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  3. Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)
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  5. Sociological Theory 1

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Summary All sociological thinkers ST1

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This is a summary of all sociological thinkers you need to learn in Sociological Theory 1 at the UvA. The summary contains the main ideas of the sociological thinkers and is basically all you need to study for the exam.

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  • 13 oktober 2019
  • 29
  • 2018/2019
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Voorbeeld van de inhoud

August Comte
Looking for universal laws, rather than individual processes

Various forms of social differentiation undermine cohesion and coherence
- Fragmented society
- Lack of direction
● Cultural: competing and opposing idea systems
● Scientific: lack of coherence
○ Specialization, but there was no overview → lack of direction (also happened in
the market)
● Political: changing elites, revolutions
● Comte set out to provide coherence in a world of increasing differentiation

On learning the classics: ‘one cannot fully understand a science without knowing its history’

Two types of social laws
● He described laws to create coherence
● In Course de Philosophie Positive
○ Sociology as a new science → to describe two types of laws
■ Of social statics (part-whole structure)
● Function for the survival of the whole that parts contribute to
● Could only be found by theorizing; not observable → Comte not
100% positivistic
■ Of social dynamics (development)
● How society evolves; improvement
○ Social statics later became functionalism
○ Most famous: three stages law
■ Stipulates that social knowledge always progresses in a certain order
■ The case for every society

Universal law of three stages
1. Theological state (religious)
a. Questions: about essences and absolute truths
i. E.g. what is good and evil?
b. Answers: the divine sphere
2. Interim stage: metaphysical (philosophical); crisis
a. Questions: as in the theological stage
i. Absolute truths
b. Answers: abstractions
i. Different answers; discussions
3. Positivistic stage (scientific)
a. Questions: about universal laws that explain relationships between phenomena
b. Answers: based on empirical observations and theory

Order and progress

, ● Theological stage was based on order
○ Given world
○ Not a lot of change in society
● Metaphysical stage was about progress
○ Questions get better, but the answers are never final
● Only the positivistic stage can bring both order and progress
○ But the rapid pace of differentiations in science undermine its ability to create order
○ Which is why Comte created his own order in science and religion
■ The Positivist Church: love as a principle and order as a basis, process as a
goal

Most complicated sciences arrive latest in history, which is why sociology is such a complex science
● Sociology studies the most complex phenomena
○ It appears only after all the other sciences have been established
● Sociology as the science of society is necessary in times of chaos and crisis
○ To help progress (positivism)
● Comte outlines a positivist epistemology:
○ The aim is progress
○ Knowledge must be based on empirical observations
○ Theory should take the form of universal laws about the organisation and the
development of society



Herbert Spencer
● Positivist
● Functionalist

What is a society?

Society as an entity
Nominalism: individuals exist, while society only exists verbally
● Society is formed by discrete units, yet there is a certain concreteness which is implied by the
persistence of arrangements between them

Society as an organism
● Society can be compared to something organic
○ Only by reason, through parallelism in arrangements of components
■ Cannot be compared to something inorganic, because society’s parts are alive
● Increases in size of both biological and social aggregates creates pressures for differentiation
of functions
○ Such differentiation results in the creation of distinctive regulatory, operative and
distributive processes
● Society as a ‘supra-organism’
○ As organic systems differentiate, it becomes necessary for some units to regulate and
control and for others to produce what is necessary for the system
○ Parts provide functions for the whole (Comte)
● Similarities of society and living body:

, ○ Grow throughout their entire lives
○ Increase in structure
■ Sub-division and specialization (social differentiation)
○ Changes in the parts are mutually-connected determined and changed actions are
mutually dependent
○ Division of labour is what makes living bodies and society living wholes
■ Mutual dependence of parts is essential (interdependency)
○ Relation between aggregate lives and life of components: joint action for everyone’s
benefit, but still a certain degree of individual independence
○ Life of the aggregate may be destroyed by a catastrophe without immediately
destroying the lives of all units
■ Life of the aggregate (society), without a catastrophe is longer than lives of
units
■ Units are replaceable
● Differences of society and living body:
○ The parts of a living body form a concrete whole, while parts of society form a
discrete whole
■ Units are widely dispersed

● Governments shouldn’t interfere with inequalities
○ For the sake of evolution
■ From simple to more complex life forms
■ Process that involves differentiation and integration
○ ‘Survival of the fittest’ (conflict tradition)



Adam Smith
The invisible hand
● Comte: individuals are driven more by egoism than altruism
● Smith: our moral indignation about selfishness, isn’t very helpful when we try to observe the
actual consequences of that kind of behaviour
○ In fact, the actions that are primarily motivated by self-interest may be at the social
level interwoven in such a complex way that they mysteriously (invisible hand)
contribute to prosperity for everyone
● All actions taken out of pure self-interest might end up benefiting everyone
○ They are not steered by a powerful person
○ It’s the outcome of an anonymous social dynamic
● Social processes are self-regulating

Division of labour
● Work is (sub)divided in a peculiar way
○ Spectacular rise of productivity
● Dividing the work in a clever way
○ Everyone’s dexterity is improved
○ Workers save time because they don’t have to pass from one task to another
○ Workers may discover better ways to do the job more efficiently
● Division of labour happens through social interactions → humans have different talents

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