► What is a theorist? ► Observes ► Seeks order

 Need  Impose order  Prediction & control

 Same experiences theorized in different ways  Example: The Universe

 Humility –Carl Sagan Humility –Carl Sagan  -qrcg -qrcg

 Organized, verifiable ideas to explain society & social behavior  Creates order  Makes sense of world & our place in world

 Historical Context  French Revolution (1789) to WWI 1919  Dramatic Changes ▪ Economic ▪ Social ▪ Political ▪ Intellectual

 Feudalism  Industrialization  Capitalism  Socialism

 Urbanization  Religion

 Revolutions  Democracy  Feminism  Abolition

 The Enlightenment  Science  Biology  Psychology

 Change  How people made sense of world  Change after decades of little change  Cause of change

 God’s will  Linear (progress)  Cyclical  Dialectic

Linear Change

Thrive Decline Rise Cyclical Change

 Absolute monarchy/divine right  Church-centered  Original sin  Religious warfare  Church and state linked  Most Europeans’ daily lives  survival

 Importance of the Individual  Turned away from Church & aristocracy  Looked to themselves  Used scientific method to understand social and political relationships  Religious toleration  Freedom of press and speech

 Happiness – Not in hereafter but in this world  Progress – Humankind could improve  Reason – Truth discovered (not given)

 : European scientists used reason to discover laws of nature  Astronomy ▪ Galileo discovered Moon’s craters (1609) and Milky Way Galaxy  Biology ▪ Robert Hooke-> Discovered cell (1665)  Chemistry ▪ Edward Jenner-> Vaccine for smallpox (1796)

 Early 1700s: People used reason to find laws of physical world.  Why not use reason to discover laws that g overn human nature—social world? ▪ Ex: Solutions to societal problems

 Solve social, political, and economic problems  Reason  Governments create->orderly society  All men created “free and equal”  Free market regulate trade

John Locke Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes John Locke Humans are naturally cruel, greedy, and selfish. To escape “brutish” life people enter into a social contract. Only powerful government could ensure orderly society. Only absolute monarchy keep society completely orderly. Humans are naturally reasonable, moral and good Humans have natural rights: life, liberty, and property People form governments to protect natural rights Government-limited power If government violates people’s natural rights, people have right to overthrow government

 Ways of knowing ▪ Ideology ▪ Reason ▪ Science

 Justifies existing social conditions (Value-laden)  Examples:  “Divine right of kings”  Colonialism  Racism  Sexism

 Knowledge  through rational processes  Universe operates based on “laws”  Humans have: ▪ Free will ▪ Intelligence ▪ Control destiny & environment

 Scientific methods  Guidelines for: ▪ Gathering ▪ Interpreting information  (Value free)

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 Born in Paris July 29, 1805  Father was royalist who supported the Bourbon Monarchy  Age 16 -> college to study philosophy  Finished College at age 18

 1831, obtained assignment to examine prisons and penitentiaries in America  Did visit some prisons  Also traveled widely  Returned in less than two years  Published a report on prisons  “Democracy in America” (1835)

 Tocqueville recognized that America was unique  America never had a:  Monarchy  Feudalism  Established church  Or other privileged classes

 Absence of these conditions, and an abundance of land made American democracy possible.  One great agrarian middle class  Also extremes of wealth and poverty  Extremes were relatively rare (in Tocqueville’s time)

“What is most important for democracy is not that great fortunes should not exist, but that great fortunes should not remain in the same hands. In that way there are rich men, but they do not form a class.” --Alexis de Tocqueville

 According to Tocqueville, American Revolution produced high degree of social equality  American democracy gave considerable power to the middle and lower classes.

 Democracy, individuals free to move up and down the social structure becoming rich or  Poor according to their abilities and efforts  Aristocracy means that positions are ascribed and fixed for all time

 Tocqueville believed in the inevitable advance of democracy and equality.  This advance was part of modernization.

 Democracy--the extension of the political franchise from a few aristocrats to the people.  People were becoming more equal in wealth, education, and culture.  In short, democracy leads to equality.

 Tocqueville--One of first casualties of advance of equality was decline of primogeniture.  Primogeniture is the common law that eldest son inherits entire estate.  With its end, equality had spread to the relations between fathers and sons and among brothers.

 Previously, family held together by bonds of property and inheritance.  Eldest male would take care of the elderly to inherit the estate.  As the property bond declined, it was replaced by bonds of personal loyalty and affection.

 Pervasive nature of commodification in American life  Equality leads to ceaseless striving for social position.

“As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?”

“If democratic peoples substituted the absolute power of a majority for all the various powers that used excessively to impede or hold back the upsurge of individual thought, the evil itself would only have changed its form...

“For myself, if I feel the hand of power heavy on my brow, I am little concerned to know who it is that oppresses me; I am no better inclined to pass my head under the yoke because a million men hold it for me.” --Alexis de Tocqueville

 French social philosopher

 American Revolution  Served on side of colonists  French Revolution  Made a fortune in land speculation  Increasing industrialization  The Enlightenment

 Promoted study of nature  Nature & society governed by laws  Reorganize society  Wise men  Scientific division of labor  Spontaneous social harmony

 State’s 3 responsibilities 1.Public works 2.Free education 3.Uplifting recreation

 “Industrial army”  Construction of roads, bridges, canals, planting forests  Organism as metaphor for society  Science-> replace religion

 After Saint-Simon’s death  Small group of follower’s organized called for:  Abolition of inheritance rights  Public control of means of production  Gradual emancipation of women  Became a moral-religious cult  Sociologists as high priests*