POLS138 New Bulgarian Main Preoccupations of Classical Sociology Paper Using font “Times new Roman”, line spacing 1 single, and font size 12 please prepare

POLS138 New Bulgarian Main Preoccupations of Classical Sociology Paper Using font “Times new Roman”, line spacing 1 single, and font size 12 please prepare a 2000-word essay (around 5-6 pages) trying to fulfill the following requirements: Give a brief insight of the main preoccupations of classical sociology and the historical context that led to the development of this social thought What are the main similarities and differences in the works of those authors?What is/are the main problem(s) of society according to Marx;according to Durkheim;according to Weber;Give the perspective which one of the three of them, according to you, was the most relevant in pinpointing societal problems, considering the subsequent development of modern societies.Conclusion: In your own worlds try to characterize the perspective of classical sociology.Kindly make judicious use of all the materials I uploaded. Please do refer to the material I uploaded “How to write a sociological essay” and reference and cite correctly. POLS 138
Classical sociological authors –
Marx, Weber and Durkheim.
Part 1. Introduction + Marx
The “Birth” of Sociology
?
4 conditions determine the birth of a discipline from our
current perspective:
?
1)The bibliographical information on the matter
?
2) Its precursors
?
3) the founding fathers
?
4) The specificity of the historic context.
Social Sciences are concerned mainly with theorizing and
conceptualizing, especially in the first stages of their
development.
Work of synthesis on the birth of
Sociology – the two approaches
?
Aron Raymond, 1965. Main Currents in Sociological
Thought, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Aron starts from the big authors from the past
searching the coherence of their work
?
Nisbet Robert, 1966. The Sociological tradition, New
York, Basic Books.
Nisbet uses a different approach: he doesn‘t start by
examining the different authors, but he is searching for the
common ideas .
The 5 antitheses of Nisbet: main
ideas at the base of sociology
?
1) Community and Society
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2) Authority and Power
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3) Status and classes
?
4) Sacred and profane
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5) Alienation and progress
The revolutions of the XIX
century
?
Necessity to understand a new and rapidly changing
society
?
The French Revolution and the subsequent revolutions
all around Europe destabilize the European continent
?
Profound transformations due to the fast pace of
industrialization and increased mobility from rural to
urban setting
?
Mutation of the relations in families and social classes
?
Spectacular development of the natural sciences
Political destabilization during
the XIX century
?
The birth of Sociology coincides with a period of abrupt political
and military change
?
The example of the French Revolution: a society of three classes
and a hereditary monarch (The Ancien Régime)
?
?
– First Estate (Premièr État, le clergé ) – The clergy, both high
(generally siding with the nobility, and it often was recruited
amongst its younger sons) and low
?
Second Estate (Second État, la noblesse ) – The nobility
?
The Third Estate (Third Estate (Tiers État) – Everyone not included
in the First or Second Estate. At times this term refers specifically
to the bourgeoisie, the middle class, but the Third Estate also
included the sans-culottes, the labouring class. Also included in the
Third Estate were lawyers, merchants, and government officials)
A. de Tocqueville (1805-1859) shows the two systems in a conflict:
The “Ancien Regime” found on the hierarchy of Estates, which is by
definition inegalitarian and the new one proclaiming the ideal of
equality in the conditions – polarized society
Political destabilization
during the XIX century – 2
?
France during the XIX century: one Empire, two Royal
regimes overthrown by revolutions, a Republic with an
universal suffrage, a Second Empire and once again a
Republic. The Same processes took place in Germany and
Austria-Hungary. Europe was a turmoil.
?
Ideology, replacing to some extent religion, becomes a
central part of social life during that period. Conservative,
liberal, solidaristic, revolutionary ideologies are having
deeply antagonistic positions and become source of
division.
?
The Fear of the fragility of Societies (pathology of the
social organism). How to put to end the acute social crisis
that Europe is experiencing ? Those questions are at the
base of the search of a science of society.
?
Interventionists and neutralists
The Industrial Revolution
during the XIX century
?
If France played an extremely important role in the dissemination of
radical and revolutionary ideas all across the world, it is England that
exported the industrial mode of production and political economy
?
England cities were profoundly transformed with the arrival of an urban
proletariat.
?
Negative effects during the beginning of the industrial revolution: dequalification of the work force in the traditional mode, forced division
of labor, exploitation of the work force and miserable wages, child
labor.
?
The Social Question becomes central for Western Societies: a series of
studies on the life of workers, their revenues and their way of life
reflects those tendencies.
?
Social statistics
?
Family budgets
?
Field work and observation
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The idea of Social Politics (Altruist or egoist?)
