SYA 3010 Sociological
Theory:
Origins of Paradigmatic
Assumptions of Sociological
Theory (Plato)
and
Why Did Sociology Emerge?
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender-Adapted for Educational
Purposes Only.
1
Origins of Paradigmatic Assumptions of Sociological Theory
and
Why Did Sociology Emerge?
References
Denisoff, R. Serge, Orel Callahan, and Mark H.
Levine. 1974. Theories and Paradigms in
Contemporary Sociology. Itasca, IL: F. E.
Peacock Publishers, Incorporated.
Turner, Jonathan H., Leonard Beeghley, and
Charles H. Powers. 1998. The Emergence of
Sociological Theory. 4th ed. Cincinnati, OH:
Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
2
Origins of Paradigmatic Assumptions
of Sociological Theory
The fundamental foundations
of sociological theory have
been gleaned (as all things
seem to be) from the ancient
Greeks.
(Denisoff, Callahan, and Levine 1974:3-7)
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
3
Origins of Paradigmatic Assumptions
of Sociological Theory
Even though Plato is not considered
the “father” of sociology--he is
probably the first person to
systematically study society in a
“sociological” way. In other words,
he thought like a sociologist.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
4
Origins of Paradigmatic Assumptions
of Sociological Theory
The basic notion of natural law is found in
Plato’s Republic. There is an order to
society--a universalism, urged the Greek
philosopher. The essence of this universal,
unfortunately, was not totally clear. On
the one hand, society was characterized
as an organism, an enclosed, total, holistic
unit. This was the Platonic “is” of society.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
5
Origins of Paradigmatic Assumptions
of Sociological Theory
The entire state of nature, however, was not yet
known. Consequently, man was in a position to
use logic--”the act and method of correct
thinking”--to posit an “ought” of what society
could be. This inherent contradiction between
the Platonic “is” and the “ought” is fundamental
to the processes of random fact gathering in
Western thought.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
6
Origins of Paradigmatic Assumptions
of Sociological Theory
Plato’s Six Basic Assumptions of Society
Man is an organism.
Organisms tend toward survival.
Man survives in groups.
Man is a social animal.
Man lives in an ordered society.
The order of society is knowable.
(Rose 1967 and Carroll 1972 in Denisoff, Callahan, and Levine 1974:4-5)
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
7
Origins of Paradigmatic Assumptions
of Sociological Theory
Important note regarding
Plato’s Six Basic Assumptions of Society
for the Final Exam-Memorize each assumption “word for word”
AND
Memorize the order of assumptions (1 to 6)
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
8
Why Did Sociology
Emerge?
Sociology ---So What?
Why do we need this discipline?
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
9
Why Did Sociology
Emerge?
Humans have, no doubt, always thought
about their lives and the conditions of
their existence. Such thoughts are the
lifeblood of religion, philosophy, ideology,
and the many other ways that humans
can think about themselves and their
world.
(Turner, Beeghley, and Powers 1998:1-6)
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
10
Why Did Sociology
Emerge?
There is, therefore, nothing new in the
basic impulse that eventually led to the
emergence of sociology as a discipline
concerned with understanding human
behavior, interaction, and organization.
Sociology is, after all, only the more
systematic study of what people do in
their daily lives and routines.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
11
Why Did Sociology
Emerge?
But sociology did not emerge as an
inevitable extension of what people
typically do; rather, it arose from the
rebirth or Renaissance in Europe after
centuries of apparent stagnation and
misery.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
12
Why Did Sociology
Emerge?
These “dark ages” were the aftermath of
the collapse of the last remnants of the
Roman Empire, and they were only dark
in retrospective comparison with the
perceived accomplishments of the Greeks
and Romans.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
13
Why Did Sociology
Emerge?
But life was not so stagnant: (a) New inventions
and ideas were slowly accumulating, despite the
oppressive poverty of the masses, the constant
warfare among feudal lords, and the rigid
dogma of religion. (b) New systems of
commerce were slowly emerging. (c) New forms
and experiments in political organization were
emerging from the patterns of war and
conquest. (d) New religious ideas were subtly
working their way around the dogmas of the
dominant
church.
Wednesday, March
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
23, 2016
Bolender
14
Why Did Sociology
Emerge?
Thus, the great awakening in intellectual
thought, art, commerce, politics, and
other human pursuits was built on small
achievements and advances that were
slowly accumulating between the fifth and
thirteenth centuries in Europe.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
15
Why Did Sociology
Emerge?
Yet, once a critical threshold was reached,
human thinking took sudden leaps,
recapturing much that had been lost from
the Greeks and Romans and, more
significantly, re-creating systematic
thought about the universe in terms of
science.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
16
Why Did Sociology
Emerge?
Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was the first
to articulate clearly the new mode of
inquiry: Conceptualizations of the nature
of the universe should always be viewed
with skepticism and tested against
observable facts. This sounds like a
commonplace idea today, but it was
radical in its time.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
17
Why Did Sociology
Emerge?
This idea both legitimated and stimulated
the great achievements of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries in astronomy,
culminating in Sir Isaac Newton’s famous
law of gravity.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
18
Why Did Sociology
Emerge?
