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Three
Classical Sociologists
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Introduction
to the Module
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Documents
Included in this Classical Sociologists
Module
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The
Three Fathers of Sociology
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| Sociology
began in the mid nineteenth century in the middle of the European Industrial
revolution. |
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In
many ways it was in response to that process, as journalists remarked on
the exploitation, poverty, oppression and misery of the working class. |
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| Karl
Marx did not consider himself a sociologist, but analysed revolutionary
social change, and saw the most important dynamic as being the conflict
between the workers and the owners of the factories. |
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From
his writings, one of the three major perspectives of sociology developed,
the conflict approach. He himself did not invent the term nor the
perspective. |
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| Max
Weber opposed the materialist approach of Marx, and stated that the driving
factor in social change was the shirt in ideas, values and beliefs, arising
from the Calvinist or protestant reformation. |
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Although
he did not invent the term or the approach, Weber’s writings contributed
to what is now the symbolic interaction perspective. |
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Durkheim also opposed Marx, but in
different ways, looking at the notion of a “social fact” suggesting
that it referred to statistical rates of any activity, in contrast to the
personal activity of an individual.
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argued that we should not try to explain social events with reference to
individual events, a method known as reductionism. |
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Although
he did not invent the term or the approach, Durkheim’s writings contributed
to what is now known as functionalism. |
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While huge arguments arose in the
social sciences between proponents of these three approaches, the post
modern approach as taken in this web site suggests that all three approaches
are valid, and that we get a more in depth view of society by using all
three at the same time.
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2008.06.16