Unit Essay Revisions
UE 1
Faith Kelly
Department of Sociology & Criminology/Criminal Justice, Longwood University
SOCL 401: Sociological Theory
Dr. Grether
January 31, 2023
After rereading my original document, I wanted to make some changes. I saw a couple places I could add more to my writing to further show my understanding of the material. I broke up a big paragraph a I had at the beginning into different one to separate different ideas/figures. I revised and rewrote my paragraphs for better clarity. This was achieved by rewording and reformatting certain aspects of paragraphs for better flow and comprehension. I also added more information about Harriet Martineau’s contributions to the establishment of the study of sociology to show more of my understanding. I also made a link between Comte’s ideas and Herbert Spencer’s to be able to condense them into one paragraph. Lastly, I bolstered up my paragraph on how sociological theory is unique from scientific theories.
There have been many figures that have contributed to the establishment of sociology and sociological theory. Some of the early key figures that helped establish sociology has a scientific discipline were Auguste Comte, Harriet Martineau, and Herbert Spencer. Auguste Comte focused on creating a new science built on a combination of reasoning and observation and coined the term sociology. According to Coser (2003), “Comte’s aim was to create a naturalistic science of society which could both explain the past and the development of mankind and predict the future of its course” (p.3). Comte took the first attempt to develop an approach to studying society through focusing on how society is changing and evolving and what forces are keeping society stationary. Herbert Spencer continued Comte’s approach to evaluating social order and social change. He introduced the idea that society can be viewed as biological model therefore he viewed all aspects of society as being sets of interdependent parts. He also introduced the idea of Social Darwinism, which is where he took Darwin’s idea of the survival of the fittest and applied it to society and its individuals.
Another key figure was Harriet Martineau, who is often cited as the first female sociologist and is best known for translating the works of Auguste Comte to English. She focused on the study of the economy, religion, politics, and examining the lives of women and children. She was the first sociologist to introduce a feminist perspective in her writing. According to Lengerman & Niebrugge (2007), “Martineau sought to create a science of society that would be systematic, grounded in empirical observation, and accessible to general readership. This would enable people to make personal and political decisions guided by science understanding of the principles of the governing social life” (p.31). She held the belief that one must study by focusing on all aspects of it and that the observation and information gained should be assemble to everyone so that people are able to make better personal and political decisions. Therefore, one should not only study the issues of society but also do something about them to improve society.
Sociological Theory is a foundational aspect to the discipline of sociology. It is a set of ideas or a way of thinking that provides insight or explanation about an aspect of society. It also provides a paradigm in which to explain a worldview or a cognitive framework. The theories are informed by personal experiences, previous theories, the era in which one lives, and new observations. They attempt to make statements about how and why the social world is the way it is. They focus on evaluating socially occurring phenomena at the micro, meso, and macro levels. They involve taking ideologies and previous conventions of thinking of theories and examining them through how they can explain and predict behavior. Sociological theories provide understandings that can lead to the development of a new unique understanding of certain aspects of society which can give us an important understanding of our social reality. Therefore, it provides a way to explain how people might behave under certain social situations, and a way to describe why things have happened. According to Stermheimer (2020) sociological theory is an “.. explanation about an aspect of society that we are interested in learning more about” (p.1). Therefore, they provide us with explanation for human behavior, from a particular intellectual standpoint, which can provide as with a framework to incite social change. Overall sociological research is an integral part of sociological research because it enables sociologists to explain their data and provides an historical record of the discipline.
Sociological theory is unique from other scientific theory. This is because while sociological theories share overlapping features with natural sciences they are not as predictive as the natural sciences. According to Edles & Appelrouth (2010), sociological theories tend to be more evaluative and critical than natural science theories. The natural sciences are the study of the physical world and the ways in which aspects of it interact and change. Sociological theories focus on the social world and social relations of people and the ways in which they interact and change. While sociological theories do share some of the features of natural sciences, the tradition and practice of sociology is rooted in the understanding of the human condition, answering questions about the human condition, and proposing ways to ease reduce the human condition for those struggling. Therefore, sociological theories evaluate the critical understanding of how society and the people in the society interact and form social institutions, which is different from how natural sciences theories evaluate the critical understanding of the different aspects of the physical world. Therefore, sociological theories do something that natural science theories can’t and that is providing a way to evaluate and explain society and social relationships.