Thinking about the universe took on a systematic
character, but more than just systematic:
Thinking also became abstract, articulating basic
and fundamental relationships in highly general
terms and, then, seeing if concrete events in the
empirical world conformed to these general
statements. Such is the essence of science, and
it changed the world.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
19
Why Did Sociology Emerge?
Sociology and the Enlightenment
Sociology emerged as a discipline in the early
decades of the nineteenth century, but it was
not so much a dramatic breakthrough in human
reasoning as an extension of what is often
termed “The Enlightenment.” Perhaps The
Enlightenment can be considered an intellectual
revolution, because it turned thinking about
the human condition toward the view that
progress was not only possible, but
inevitable.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
20
Why Did Sociology Emerge?
Sociology and the Enlightenment
In England and Scotland, The Enlightenment was
dominated by a group of thinkers who argued
for a vision of human beings and society that
both reflected and justified the industrial
capitalism that first emerged in the British Isles.
Scholars such as Adam Smith believed
individuals are to be free of external constraint
and allowed to compete, thereby creating a
better society.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
21
Why Did Sociology Emerge?
Sociology and the Enlightenment
In France, The Enlightenment is often
termed the Age of Reason, and it was
dominated by a group of scholars known
as the philosophers. Sociology was born
from the intellectual ferment generated by
the French philosophers.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
22
Why Did Sociology Emerge?
Sociology and the Enlightenment
Although The Enlightenment was fueled by the
political, social, and economic changes of the
eighteenth century, it derived considerable
inspiration from the scientific revolution of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The
scientific revolution reached a symbolic peak, at
least in the eye of eighteenth-century thinkers,
with Newtonian physics.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
23
Why Did Sociology Emerge?
Sociology and the Enlightenment
The post-Newtonian view of science was dramatically
different from previous views. The old dualism between
reason and the senses had broken down, and for the
first time, it could be confidently asserted that the world
of reason and the world of phenomena formed a single
unity. Through concepts, speculation, and logic, the
facts of the empirical world could be understood, and
through the accumulation of facts, reason could be
disciplined and kept from fanciful flights of speculation.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
24
Why Did Sociology Emerge?
Sociology and the Enlightenment
The world was thus viewed as orderly, and people
believed it was possible to understand the
world’s complexity through the use of reason
and the collection of facts. Newton’s principle of
gravity was hailed as the model for this
reconciliation between reason and senses.
Physics became the vision of how scientific
inquiry and theory should be conducted.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
25
Why Did Sociology Emerge?
Sociology and the Enlightenment
And the individual and society were
increasingly drawn into the orbit of the
new view of science. This gradual
inclusion of the individual and society into
the realm of science represented a break
with the past because heretofore these
phenomena had been considered the
domain of morals, ethics, and religion.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
26
Why Did Sociology Emerge?
Sociology and the Enlightenment
Indeed, much of the philosophers’
intellectual effort involved the
emancipation of thought about humans
from religious speculation, and although
the philosophers were far from scientific,
they performed the essential function of
placing speculation about the human
condition in the realm of reason.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
27
Why Did Sociology Emerge?
Sociology and the Enlightenment
Indeed, as can be seen in their statements
on universal human rights, laws, and the
natural order, much of their work
consisted of attacks on established
authority in both the church and state.
From notions of “natural law,” it was but a
short step to consideration of the laws of
human organization.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
28
Why Did Sociology Emerge?
Sociology and the Enlightenment
The philosophers’ view of human beings
and society was greatly influenced by the
social condition around them. They were
vehemently opposed to the Old Regime in
France and highly supportive of the
interest of the bourgeoisie [bů( r )zh-,wä’ze] in free trade, free commerce, free
industry, free labor, and free opinion.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
29
Why Did Sociology Emerge?
Sociology and the Enlightenment
The large and literate bourgeoisie formed the reading
public that bought the books, papers, and pamphlets of
the philosophers. These philosophers’ concern with the
“laws of human condition” was as much, and probably
more, influenced by their moral, political, and ideological
commitments as by a dispassionate search for scientific
laws. Yet it would be a mistake to ignore the extent to
which the philosophers raised the possibility of a science
of society molded in the image of physics or biology.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
30
Why Did Sociology Emerge?
Sociology and the Enlightenment
The basic thesis of all philosophers, whether
Voltaire, Rousseau, or others, was that humans
had certain “natural rights,” which were violated
by institutional arrangements. It would be
necessary, therefore, to dismantle the existing
order and substitute a new order considered
more compatible with the essence and basic
needs of humankind.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
31
Why Did Sociology Emerge?
Sociology and the Enlightenment
The transformation was to occur through
enlightened and progressive legislation;
ironically, the philosophers stood in horror
as their names and ideas were used to
justify the violent Revolution of 1789.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
32
Why Did Sociology Emerge?
Sociology and the Enlightenment
In almost all of the philosophers’ formulation was a vision
of human progress. Humanity was seen to be marching
in a direction and was considered governed by a “law
of progress” that was as fundamental as the law of
gravitation in the physical world.
Note
Most sociological theorists adopted the philosophical
concept of “the law of progress.” This is an important
concept to remember as you study the various theorists
and theories in this course.
Wednesday, March
23, 2016
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
33