THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS OF SOCIOLOGY

THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS OF SOCIOLOGY

Ibn hhaldun was born in 1332 in Tunisia where he grew and received quranic education. He was an Arab philosopher of history, statesman, judge, and a sociologist. He is regarded as the true founder of sociology and true founding Father of modern sociology.

 

There was a record that he was quite vast in ancient literature and he latter served with the sultan of Tunisia as his secretary. He was also famous in political activities where he held many position both in Spain and North Africa where he rose to the position of a judge and lecturer. He died in 1406.

 MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS OF IBN KHALDUN TO SOCIOLOGY

The remarkable contributions of  IBN Khaldun’s theory and thought was regarded as the first major landmark to the field of sociology.Ibn khaldun’s thought into classical social theories would acknowledge his remarkable contribution to the establishment and development of social thought.

 

He was a great philosopher who wrote and spoke sociologically and who was generally interested in different forces which exist in the society and which intern affect his life as well as shape the process of society entirely. He was the Author of the book titled “the mugdimah” which revealed a thing about the methodological process.

 

AUGUST COMTE

Isidore August Marie Francois Xavier Comte was born in Montpellier of southern France in January 1, 1798 and died in 1857. He was the first sociological thinker to realize the importance for distinct science of human society. It was believed that he developed the systematic study of sociology as a science particularly as a separate discipline – during the nineteenth century.

 

He made it possible for modern sociology to emerge the places like France, Germany and England.

 

Comte first gave the name “social physics” to the science invented by him but later he coined the word “sociology a hybrid term compounded of Latin and Greek work to describe the new science.

 

The period during which Comte took his birth in France, was very critical. Because there was total disorder in France as their world of thought was divided into two parts. One group was made up of revolutionary thinkers while the other group was dominated by the religious thinkers. Though Comte didn’t agree with any of this group giving his emphasis to scientific outlook and scientific analysis. He organized and classified the social thought prevailing before his times.

 

Herbert Spencer: Herbert Spencer was born in Derby, England, on 27^th April 1820. he was recognized as one of the important social philosophers of the 19^th century. He had exerted a profound influence in the development of modern sociology. He was treated as the continuator of Comte himself in specifying special fields for which sociology must take its responsibility.

 

Furthermore Spencer was viewed as the most notable exponent of social evolution.

 

Emile Durkhein: The major focus of Durkheim’s contribution was based on how society is held together. Earlier sociological thinker believed that there had to be something holding society together, but Durkhein was the person that thoroughly studied this phenomenon. Durkheim argue that society is made up of two types of solidarity among the people. The first type of solidarity appeared in more traditional societies in these societies, all of the people are of the same ethnic group, the same religion and the same culture. They are all similar to one another and that similarity holds them together as a society “mechanical solidarity” in more modern  societies, however, different types of people are thrown together and expected to live together.

 

It is not all clear what holds them together when they are so different. He says that “organic solidarity” holds them together that means that people need each other in an economic sense. This was Durkheim’s contribution.

 

Karl Marx: Karl Marx was born May 5, 1818. Marx’s theories about society, economics and politics which are collectively known as Marxism, argue that all society progresses through the dialectic of class struggle. He was heavily critical of current socio-economic form of society, capitalism, which he called the “Dictatorship of the bourgeoisic”, believing it to be run by the wealthy middle and upper classes purely for their own benefit, and predicted that it would inevitably produce internal tensions which would lead to its self-destruction and replacement by a new system, socialism. Under socialism he argued that society would be governed by the working class in what he called the “dictatorship of the proletariat”.

 

Max Webber: Max Webber illustrated how social institutions are dependent on each other.

In his work, he showed that when there is change in the religious institution during the sixteenth century, it contributed to a change in the economic institution. Initially, many people thought of religious and economics as being autonomous and completely separated from each other. Webber showed how the emerging value of Protestantism supported the development of modern capitalism. 

Webber conceived of sociology is a comprehensive science of social action. His initial theoretical focus is on the subjective meaning that humans attach to their action and interactions within specific social contexts.

 

Talcott Parsons (1902 – 1979) was an American sociologist who served on the faculty of Havard University from 1927 to 1973 Parson was one of the most influential structural functionalists of the 1950s. as a functionalist, He was concerned with how elements of society were functional for a society. He was also concerned with social order, but argued that orders and stability in a society are the result of the influence of certain values in society rather than in structure such as the economic. He believed that stable supportive families are the key to successful socialization.

 

Parson also played a crucial role in the development of “The Grand Theory” which was an attempt to integrate the difference social sciences into one theoretical framework. Parson was often accused of being ethnocentric (the belief that your society is better than the one you are studying). Talcott Parson played a major role in developing several important sociological theories.