Republic of the Philippines

Naval State University

Naval, Biliran

Assignm
ent
In
SOCIOLOG
Y

Submitted By:

OLIVER B. JAGUINES BSCpE IIA

Student
Submitted To:

Mrs. Ma. Joan

Delda
Instructor

Auguste Comte (1798-1857)

The legitimacy of sociology started when the term was coined by Auguste
Comte, a French philosopher, and from that time on, sociologist have sought to be
more scientific in their methods and more systematic in their observations. Comtes
significant contributions to advance sociology to the frontiers of human knowledge
earned for him the title Father of Sociology.

His contribution to sociology can be divided into four categories. They are
namely:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)

Classification and ordering of social sciences.

The nature, method and scope of sociology.
The law of three stages.
The plan for social reconstruction.
Positivism.

The law of human progress, states that each of our leading conceptions, each
branch of knowledge, all human intellectual development, pass successively
through three different theoretical conditions the theological or fictitious,
the metaphysical or abstract, and the scientific or positive.

Theological or Fictitious Stage:

During the primitive stage, the early man believed that all
phenomena of nature are the creation of the divine or supernatural. The
primitive man and children do not have the scientific outlook; therefore it
is characterized by unscientific outlook. They failed to discover the
natural causes of various phenomena and hence attributed them to
supernatural or divine power. For example, primitive men saw God
everywhere in nature. They supposed that excess or deficiency of rain
due to Godly wrath; such a casual explanation would be in terms of
theological or fictitious explanation. The theological stage of thinking may
be divided into three sub-stages such as
a) Fetishism - was the primary stage of theological stage of thinking.
During this period primitive people believed that there is a living spirit
in the nonliving objects. This is otherwise known as animism. People
worshipped inanimate objects like tress, stones, a piece of wood, etc.
These objects are considered as Fetish.
b) Polytheism - means believing in many Gods. Primitive people
believed that different Gods control different natural forces. Each God
had some definite function and his scope and area of action was
determined. For example, God of water, God of rain and God of fire,
God of air, etc.
c) Monotheism - is the last and the most developed form of
theological thinking. Monotheism means believing in one God or God in
one.

Metaphysical or Abstract stage:

Metaphysical stage is an extension of theological stage. During this

period, reason and rationality was growing. Reason replaced imagination.
People tried to believe that God is an abstract being. Soul is the spark of
divine power i.e. inform of abstract forces. It is believed that an abstract
power or force guides and determines the events in the world.
Metaphysical thinking discards belief in concrete God. The nature of
enquiry was legal and rational in nature. For example; Classical Hindu
Indian society where the principle of transmigration of soul, the
conception of rebirth, notions of pursuant has were largely governed by
metaphysical uphill.

Positive or Scientific Stage:

This positive stage is also known a scientific stage. The dawn of

19th century marked the beginning of this stage. It is characterised by
scientific knowledge. In this stage, human mind gave up the taken for
granted approach. At this stage, human mind tried to establish cause and
affect relationship. Scientific knowledge is based on facts. Facts are
collected by observation and classification of phenomena.
Positivism is a purely intellectual way of looking at the world.
Positivism emphasises on observation and classification of data and facts.
One can observe uniformities or laws about natural as well as social

phenomena. Positivistic thinking is best suited to the need of industrial

society.

Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Karl Marx was born on May 5, 1818, in Tier, Prussia and was reared in a
comfortable, fairly conventional upper Middle class atmosphere, which was in
contrast with the conditions of poverty in which he spent most of his mature years.

His contribution unlocks the mysteries of human behavior and development.

He explained the social and political relationship in terms of the material
needs that are basic to human experience.
His contribution includes the concepts of dialectical materialism and
alienation. Along with the Emile Durkheim and Max Weber, Marx is seen as
one of the three founders of the social sciences. Marxs theories, which have
come to be grouped under the term Marxism, centered on the intersection of
society, economics, and politics.

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

Herbert Spencer was a theorist whose valuable insights have often been
drowned in a sea of irrelevance and spacious reasoning. He is popularly
known as the British Aristotle and often called the second founding father of

sociology. Spencer's ideas have left an indelible impression on the succeeding

writers. Spencer's name was associated with the birth of sociology in
England. Herbert Spencer was born an April 27, 1820, in Derby in England. He
was a man of original and independent thinking. He has contributed to
various fields of knowledge like philosophy, biology, psychology,
anthropology and sociology. Spencer wrote a number of books. They are as
follows.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

Social Statics (1850)

First Principles (1862)
The study of Sociology (1873)
The Principles of Sociology in three volumes (1876-96)
The Man verses the State (1884)

Spencer observed some similarities between biological and social organism:

1) Both society and organisms are distinguished from inorganic matter
by visible growth, a child grows up to a man, a small community
becomes a great city, a small state an empire.
2) Both grow in size and this growth is accomplished by increasing
complexity of structure,
3) In the organism and in society there is an interdependence of parts.
The progressive differentiation of structure in both is accompanied by
progressive differentiation of functions.
In both, the differentiation of structure is followed by a similar
differentiation of function.
5) The life of society, like the life of an organism is far larger than the
life of any of the units of parts.

Differences:
Having out lined these similarities, Spencer points out the ways in
which societies and organism differ from each other. The differences are as
follows,
1) The organism is a concrete, integrated whole whereas society is a
whole composed of discrete and dispersed elements.
2) In an organism consciousness is concentrated in a small part of the
aggregate, while in society consciousness is diffused.
3) Unlike organisms, societies have no specific external form, such as a
physical body with limbs or face.
4) In an organism, the parts are fixed and bound together in close
contact while, in a society parts are separated and dispersed.
5) In an organism the parts exist for the benefit of the whole. In a
society, the whole exists merely for the benefit of the individual.
However, in spite of such elaborate description, Spencer points out
that his analogy mainly serves the purpose of scaffolding which is removed
when the building is completed and that the scaffolding itself has no value.

Spencer has given much importance to the term organism that the
scaffolding is usually mistaken for the real structure.

Spencer advocated a strategy of non-influence in human affairs and society

for he believed that social legislation to solve existing social problems would
only interfere with the natural selection process.

Lester Ward (1841-1913)

He believed that social progress is possible only through intelligent social

action, and advocated the use of scientific knowledge and investigation to
guide men in restructuring society towards improvement.
His most important contribution to sociology was his insistence that social
laws, once identified, can be harnessed and controlled. He also supported the
idea of equality of women as well as the equality of classes and races in
society and believed in universal education as means of achieving this
equality.

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

Among the contemporary Sociologists Emile Durkheim, the French genius
occupies an important place. He was born in 1858 at Epinal in France. Mostly he was
a teacher of sociology in the University of Bordeaux and Paris. He had some major
works which became a dominant force in the development of Sociology.

Most of his theories were devoted to the study of social order. His opinion was
that social disorders were not the necessary parts of the modern world and
could be reduced by social reforms. Some of the important works of
Durkheims are the following.
(a) Le Suicide (The Suicide)-1897
(b) De La Division du Travill Sociale (The Social Division of Labour)1893
(c)Les Forms Elementaries de La-yie Religiouse (The Elementary Forms
of religious life)1912
(d) Education at Sociology (Education and Sociology)-1922.

He is remembered for his important theoretical work on suicide, one of his

many pioneering contributions to sociology. He is also remembered for his
insistence that behavior cannot be fully understood in individualistic terms,
but rather, can be understood within a larger social context.