Name: Kimberly B.

Agravante BSA 2

Date: November 13, 2014

Society and Culture with Family Planning

1. History of Sociology
Sociology as a scholarly discipline emerged primarily out of enlightenment
thought, shortly after the French Revolution, as a positivist science of society. Its genesis
owed to various key movements in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of
knowledge. Social analysis in a broader sense, however, has origins in the common stock
of philosophy and necessarily pre-dates the field. Modern academic sociology arose as a
reaction

to

modernity,

capitalism,

urbanization,

rationalization,

secularization,

colonization and imperialism. Late 19th century sociology demonstrated a particularly

strong interest in the emergence of the modern nation state; its constituent institutions, its
units of socialization, and its means of surveillance. An emphasis on the concept of
modernity, rather than the Enlightenment, often distinguishes sociological discourse from
that of classical political philosophy.
Various quantitative social research techniques have become common tools for
governments, businesses and organizations, and have also found use in the other social
sciences. Divorced from theoretical explanations of social dynamics, this has given social
research a degree of autonomy from the discipline of sociology. Similarly, "social
science" has come to be appropriated as an umbrella term to refer to various disciplines
which study humans, interaction, society or culture.
2. Individuals/ persons contibuted to the development of Sociology
Throughout sociology's history, there have been many famous sociologists who
have left their mark on the field of sociology as well as the world at large.
a. Auguste Comte. August Comte is known as the founder of positivism and is credited
with coininging the term sociology. Comte helped shape and expand the field of
sociology and placed a great deal of emphasis in his work on systematic observation and
social order.

b. Karl Marx. Karl Marx is one of the most famous figures in the founding of sociology.
He is known for his theory of historical materialism, which focuses on the way social
order, like class structure and hierarchy, emerges out of the economic system of a society.
He theorized this relationship as a dialectic between the base and superstructure of
society. Some of his notable works, like "The Manifesto of the Communist Party," were
co-written with Friedrich Engels. Much of his theory is contained in the series of volumes
titled Capital. Marx has been described as one of the most influential figures in human
history, and in a 1999 BBC poll was voted the "thinker of the millennium" by people
from around the world.
c. Emile Durkheim. Emile Durkheim is known as the "father of sociology" and is a
founding figure in the field of sociology. He is credited with making sociology a science.
One of his most famous pieces of work includes Suicide: A Study In Sociology, and
another important work of his that focuses on how society functions and regulates itself is
The Division of Labor in Society.
d. Max Weber. Max Weber was a founding figure of the field of sociology and is
considered one of the most famous sociologists in history. He is known for his thesis of
the "Protestant Ethic" as well as his ideas on bureaucracy.
e. Harriet Martineau. Though wrongfully neglected in most sociology classes today,
Harriet Martineau was a prominent British writer and political activist, and one of the
earliest Western sociologists and founders of the discipline. Her scholarship focused on
the intersections of politics, morals, and society, and she wrote prolifically about sexism
and gender roles.
f. W.E.B. Du Bois. W.E.B. Du Bois was an American sociologist best known for his
scholarship on race and racism in the aftermath of the U.S. Civil War. He was the first
African American to earn a doctorate degree from Harvard University and served as the
head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in
1910. His most notable works include The Souls of Black Folk, in which he advanced his
theory of "double consciousness," and his massive tome on the social structure of U.S.
society, Black Reconstruction.
g. Alexis de Tocqueville. Biography of Alexis de Tocqueville, a sociologist best known
for his book Democracy in America. Tocqueville published many works in the areas of
comparative and historical sociology and was very active in politics and the field of
political science.

h. Antonio Gramsci. Antonio Gramsci was an Italian political activist and journalist who
wrote prolific social theory while imprisoned by Mussolini's fascist government from
1926-34. He advanced Marx's theory by focusing on the role of intellectuals, politics, and
media in maintaining the dominance of the bourgeois class in a capitalist system. The
concept of cultural hegemony is one of his key contributions.
i. Michel Foucault. Michel Foucault was a French social theorist, philosopher, historian,
public intellectual and activist best known for revealing through his method of
"archaeology" how institutions wield power by creating discourses that are used to
control people. He is one of the most widely read and cited social theorists, and his
theoretical contributions are still important and relevant today.
j. C. Wright Mills. C. Wright Mills is known for his controversial critiques of both
contemporary society and sociological practice, particularly in his book The Sociological
Imagination (1959). He also studied power and class in the United States, as displayed in
his book The Power Elite (1956).
3. Perspective in Sociology
a. The symbolic interactionist perspective
The symbolic interactionist perspective, also known as symbolic
interactionism, directs sociologists to consider the symbols and details of everyday life,
what these symbols mean, and how people interact with each other. Although symbolic
interactionism traces its origins to Max Weber's assertion that individuals act according to
their interpretation of the meaning of their world, the American philosopher George H.
Mead (18631931) introduced this perspective to American sociology in the 1920s.
b. The functionalist perspective
According to the functionalist perspective, also called functionalism, each
aspect of society is interdependent and contributes to society's functioning as a whole.
The government, or state, provides education for the children of the family, which in turn
pays taxes on which the state depends to keep itself running. That is, the family is
dependent upon the school to help children grow up to have good jobs so that they can
raise and support their own families. In the process, the children become lawabiding,
taxpaying citizens, who in turn support the state. If all goes well, the parts of society
produce order, stability, and productivity. Functionalists believe that society is held

together by social consensus, or cohesion, in which members of the society agree upon,
and work together to achieve, what is best for society as a whole. Emile Durkheim
suggested that social consensus takes one of two forms:

Mechanical solidarity is a form of social cohesion that arises when people in a

society maintain similar values and beliefs and engage in similar types of work.
Mechanical solidarity most commonly occurs in traditional, simple societies such as
those in which everyone herds cattle or farms. Amish society exemplifies mechanical
solidarity.

In contrast, organic solidarity is a form of social cohesion that arises when the
people in a society are interdependent, but hold to varying values and beliefs and
engage in varying types of work. Organic solidarity most commonly occurs in
industrialized, complex societies such those in large American cities like New York in
the 2000s.

c. The conflict perspective

The conflict perspective, which originated primarily out of Karl Marx's writings
on class struggles, presents society in a different light than do the functionalist and
symbolic interactionist perspectives. While these latter perspectives focus on the positive
aspects of society that contribute to its stability, the conflict perspectivefocuses on the
negative, conflicted, and everchanging nature of society. Unlike functionalists who
defend the status quo, avoid social change, and believe people cooperate to effect social
order, conflict theorists challenge the status quo, encourage social change (even when this
means social revolution), and believe rich and powerful people force social order on the
poor and the weak.