The Silent scientific revolution: the
xix century progress of natural
sciences
?
Radical transformations in the fields of physics,
chemistry and biology and their application as industrial
or medical technologies.
?
Physics becomes more and more mathematicised and
becomes the standard of the good methodology.
?
It is the progress of chemistry and biology that is the
more impressive for contemporaries and gives birth to
using their models for social theorizing:
?
Atomic structure of matter
?
Comparative physiology (organs, functions, normal and
pathological, homeostasis, cellular theory, Darwin and the
social Darwinism theories)
?
The organic and the mechanistic conceptions
Karl Marx
(1818-1883)
?
Marx is not a pure sociologist. He is a philosopher,
economist and sociologist. (Hegel)
?
From dialectical materialism – a theory of knowledge – to
historical materialism (the application of dialectical
materialism to history)
?
Principles of dialectical materialism:
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Materialism and idealism: primacy of the material world. Two
irreconcilable conceptions of the world.
?
Reality and representation: material world exists outside of the
representations that one could have. Do not confound material and
physical. Ideas, sentiments are part of the material world
?
Matter and movement: matter is never still. You cannot isolate a
phenomenon from its context. Social phenomena should be studied
in their organic
?
The principle of contradiction: all things and all phenomena are
constructed by the unity of opposites.
Karl Marx economist
C + L = W (capital + labour =
value or wealth)
?
Exchange value and use value: Basic Marxian idea is that value depends
on the quantity of work crystallized on the commodity. Money as a
means of exchange via tacit agreement. Social conception of
production: Socially necessary labour time … Holism and Individualism
?
Working Force and salaries: the working force is a commodity as any
other and it does posses an exchange value (food, home, clothing etc.)!
The Relations of Production: the relations people must enter into in
order to survive, to produce, and to reproduce their means of life.
People must enter into these social relationships, i.e. because
participation in them is not voluntary, the totality of these relationships
constitute a relatively stable and permanent structure: the “economic
structure”.
?
The exchange of labour is only possible when people are free and when they
do not posses the instruments of labour;
?
The proprietor of the means of production becomes also proprietor of the
results of workers work;
?
Exchanging is obligatory for the work force because they need the goods
necessary for their reproduction.
Karl Marx on capitalism
?
The surplus value Theory and Exploitation: if the
capitalist pays a salary equivalent to x hours of work for
the reproduction of the work force, he/she actually
employs the worker for y hours of work, where x always
< Y. The difference (y-x) is called time of overwork. The workforce is similar to other goods from the point of view of its exchange value, but it is different from the point of view of its use value: you do produce more value than you need for your own reproduction. This are the foundations of capitalist exploitation. ? Productive forces, relations of production and mode of production. Simple and extended reproduction: The cycles of exploitation and the reproduction of capital. The contradictions of Capitalism Marx advocates the idea that capitalism is a runaway train who sows the seeds of its own inevitable destruction: 1) “What the Bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave diggers” (workers will gain consciousness of the conflict they are participating in). 