The Origins of Sociological Thinking

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The Origins of Sociological Thinking

• Sociology and the Age of Enlightenment
• Sociology and the Age of Revolution,
  Industrialization, and Urbanization

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The Origins of Sociological Thinking

• Where did social thought originate?
• Early Greeks studied society, but spent most of
  their time discussing what it should be like
  not how it actually was
• With the development of modern science in 1700s,
  social thinkers began to study society in a more
  scientific, systematic way

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The Origins of Sociological Thinking

• The origins of sociology were influenced by two
  separate revolutions
• The Age of Enlightenment (a revolution of
  thought)
• The Industrial Revolution (a revolution of
  technology)

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The Origins of Sociological Thinking Sociology
and the Age of Enlightenment

• From the late 1600s to the mid 1700s, some
  philosophers began to demonstrate a skepticism of
  religion, while emphasizing the importance of
  reason
• They believed (optimistically) that human society
  would be improved by scientific discovery and
  individuals pursuit of self-interest
• By the late 1700s / early 1800s, sociology as we
  know it (ie. observing and analyzing society in a
  systematic manner) began to take shape

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The Origins of Sociological Thinking Sociology
and the Age of Revolution, Industrialization, and
Urbanization

• The introduction of industrialization changed
  society irreversibly
• Industrialization transformed agriculture- and
  craft-based societies into industry- and
  manufacturing-based societies
• As a result, people left their farms to go work
  in the cities, creating a new social class of
  people (the working class)

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The Origins of Sociological Thinking Sociology
and the Age of Revolution, Industrialization, and
Urbanization

• Another result of industrialization was the
  emergence of urbanization
• As people moved to the cities to work in
  factories, population distribution were changed
  such that more people lived in cities and fewer
  people lived in rural areas
• This process is called urbanization

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The Origins of Sociological Thinking Sociology
and the Age of Revolution, Industrialization, and
Urbanization

• Urbanization meant that many people shifted from
  being producers to being consumers
• ie. if you move to the city and you no longer
  grow crops, you have to use your money to buy
  your own food and pay rent
• This led to new social problems (eg. poor
  housing, poverty, unsanitary conditions,
  crowding, etc.) and forced entire families to
  work under poor conditions with no job security
• Social thinkers began to try to understand how
  and why society was changing