/kloc-In the first half of the 9th century, Comte, a French positivist philosopher, was named after "sociology" and was called the father of sociology. The tradition of social theory established by three sociologists "Karl Marx, Durkheim and Max Weber" played an important role in the establishment of sociology.
Communication is a "comprehensive" subject that combines sociological thoughts and other disciplines from the beginning. Therefore, for communication students, understanding these seven sociologists will help them understand the "origin" of communication.
0 1, Max Weber
A famous German sociologist, an encyclopedic scholar and one of the three classical masters. 1864- 1920. His father is a typical German bureaucrat and his mother is a typical Christian who is engaged in charity. Therefore, Weber received a good education from an early age. His Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism is called a masterpiece.
He also studied religion in China and wrote Religion in China: Confucianism and Taoism. Economy and Society describes in detail the economic and social development in Europe. His academic thoughts have covered all fields of sociology. Weber's wife Marianne also wrote the Biography of Max Weber, describing her life in detail.
Weber called the emergence of modern society the process of modernization. Weber believes that the Protestant religious ethics is closely related to the rational and utilitarian computing spirit of capitalism, and the process of modernization is the disenchantment process of the decline of religion and authority and the rise of science and reason.
Compared with the religious and authoritative rule in traditional society, the ruling principle of modern society is rational, and the process of modernization is rational-led rationalization, which is manifested in the emergence and rapid expansion of impersonal bureaucracy while rationality rises.
It leads to the excessive pursuit of administrative efficiency, and instrumental rationality dominates, ignoring people's feelings and freedom. The means of social development replaced the purpose of social development. Frankfurt School also critically inherited Weber's view of rationality and criticized the reality that instrumental rationality degenerated into a tool of centralized rule in the later period of capitalist society.
Recommended reading: Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism, Economy and Society, Biography of Max Weber.
2. Karl Marx
German politician, founder of Marxism, one of the three classical masters. 18 18- 1883. Marxist philosophy is based on materialist dialectics and consists of three parts: namely, the view of nature-dialectical materialism; Social historical view-historical materialism; Dialectical logic-dialectics. From 65438 to 0925, Bukharin of Soviet Russia wrote A Course of Historical Materialism, equating historical materialism with Marxist sociology. Since then, the term "Marxist sociology" has appeared.
The theoretical basis of critical school includes Marxism. Including: ① the relationship between economic base and superstructure; The concept of ideology; ③ The viewpoint of active struggle.
The classical Marxist cultural research method holds that all kinds of cultural works must be analyzed in connection with their historical environment. Its central conclusion is that the production of a kind of social means of life will ultimately determine this kind of social politics, social cultural features and its future development culture. It can never become the leading force in history, but it can promote historical change or maintain social stability.
In 1930s and 1940s, he advocated the interpretation of Marxism instead of respecting Lenin and Stalin's Soviet interpretation model. Its early representatives can be traced back to Rukaqi and Grando, and the Frankfurt School has become a major landscape. The main representatives are Althusser, Gramsci, Eagleton and Adorno.
They advocate returning to Marx who is humane to young people, but still follow the basic social and historical concepts such as economic factors, determinism and social class analysis. Although they all highly praised Marx, they also revised Marxism from different angles and degrees, forming various academic schools. Since the 1960s, it has criticized the social structure, culture and ideology of capitalism.
Recommended reading: Manifesto of the Productive Party, Das Kapital and Principles of Marxist Philosophy.
3. Emile Durkheim
French sociologist and anthropologist, one of the three classical masters. 1858- 19 17. Learn from the famous psychologist Feng Te. 1898 founded the French sociological yearbook and founded the French sociological yearbook school. Durkheim is most concerned about "anomie", that is, how to form social order.
/kloc-the 0/9th century is an era of capitalist development and social contradictions. Durkheim found out the causes of society through understanding the social operation mechanism, and then sought the cure. His works all imply some profound perspectives of understanding society.
In Durkheim's view, society is not just a name, but a living organism. The purpose of his insistence on social realism and social holism is to draw a clear line between individuals and society. He believes that they belong to two different levels and are governed by different laws, so they must be studied by different disciplines.
In the relationship between society and individuals, we insist that society is higher than individuals, and society determines individuals, not the other way around, that is, high-level things are of primary and decisive significance to low-level things. Durkheim's view of society is his first step to strive for sociological independence. Based on this, Durkheim set an independent research field and research direction for sociology: sociological research does not have to and cannot involve individual level, but only takes social level as its own research field.
Recommended reading: Suicide Theory, Basic Forms of Religious Life, Guide to Sociological Methods, and Theory of Social Division of Labor.
4. Talcott Parsons
Harvard University sociologist, founder of modern American sociology. 1902- 1979. From the early 20th century to the 1930s, the school of sociology centered on the Department of Sociology of the University of Chicago occupied the dominant position in American sociology for a long time. The American Sociological Society and the American Journal of Sociology are basically controlled by the sociology department in Chicago and the scholars he trained.