2) Tendency of the rate of profit to fall (a collective dilemma among capitalist due to the substitution of labour by machines) 3) Production and realization salary dilemma (production costs and capacity for consumption). Paying low salaries is opportunistic on the individual level for the capitalist, but is harmful for capitalists as class, because hampers workers capacity to consume. Marx as a sociologist ? Alienation as a result of the process of exploitation: it is not only the results of the work of the work force, which are alienated (owned by the capitalist), it is the workforce itself (the worker) which is alienated, because it could not escape the exploitation relations. ? Social class is a central concept of Marxist sociology. A social class is not a group of individuals with common life style or common beliefs, or common cell phones. For Marx, social classes exists only in class relations and take full shape only in the process of class struggle. Furthermore, class relations are structured around a main antagonism opposing two classes: slaves and masters, feudalists and their serfs, capitalists and proletariat (workers). ? Class consciousness and domination (material and ideological production) Criticism towards Marx writings ? A Prophet or a scientist ? ? ? Certain aspects of Marx theories have a prophetic dimensions: the best example is the idea of the end of history and the apparition of a classless society. A militant or a scientist ? ? Can you be a social scientist and a militant and remain objective ? Marx and common sense ? Human societies produce inequalities among individuals; inequalities in terms of power, status, revenue and prestige. ? Conflict is central for the development of societies and conflict is not amongst isolated individuals, but rather groups of individuals organized around their common interest (social classes). ? The objective relations among social groups and social classes and the State are at the center of social change. The varying interest and positions of these groups shape the overall configuration of power and provide the dynamic for social change. The emphasis is on social, rather than individual actors. ? There are situations in which individuals who are strictly sticking to their immediate interest participate in a situation when they produce a collective outcome, in which they are worse off, compared to a situation in which they did not pursue their private direct interest. ? Modern forms of production and work relations tend to be dehumanizing for workers and often generate frustration for the work force. CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL AUTHORS 2: WEBER AND DURKHEIM MAX WEBER (1864-1920) AND COMPREHENSIVE SOCIOLOGY • WEBER’S THOUGHT BURSTS OUT IN MULTIPLE DIRECTIONS: • • SOCIOLOGY • HISTORY • POLITICAL ECONOMY • POLITICAL SCIENCE • PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE (INTERPRETATION OF PAST THOUGHT AND RESEARCH) IF MARX’S EXPLANATIONS STARTS FROM GROUPS OF INDIVIDUALS AND SOCIAL CLASSES (COLLECTIVE PHENOMENA MATTER, INDIVIDUAL DON’T), WEBER INSISTS THAT THE KNOWLEDGE OF SOCIAL ACTION IS THE PRODUCT OF THE SENSE THAT INDIVIDUALS GIVE TO IT (COLLECTIVE PHENOMENA ARE THE PRODUCT OF INDIVIDUAL ACTION). HOLISM (HOLE) VS. INDIVIDUALISM (ATOMS) AGAIN! GIDDENS: JUST TWO PERSPECTIVES MACROLEVEL AND MICROLEVEL. WEBER – SOCIAL SCIENCES AS SCIENCES OF CULTURE • WEBER DEFINES THREE ASPECTS THAT ARE IMPORTANT AS PROJECT OF STUDY OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SCIENCE: (WEBER ALSO, AS MARX CONSIDERS ECONOMIC PHENOMENA VERY IMPORTANT FOR SOCIETY) • PURELY ECONOMIC PHENOMENA • ECONOMICALLY IMPORTANT PHENOMENA • PHENOMENA WHICH ARE CONDITIONED BY THE ECONOMY • WEBER AMBITION IS TO EXPLORE SCIENTIFICALLY THE GENERAL CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC STRUCTURE AND THE HISTORIC FORMS OF THE ORGANIZATION OF HUMANS. • SOCIAL SCIENCES FALL IN THE CATEGORY OF SCIENCES OF CULTURE AND THEY ARE DISCIPLINES THAT CONSIDER SOCIAL EVENTS IN THEIR SIGNIFICANCE FOR CULTURE. • GENERALIZING FROM A SINGLE SPECIFIC POINT OF VIEW (MARXISM) IS AN ERROR. MULTIPLYING THE POINT OF VIEWS. THERE ARE NO GENERAL LAWS FROM WHICH ONE CAN DEDUCE