Review and Prospect When and how did the three classic figures of sociology become classics?

We have argued that:  The classic figures are Marx, Durkheim, and Weber  Who stressed class, norms and organization, respectively  Conflict theories focus on positive feedbacks, and functional theories on negative feedbacks.

Prior to the 1960’s many other figures would have been considered more important.  Parsons from made Durkheim and Weber central figures.  The critics of Parsons from made Marx important.  In Chicago sociology, figures such as Spencer, Comte, or Glumpowitz were considered more important.

Much of Chicago sociology was directed against Spencer  “Mr. Sociology” from the 1840’s to the 1930’s  “Social Darwinism” argued that progress was driven by the “survival of the fittest.”  Spencer wrote the first books in English on sociology, arguing for “laissez faire” and the importance of genetic differences.  The Chicago sociologists argued that human behavior was socially shaped.

Liberalism and Social Darwinism  19 th c. Liberals were not “liberal” but “conservative”  They stressed competition and genetic variation,  and so they opposed labor laws, income tax, and social policy generally.  In the US, Spencer was very popular with the robber barons that controlled American education, and William Graham Sumner was an exponent  Charles Murray is a contemporary example

Liberalism and Individualism  Popular explanations of crime, income, educational success, addiction, etc. often stress individual traits.  One can always ask why this individual rather than that one develops cancer, fails school or abuses drugs.  But such explanations may be useless in explaining rates and structures relevant to health, education or drug abuse.

Positivism  Saint-Simon and Comte developed a project of a “social physics.”  Saint-Simon was also one of the founders of socialism.  Their work does not look very scientific today.  In the US, Ward was a main exponent.

NeoKanianism  A variety of different bodies of thought developed Kant’s ideas that our conceptualizations make our knowledge possible.  Simmel was one form of neoKantian theorist, who was most central to the Chicago school.  And figures such as Mead or W.I.Thomas insisted that the ways that people think about reality is real in its consequences. (I.e. belief in witchcraft creates witches.)  This became one source of symbolic interactionism

Historicism  Other European theorists developed historical description and conceptualization of social change.  Toennies Community and Society was an elaborate conceptualization of different kinds of social structures.  Ch. 5 of One World noted that there were many analyses of social development that were the basis of modern sociology.

The Chicago School  The set of pragmatist and empirical theorists at the University of Chicago established a very rich tradition of empirical description of slums, ethnic and racial groups, gangs, etc.  Most of them studied in Germany.  Robert Park promoted empirical studies: sociologist as (wo)man with clipboard.