sunday, october 04, 2015 © 1998-2002 by ronald keith bolender-adapted for educational purposes...

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender-Adapted for Educational Purposes Only. 1

SYA 3010 Sociological Theory:

Origins of Paradigmatic Assumptions of Sociological Theory (Plato)andWhy Did Sociology Emerge?


© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith Bolender 2

Origins of Paradigmatic Assumptions of Sociological TheoryandWhy Did Sociology Emerge?

ReferencesDenisoff, 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.



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)




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 he

thought like a sociologistthought like a sociologist.




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 “isis” of society.




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 “oughtought” 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.




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)




Important note regardingPlato’s Six Basic Assumptions of

Societyfor the Final Exam--

MemorizeMemorize each assumption “word for word”

ANDMemorizeMemorize the order of assumptions (1 to 6)



Why Did Sociology Emerge?

Sociology ---- So What?

Why do we need this discipline?




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)




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.




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.




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.




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.




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.




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.




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.




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.




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.



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 EnlightenmentThe 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.




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.




In France, The Enlightenment is often termed the Age of ReasonAge 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.




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.




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.




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.




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.




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.




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.




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.




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.




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.




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.




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 progresslaw 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.

sunday, october 04, 2015 © 1998-2002 by ronald keith bolender-adapted for educational purposes...

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