The Early Theorists

It is the 18th century and the Enlightenment, which is also known as the Age of Reason in Europe and America, and humankind faces an intellectual, philosophical and social movement that is focused on science and reason. Religion, politics and economics are changing focus. Wars are being fought within, as opposed to between countries. This time prior to the French Revolution finds monarchies being executed in France and England. The rising merchant class is demanding social and political power held previously by the nobility. There are major social changes, as inherited positions are less secure. People no longer believed that every event that occurred was a result of God’s intervention. There is a new way of thinking about religion, natural rights as well as natural laws. There is an attitude that God is the creator of a universe that functions without intervention. Deism believed in a hereafter, but also believed we should focus on this life’s achievements and joy, rather than look at a life in the hereafter. The concept of humanitarianism; helping those less fortunate, is a new concept during this time since prior to that the religious belief was that if someone experienced misfortune, it was God’s will and punishment. The Enlightenment focused on man, rather than God and the church. Where prior to the 1700s man lived in an agricultural society during the feudal period, the Enlightenment witnessed the development of a more cosmopolitan society, with people living in groups that were interdependent on each other. It opened the gateway to the Industrial Revolution. The Enlightenment inspired the world’s first democracy, in the United States of America. The new approach in reasoning and problem solving is what makes ...

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...types of social facts, and focused on nonmaterial social facts, which is defined as cultural and social institutions. Karl Marx, G.W.F. Hegel and Feuerbach are all part of the German core of sociologists. Included in this group is Max Weber and Georg Simmel. Marx’s focus on economics led him to his labor theory of value. He observed the basic nature of people and believed that their productivity was a way for them to express their natural needs. His believe that capitalism subverts this basic structure. Max Weber expressed himself in the Kantian tradition, believing in the cause-and-effect theory. Georg Simmel concerned himself with the money economy and the emerging world of money. Unfortunately, women sociologists are mostly excluded from sociological thinking, and their work is not included in the development and early history of the classical theorists.