REALITY. EMPIRIC PHENOMENA ARE IN SINGULAR UNIQUE CONSTELLATIONS. WEBER ON RATIONALITY AND COMPREHENSION. SOCIOLOGY AS INTERPRETATION OF MEANING • ACCORDING TO THE DOMINANT INTERPRETATION, WEBER CONCEIVED SOCIOLOGY AS A COMPREHENSIVE SCIENCE OF SOCIAL ACTION. SOCIAL ACTION REFERS TO ACTIONS THAT ARE DIRECTED AT OTHERS. (THE BICYCLIST COLLUSION EXAMPLE. THE COLLUSION ITSELF IS NOT SOCIAL. ACTIONS PRECEDING IT AND ACTIONS FOLLOWING IT ARE SOCIAL) • HIS INITIAL THEORETICAL FOCUS IS ON THE SUBJECTIVE MEANING THAT HUMANS ATTACH (BELIEVES) TO THEIR ACTIONS AND INTERACTIONS WITHIN SPECIFIC SOCIAL CONTEXTS. • HOW DO WE HAVE ACCESS TO SUBJECTIVE MEANING ? WEBER – THE IDEAL-TYPE CONSTRUCTION • AN IDEAL-TYPE IS OBTAINED BY ACCENTUATING UNILATERALLY ONE OR MORE POINT OF VIEW OF ISOLATED PHENOMENA AIMING TO ARRIVE AT A ABSTRACT CONCEPTUAL AND HOMOGENOUS “PICTURE” OF THE PHENOMENON. (“URBAN ECONOMY”, “CAPITALIST FIRM”) • IDEAL-TYPES ARE ABSTRACT ARTIFICIAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF REALITY AND RESEARCHERS WORK IS TO DETERMINE IN ANY PARTICULAR CASE HOW MUCH THEY ARE CLOSE OR REMOVED FROM REALITY • IDEAL-TYPES ARE VIRTUAL REALITY (MODEL) FOR COMPARATIVE WORK. WEBER ACCEPTS MARXISM AS AN IDEAL-TYPE, REPROACHING TO MARX TO USE IT AS A REALITY AND TO TRANSFORM IT IN SOCIAL FORCES REACTING UPON SOCIETY. THE 4 IDEAL-TYPES OF ANALYZING SOCIAL ACTION Affectual behavior Traditional behavior by sentiments by emotions by customs by habit Low level of consciousness of the orientation of action Ideal Types of the orientation of social action Value oriented rationality Goal oriented rationality by conviction by confronting rationally means and ends instrumental rationality High level of consciousness of the orientation of action WEBER – THE PROTESTANT ETHIC AND THE SPIRIT OF CAPITALISM. SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION. • RESEARCH QUESTION : WHAT ARE THE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT LED TO THE APPARITION IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION, AND ONLY THERE, OF CULTURAL PHENOMENA THAT MADE POSSIBLE THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM ? • SPECIFICITY OF WESTERN SINGULARITY: SCIENCE, MUSIC, BUREAUCRACY, PRINTING, CAPITALISM: ALL WERE PRODUCT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF A RATIONAL STRUCTURE OF LAW, ADMINISTRATION ETC. • DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IS DUE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PARTICULAR FORM OF RATIONALITY WHICH ALLOWED THE DEVELOPMENT OF WESTERN CAPITALISM AS A “SYSTEMATIC RATIONAL PURSUIT OF PROFIT”. • THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IS DUE TO ALSO TO THE BELIEVE SYSTEM OF PROTESTANTISM. MARX ? THE DOMINATION OF GOAL-ORIENTED ACTIONS IN THE MODERN WORLD • HIS CLASSIFICATION OF TYPES OF ACTION PROVIDES A BASIS FOR HIS INVESTIGATION OF THE SOCIAL EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS IN WHICH BEHAVIOR HAD COME TO BE INCREASINGLY DOMINATED BY GOAL-ORIENTED RATIONALITY - LESS AND LESS BY TRADITION, VALUES OR EMOTIONS. • IN MODERN SOCIETY THE EFFICIENT APPLICATION OF MEANS TO ENDS HAS COME TO DOMINATE AND REPLACE OTHER FORMS OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR. • WHILE HE PROPOSED THAT THE BASIC DISTINGUISHING FEATURE OF MODERN SOCIETY WAS BEST VIEWED IN TERMS OF THIS CHARACTERISTIC SHIFT IN MOTIVATION, HE ROOTED THAT SHIFT IN THE GROWTH OF BUREAUCRACY AND INDUSTRIALISM. THE DISENCHANTMENT OF THE WORLD (ALIENATION?) • AN ENCHANTED WORLD IS A WORLD WHERE MAGIC IS PRESENT IN EXPLAINING THINGS, WHERE THERE ISN’T A SPECIALIZATIONS OF TASKS AND PRECISION IS THE EXCEPTION AND NOT THE RULE. THE ROLE OF THE INCREASING AND ALMIGHTY BUREAUCRACY ON INDIVIDUALS. • SUCCESS IN LIFE AND ESPECIALLY IN THE MATERIAL AREA IS NOT A PROBLEM FROM THE PROTESTANTISM’S POINT OF VIEW. THE RATIONALISM (BOTH ECONOMICAL AND POLITICAL) OF CALVINISM (PREDESTINATION) EVEN ACCORDS RELIGIOUS BENEFITS TO A TRAJECTORY OF MATERIAL SUCCESS. • BUT