Scholars outside Chicago are increasingly disgusted with the monopoly of the Chicago Sociology Department on societies and periodicals. After 1935, the important positions of the society were completely occupied by scholars outside Chicago, and they decided to publish their own publication, American Sociological Review. This trend symbolizes the emergence of other academic centers, the most famous of which is Harvard sociology, that is, the rise of structural functionalism.
The publication of Parsons' Structure of Social Action from 65438 to 0937 can be said to be a milestone in the development of American sociology. He opened up a new road, that is, the road of functional analysis, which represents a turning point in the method, that is, from the individualistic social psychology method dominated by early American sociology to the holistic method of anti-psychology.
After World War II, functionalism became the main sociological paradigm. In 1950s, functionalism was no longer regarded as just one of many sociological methods, but the only one. Until the mid-1960s, functionalism dominated the development direction of American sociological theory. The main representatives of functionalism are Parsons and Merton.
Recommended reading: the structure of social action, social system.
5. robert merton
American sociologist, studied under Parsons. 19 10-2003. Parsons has trained many outstanding sociologists, such as Merton, garfinkel, the representative of the methodology of ordinary people. Merton was one of Parsons' first doctoral students at Harvard. His doctoral thesis studies the science and technology of Britain in the17th century, and his functionalist views have been revealed.
Social Theory and Social Structure published by 1949 is Morton's most representative theoretical work. Its thickness can be compared with Parsons' The Structure of Social Action. From 1956 to 1957, Morton was elected president of the American Social Society.
Unlike Parsons, who is keen on establishing abstract macro-theory, Merton attaches importance to the combination of theoretical research and empirical research and the dynamic relationship between them. He cooperated extensively with Zasfield of Columbia University and undertook a large number of empirical research projects in the Institute of Applied Sociology of the University.
Theoretically, he advocates a theory between abstract comprehensive theory and concrete empirical proposition, that is, the middle-level theory: the middle-level theory is between the following two aspects: on the one hand, it is a microscopic and necessary working hypothesis gradually formed in a lot of daily research; On the other hand, a theory that includes all planned and step-by-step efforts aims to put forward a unified theory, which will explain the consistency of all observable social behaviors, social organizations and social changes.
The middle-level theory is a theory between experience generalization and system construction. Merton believes that deviance theory, party machine theory, reference group theory and relative deprivation theory are all models of middle-level sociology theory.
Recommended reading: social theory and social structure, sociology of science.
6. Lewis Kose
German sociologist, president of the American Social Society. Meidigao graduate student is studying at Columbia University. At that time, the Sociology Department of Columbia University was in its golden age. Among the teachers were Merton, lazarsfeld and Mills. The 1960s was the second stage of the development of American social thoughts after World War II. After entering the 1960s, American social conflicts intensified and became sharp, which laid the foundation for the study of social conflicts.
Cauchy's conflict theory is a functionalist conflict theory, which has some connection with structural functionalism. On the one hand, he studied under Morton, a famous sociologist with structural functionalism theory, and on the other hand, he was influenced by German theory, especially the thought of Zimmer, a famous German sociologist.
At the beginning of the book The Function of Social Conflict, Kose pointed out that this book is trying to clarify the concept of social conflict, and then test the application of this concept in empirical sociology research. Coser pointed out that we are concerned about the function of social conflict, not its anti-function.
That is to say, we are concerned with the results of social conflicts and enhancing the adaptability or debugging ability of specific social relations or groups, rather than reducing this ability. Social conflicts are not only negative factors that play a divisive role, but also can be found in groups. He plays a decisive role in interpersonal relationships. For example, he can help maintain the boundaries of groups and prevent group members from retreating.
Recommended reading: greedy system, the role of social conflict.
7. Herbert Blumer
American sociologist. The main advocate and celebrity of symbolic interaction theory. 1900- 1987. If the theory of social exchange is a theory that pays attention to the explicit behavior of human beings, then the theory of symbolic interaction is another theory that pays attention to the implicit behavior of human beings, and its appearance has benefited scholars in two fields. One is a pragmatic philosopher, and the other is an American Chicago school scholar.
Pragmatic philosophers: represented by James and Dewey. They advocate the viewpoints of process philosophy, naturalism and evolution, emphasize modern scientific methods, attach importance to educational reform and firmly believe in social democracy. Chicago scholars in the United States attach importance to empirical research, and were first known for Parker and others' research on Chicago's urban social problems.
Symbolic interaction theory regards interaction itself as the unit of analysis, and human interaction is explained by symbols. It is tantamount to inserting an explanation process between the stimulation and reaction of human behavior. Meade is a thinker who has made the greatest contribution to the basic idea of symbolic interaction theory.
Brummer's main point is:
(1) Human society is composed of individuals with self. Humans create and use symbols to represent the world around them.
② Interaction is a continuous process of meaning understanding and role-playing among individuals, others and groups.
③ The interactive creation of symbols maintains and changes the social structure.
(4) Sociological methods must pay attention to the process of people defining situations and choosing action routes.
⑤ Theory should be able to explain the process of interaction and point out the general conditions of interaction. Only the observation-test method of continuous participation is suitable for interactive analysis.
Recommended reading: social theory in labor relations, symbolic interaction theory: viewpoints and methods.