The age of Enlightenment
Background
Began in Europe
o Late 17th-century
Cultural movement of intellectuals
Revolution in human thought
Principles
Rationality and reason
Became a key way of organising knowledge
Opposed to tradition
Empiricism
Need for facts and observations
Apprehended through the senses.
Science
Experimental scientific revolution
Scientific method
Universalism
Search for laws of the universe and society
Progress
Human condition can be improved.
Individualism
Starting point for all knowledge
Toleration
Beliefs of others not inherently inferior
In the world of religious conflicts, different religions should be tolerated.
Freedom
Allow freedom
Human condition was that of a choosing self
Human nature was uniform
Rational
Individual
Free
Secularism
Despite toleration, or because of it
Enlightenment was often opposed to the Church
,Goals
Progress
Tolerance
Removal of abuses
o In church & state
What it did
Reform society
Using reason
Give people the freedom to use and express ideas
Challenge ideas
Believed because of tradition and faith
Advance knowledge
Created modern science
The scientific method
o This new rational way of thinking
Begins with clearly stated principles
Uses correct logic
Arrive at conclusions
Tests the conclusions against evidence
Revises the principles
In the light of the evidence
Reformed values
New values
o Freedom
o Democracy
o Reason
Old values
o The divine right of kings
o Traditions as the ruling authority
,Positivism: Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
Background
Founder of Sociology and Positivism
o Coined the term sociology
Lived during the French Revolution and Napoleonic era
o Social and political change
Grew up in a conservative royalist and Catholic home
o Home opposed enlightenment
o Comte Rejected royalism and Catholicism
Beliefs
The law of three stages
Development of humanity passes through three stages:
The theological stage
o Rely on supernatural agencies to explain what they can't explain
o God and religion
The metaphysical stage
o Attribute effects to poorly understood causes
Supernatural agents replaced by abstract entities
No God
Other phenomena like souls that regulate
The positive stage
o Mind stops looking for causes of phenomena
o Understand scientific laws that govern the world
Limits itself strictly to laws governing them
Absolute notions are replaced by relative ones
o Is in accordance to science
o This stage brought on by enlightenment
Comte on Sociology
It is the final science
o Not just one science among many,
o Comes after all the others
Must assume the task of coordinating the whole of knowledge
The science that replaces religion as the ‘subjective method’
Made the study of society will finally become ‘positive’, scientific.
, Other Stances opposing positivism
Humanistic stance
Sees studying the human world as very different from studying the material
World
o Focus on the human and the symbolic.
The realist stance
Emphasises importance of theory
Empirical evidence is never straight-forward
Need strong explanations built up from theoretical tools
o E.g. Marx.
Critical sociology
Sees task of sociology to ‘change the world’
o As Marx said of philosophy
All knowledge harbours political interests
o Sociology should critically unmask what is actually going on.
Standpoint theory/standpoint epistemologies
All knowledge is grounded in (subjective) standpoints
Wants to help groups analyse their situation
o From within the context of their own experiences.
Critical of traditional ‘white, heterosexual, middle-class, male’ standpoint of
sociology.
Queer theory
Argues most sociological theory still has a bias towards ‘heterosexuality’
Non-heterosexual voices need to be heard
Refers to ‘heteronormativity’
o The assumption that heterosexuality is the desirable or normal
condition
Postmodern ‘methodology’
Diffuse and difficult to define term.
Anti-positivist epistemological stance
Rejects a strong search for truth
Rooted in the enlightenment idea of absolute truth
o Which they consider discredited
Argue truths are multiple, fluid, changing and fragmentary
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