THIS RATIONALIZATION OF BELIEVES HAS AN UNINTENDED EFFECT: THERE IS NO MORE A STOP TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF “CONSTRAINED INDIVIDUALISM”. WEBERIAN LEGACY IN MODERN SOCIOLOGY • NOT CAUSAL EXPLICATION, BUT EXPLICATION OF MEANING • SOCIOLOGY “FEEDS” ON THE HISTORICAL APPROACH • INDIVIDUALS ACTIONS AND PERCEPTIONS ARE THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF SOCIETY • WE ARE RATIONALIZING OUR ACTIVITIES AND WAY OF LIFE – WE ARE LIVING IN THE “IRON CAGE OF RATIONALITY” • THE REAL CONFLICT OF MODERN SOCIETIES IS BETWEEN THE IMPERSONAL EFFICIENCY OF THE ORGANIZATION OF SOCIAL LIFE AND INDIVIDUAL NEEDS AND DESIRES • NO VALUE JUDGEMENTS IN SOCIOLOGY (SCIENTIST ? POLITICIAN) • AXIOLOGICAL NEUTRALITY AND INTERPRETATIVE SOCIOLOGY EMILE DURKHEIM (1858-1917) MORAL, INTEGRATION, NORMS • PH.D. THESIS: “THE DIVISION OF SOCIAL LABOUR” (1893). RESEARCH QUESTION: HOW DO SOCIETIES EVOLVE FORM THEIR PRIMITIVE FORM IN THE PAST TO COMPLEX MODERN SOCIETIES ? WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL SOLIDARITY ? • HIS CENTRAL IDEA IS THAT UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE DIVISION OF LABOUR SOCIETIES GO FROM A MECHANICAL SOLIDARITY (THE SOCIAL LINKAGE IS DETERMINED BY SIMILARITIES OF INDIVIDUALS AND THE COLLECTIVE CONSCIENCE ABSORBS INDIVIDUAL CONSCIENCE) TO A ORGANICAL SOLIDARITY (SOCIAL LINKAGE IS CONTRACTUAL, INDIVIDUAL CONSCIENCE IS LIBERATED AND INDIVIDUALISM STARTS TO DEVELOP). • THERE IS A PARADOX IN MODERN SOCIETIES AS INDIVIDUALS ARE MORE AUTONOMOUS AND MORE DEPENDENT: MECHANICAL SOLIDARITY IS WEAKENED AND IT IS THE SPECIALISATION OF FUNCTION THAT KEEPS SOCIETY TOGETHER (SOCIAL COHESION). DIVISION OF LABOUR AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION Primitive Societies (low specialization) Small number of exchanges Strong collective conscience Law is repressive Mechanic Solidarity Forces of social change: Increase in the number of population Multiplication of contracts Low division of labour Multiple exchanges Modern societies (high specialization) Low collective conscience Law is restitutive Organic Solidarity High division of labour DURKHEIM AND METHODOLOGY • DURKHEIM HAD A TWOFOLD GOAL IN ALL OF HIS WORKS: LAY THE FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY AS SCIENCE AND EXPLAIN THE FUNCTIONS OF SOCIAL COHESION (HOW DOES SOCIETY STAY TOGETHER) • TWO CONDITIONS FOR SOCIOLOGY TO BECOME A SCIENCE: HAVE A PRECISE FIELD OF STUDY AND DEPLOY A SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH METHODS. • THE OBJECT OF SOCIOLOGY ARE SOCIAL FACTS, WHICH ARE: WAYS OF THINKING, FEELING AND SENSING EXTERNAL TO THE INDIVIDUAL AND WHICH ARE CONSTRAINING (PRE-EXISTENT) FOR HIM/HER. • PRE-EXISTENT CONSTRAINTS: MORAL, LAW, LANGUAGE, SOCIAL RULES, SOCIAL SUCCESS CRITERIA ETC. DURKHEIM AND METHODOLOGY • SOCIOLOGY NEEDS AN OBJECTIVE METHOD OF ANALYSIS: TREAT SOCIAL FACT LIKE THINGS. SOCIAL FACTS ARE THINGS BECAUSE THEY ARE OUTSIDE US, THEY ARE NOT A PRODUCT OR CREATION OF THE PRESENT GENERATION; THEY ARE A GIVEN, PRE-EXISTING AND CONSTRAINING CONDITION FOR HUMANS • ADOPT AN EXTERNAL POINT OF VIEW AS A SCIENTIST OBSERVING AN OBJECT. TO DO SO: • • • • SEPARATE YOURSELF FROM AND DISCARD PRE-NOTIONS (COGNITIVE AND SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED) DEFINE RIGOROUSLY THE PHENOMENON THAT YOU ARE STUDYING SEARCH FOR THE EFFECTIVE CAUSES OF THE PHENOMENON AND ITS SOCIAL FUNCTION (DYSFUNCTION) COMPARE THE SAME PHENOMENON IN DIFFERENT SOCIETIES AND IN THE SAME SOCIETY IN DIFFERENT POINTS IN TIME (EXPERIMENTATION AND QUASI-EXPERIMENTATION) DURKHEIM ON SUICIDE-THE APPLICATION OF THE METHOD DURKHEIM ON SUICIDE AND CRISIS • SOCIAL CRISIS ARE NOT DUE TO A VERY RAPID PROGRESS, CLASS STRUGGLE OR RAPID INDUSTRIALIZATION, WHICH DESTROY TRADITIONAL SOLIDARITY. IT IS DUE TO TRANSFORMATIONS RESULTING FROM THE INCREASED DIVISION OF LABOUR AND THE RESULTING INDIVIDUALISM. • DYSFUNCTIONS AND PAT... Purchase answer to see full attachment