Resources
Coser, L.A. 1977. Masters of Sociological Thought: Ideas in Historical and Social Context, 2nd
edition. Waveland Press, Inc: Illinois.
Edles, L. D., & Appelrouth, S. (2010). p.1-10. In Sociological theory in the classical era: Text
and readings. essay, SAGE publications inc.
Lengermann, P. M., & Niebrugge, G. (2007). The Women Founders: Sociology and Social
Theory, 1830-1930. Waveland Press.
Sternheimer, K (2020). Theories and Hypotheses. Essay. Source:
UE 2: Karl Marx
Faith Kelly
Department of Sociology & Criminology/Criminal Justice, Longwood University
SOCL 401: Sociological Theory
Dr. Grether
March 14, 2023
When rereading my original document, I found a couple places where I could bolster up my writing to show further comprehension of the material I have learned of my semester. I found that question 3 of this assignment had not been fully answered to the best of my ability therefore I took some of the last section and put in the second paragraph where I found it was better suited and added more information to fully answer how Marx’s ideas contribute to sociological understanding today. I was also able to go back through and fix some grammatical errors that I had found throughout my writing.
Karl Marx was a university educated German sociologist and philosopher who through his university education and his exposure to socialist thinkers and writing became attached to socialist ideals. He was a part of a group of philosophers called the “Young Hegelians” which was a group of philosophers that argued that history is best understood as an attempt to restrict people’s ability to exercise logic and reason to the world around them. The question that motivated Marx’s theoretical interests is the question of freedom. Marx focused on man’s material conditions and how they relate to production and the construction of social classes. Karl Marx met Friedrich Engels and was introduced to the understanding of the conditions the working-class (Coser, 2003,p.61). With the help of Friedrich Engels Marx’s developed more of an understanding of class conflict within society and learned that there are inequalities in society when it comes to social class differences. Together Engels and Marx developed the theory about the history of society. This theory is called historical materialism. They together also published The Communist Manifesto. One of the main points of the communist manifesto is that creating one class of people would end the continuous class struggles cycles of revolution.
Karl Marx had many theoretical contributions. Some of those include historical materialism, superstructure, exchange value, means of production, mode of production, relations of production, class consciousness, commodity fetishism, alienation, and false consciences. “The first historical act is… the production of material itself. This is indeed a historical act, a fundamental condition of all history” (Coser,2003,p.43). This describes the idea of historical materialism is seeing the historical development through the modes of production. It is necessary to have the understanding of how people make tangible items from the natural world. This is a important understanding to grasp because people are species-being. Species-being is the idea that man is unique from other animals because we have a consciousness. The superstructure is built on the economic base. The bases is where people create and produce materials or in other words is the mode of production (Lewers, M. (2015)). The superstructure is the means of production which is labor and capital used to produce the tangible items. Marx also focued on the struggle being social and economic classes. “Society, according to Marx, comprised a moving balance of antithetical forces that generate social change by their tension and struggle… for him, struggle rather than peaceful growth was the engine of progress; strife was the father of all things, and social conflict the core of historical process (coser, 2003,p.43)”. This states that Marx believes that social progress happens through struggle between social classes. Even though Marx believes that social process can only happen in strife, we can still his understandings to navigate social changes in the right directions so that we can hopefully remedy inequalities between social classes.
Karl Marx overall was a very influential sociologist whose work has influenced society to this day by giving individuals the first way to address a wide range of political and social issues by analysis and evaluating ways in which certain individuals and groups are affected by certain organizations and events of society. Marx’s theories about society and social restraints are critical in the understanding that societies develop through modes of production and class conflict. Karl Marx’s theoretical contributions are still relevant today because while Marx specifically focused on economic and class-conflict we can see his ideas take place in a broader perspective in the idea of conflict theory. Conflict theory pushes us to look at differences of power, inequalities in institutions and how these can affect society and social change. We all can agree that we need social change, but we don’t always know the right way to go about it. We can use Marx’s idea that “diagnosis of capitalism ill’s help us navigate towards a more promising future” (Political Theory- Karl Marx, 0:37). This builds up the idea that we as a society can evaluate the inequalities in society based of social class difference to better societies issues as a whole. His ideas gave us a basis for a way to evaluate and analyze the way in which members of the ruling class of society and events can oppress the lower classes of society while acting in their own interests. To this day we still use these ideas to evaluate inequalities between racial, economic, and social classes to focus on how certain institutions are continuing and perpetuating systemic racism and inequalities.
