They have their similarities along with just as many of their differences.
Emile Durkheim was born in the eastern French province of Lorraine on April 15, 1858. He was the s on of a rabbi and descending from a long line of rabbis, he decided early that he would follow the family tradition and become a rabbi himself. He studied Hebrew, the Old Testament, and the Talmud, while following the regular course of in secular schools. He soon turned away from all religious involvement, though purposely not from interest in religious phenomena, and became a freethinker, or non-believer. At about the time of his graduation he decided that he would dedicate himself to the scientific study of society. Since sociology was not a subject either at the secondary schools or at the university, Durkheim launched a career as a teacher in philosophy. Emile Durkheim made many contributions to the study of society, suicide, the division of labor, solidarity and religion. Raised in a time of troubles in France, Durkheim spent much of his talent justifying order and commitment to order. Durkheim was a pioneer French sociologist, taught at Bordeaux (1887-1902) and the University of Paris (1902-17). He introduced the system and hypothetical framework of accurate social science. Durkheim was author of The Division of Labour (1893), Rules of Sociological Method (1895), Suicide (1897), Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1915). Emile Durkheim has often been characterized as the founder of professional sociology. He has a great closeness with the two introductory sociologists, Comte and Saint-Simon. Durkheim willingly noticed the ideas of the Division of Labor and the Biological Analogy.
Positivism is a research method that developed from the behavioral revolution, which sought to combine positivism and empiricism to politics (Halperin and Heath, 2012: 27). That is to say, this research approach is governed by natural law to observe, understand and to find meaning in the empirical world. This type of research seeks to answer two empirical questions, such as ‘what is out there’ and ‘what do we call it’ (Gerring, 2001: 156). Positivism is only interested in phenomenons that can be observed through our senses. Thus, positivism is interested in social realities that can be observed and measured by the scientific method (Halperin and Heath, 2012: 29). Furthermore, positivism believes that the gathering of evidence through scientific method can create knowledge and laws, known as induction (Halperin and Heath, 2012: 27). That is to say, evidence can be verified and later generalized then applied to multiple contexts. A positivist would investigate empirical questions that assume how the world works through the accuracy of a probable truth (Gerring, 2001: 155).
To Quote Anthony Giddens: "Sociology is the study of human social life, groups and societies. It is a dazzling and compelling enterprise, having as its subject matter our own behaviour as social beings. The scope of sociology is extremely wide, ranging from the analysis of passing encounters between individuals in the street up to the investigation of world-wide social processes“(1989). Gidden’s statement describes sociology as a study that helps us understand our own behaviour as human beings in a social word. Sociologist study everything from the interaction between people in the street to the interaction between different countries. Sociologists aim to study how societies have changed over, how societies are structured and organized, the norms of society. It’s also important to understand that not all sociologists agree with each other, Sociologists often debate with one another to prove/disprove certain theories and concepts. By studying Sociology is it helps us analyze social conflicts on a micro and macro scope. Through a macro level, we can study large-scale social organization and large social categories it also examinees social processes and patterns society as a whole. We can analyze individuals much deeper on a micro level. This way we study a human by face-to face interactions. Its important as humans to understand the way our society came together and the reasons to how elements work and function together. Sociology gives us a deeper