Sociology is the systematic study of society and social interaction. In order to carry out their studies, sociologists identify cultural patterns and social forces and determine how they affect individuals and groups. They also develop ways to apply their findings to the real world.
applied to social phenomena, which he saw as the culmination of the historical
development of the sciences. More specifically, for Comte, positivism:
1. “Regards all phenomena as subjected to invariable natural laws”
2. Pursues “an accurate discovery of these laws, with a view of reducing them to
the smallest possible number”
3. Limits itself to analyzing the observable circumstances of phenomena and to
connecting them by the “natural relations of succession and resemblance”
instead of making metaphysical claims about their essential or divine nature
(Comte 1830)
While Comte never in fact conducted any social research and took, as the object of
analysis, the laws that governed what he called the general human “mind” of a
society (difficult to observe empirically), his notion of sociology as a positivist
science that might effectively socially engineer a better society was deeply
influential. Where his influence waned was a result of the way in which he became
increasingly obsessive and hostile to all criticism as his ideas progressed beyond
positivism as the “science of society” to positivism as the basis of a new cult-like,
technocratic “religion of humanity.” The new social order he imagined was deeply
conservative and hierarchical, a kind of a caste system with every level of society
obliged to reconcile itself with its “scientifically” allotted place. Comte imagined
himself at the pinnacle of society, taking the title of “Great Priest of Humanity.” The
moral and intellectual anarchy he decried would be resolved, but only because the
rule of sociologists would eliminate the need for unnecessary and divisive
democratic dialogue. Social order “must ever be incompatible with a perpetual
discussion of the foundations of society” (Comte 1830).
Karl Marx: The Ruthless Critique of Everything Existing
Karl Marx (1818–1883) was a German philosopher and economist. In 1848 he and
Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) co-authored the Communist Manifesto. This book is
one of the most influential political manuscripts in history. It also presents in a
highly condensed form Marx’s theory of society, which differed from what Comte
proposed. Whereas Comte viewed the goal of sociology as recreating a unified,
post-feudal spiritual order that would help to institutionalize a new era of political
and social stability, Marx developed a critical analysis of capitalism that saw the
material or economic basis of inequality and power relations as the cause of social
instability and conflict. The focus of sociology, or what Marx called historical
materialism (the “materialist conception of history”), should be the “ruthless
critique of everything existing,” as he said in a letter to his friend Arnold Ruge. In
this way the goal of sociology would not simply be to scientifically analyze or
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