Resources
Coser, L. A. (2003). Karl Marx. In Masters of sociological thought: Ideas in historical and Social Context (pp. 43–87). essay, s.n.
Engels, F., & Marx, K. (2015). The communist manifesto. Penguin Classics.
(YouTube videos) POLITICAL THEORY – Karl MarxLinks to an external site.
Lewers, M. (2015). Mathods of literacy and cultural studies: Base and Superstructure
Unit Essay 3
Faith Kelly
Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice/Criminology
SOCL 401: Sociological Theory
Scott Grether
April 28, 2023
After rereading my original document, I noticed there where some changes I would like to make to make this paper a bit better. For the answering of question 2 in the original document I had not expanded on the ideas and parts of the sociological imagination. Those parts being the general in the particular, the strange in the familiar, and the interplay of structure and agency. In this revised document I expanded on these ideas to show more of my understanding of the material. There was also a claim that I was able to go back and cite and I was able to revise some grammatical errors in my writing.
The major concerns of C. Wright Mill were the power of elites, the reproduction of social inequality, the shrinking of the middle-class, and the individuals place in society in reference to the significance of historical perspectives. He held concerns about power being held by a few people in society. This led to his concern specifically about how society is structured with the ruling power elite controlling lower classes. According to C. Wright Mills (1956), the power elite are individuals who most of the time lack the qualifications to make the ruling decisions over society. The power elite tend to make others feel as if they are powerless. The idea of the power elites makes it seem like individuals are living their lives with no say in how their society is run and what political issues are focused on. Therefore, he had a belief that knowledge of the link between history and the individual are the crucial elements to achieving social change. Overall, it seems like throughout his idea is that history and knowledge overall are the most important things to focus on if one wants change in society. Mills had a great impact on the analysis of social problems. He links micro and macro level of analysis through his idea of the sociological imagination. Throughout his studies he argues that troubles faced by an individual are due to larger problems in society. He made a distinction between personal troubles and public issues. His idea of the sociological imagination makes it imperative to ask questions like what is the history of our society? What the different social structures? And how can they be linked to each other?
The key theoretical contributions of C. Wright Mills are “The Power Elite” and “the Sociological Imagination”. C. Wright Mills defined the power elite is those that hold power by occupying the dominant intuitions of society. The dominant institutions have the ability to make and not make certain decisions that can affect society as a whole (Mills, 1956). Power can be held and obtained by having wealth, prestige, status, and/or leadership. Power can give one the ability to gets one’s way despite opposition from anyone else. These dominant institutions can be the military, government, and corporations. The hierarchy of this power is key to understanding modern societies likes the United States. Mills states that the individuals in the institutions all share an economic and academic backgrounds. Therefore, the power elites have similar social backgrounds as each other that may provide them with a sense of unity. The Sociological imagination is the idea that an individual is shaped by history and society (Mills, 1959). It is a way of the viewing the world and trying to notice the connection between a personal issue or a public issue. This theory puts an individual’s different actions and choices in a larger historical context. This helps provide a deeper understanding of different patterns and meanings in society. This theory is often used by sociologists to see the general in the particular, the strange in the familiar, and the interplay of structure and agency. According to C. Wright Mills (1959), looking for the general and the particular describes looking for patterns among the behaviors of individuals. The strange in the familiar describes looking at normal everyday features of our lives as if they were not common or normal. The Interplay of structure and agency describe focusing on how the agency (the action and choices) of individuals is shaped and constrained by the social relationships in which they find themselves. The sociological imagination also provides the individual with a deep and intimate reality of oneself in relation to social society as a whole.
C. Wright Mill’s theoretical contributions can help us understand society today. