Who’s Who of Sociology

Auguste Comte

• often credited with being the founder of sociology because he was the first to suggest that the scientific method be applied to the study of the social world

• Focused on positivism- the application of the scientific approach to the social world

Herbert Spencer

• believed that societies evolve from barbarian to civilized forms

• He was the first to use the expression “the survival of the fittest” – social evolution depended on the survival

of the most capable and intelligent and the extinction of the less capable.

• His views became known as social Darwinism

Karl Marx

• believed that social development grew out of conflict between social classes;

• under capitalism, this conflict was between the bourgeoisie-those who own the means to produce wealth-and the proletariat-the mass of workers.

• His work is associated with the conflict perspective

Emile Durkheim

• responsible for getting sociology recognized as a separate discipline.

• He was interested in studying how social forces shape individual behavior

• Focused on social integration-the degree to which people are tied to their social groups

Max Weber

• Argued individuals always interpret the meaning of their own behavior and act according to these interpretations– Sociologist must find out how people

feel or think about their own behavior

• Sociologists should adopt a method Verstehen- empathetic understanding of their subject– Putting themselves mentally in the

position of their subject

Jane Addams

• One of the founders of US sociology and social work

• Hull House- center for social reform and research in Chicago

• Most activists at Hull House were women

• Organize citizens and lobby political leaders to eliminate social problems

W.E.B. DuBois

• Focused research on racial problems

• Believed knowledge was the way to combat prejudice

• Founded the Niagra Movement and helped create the NAACP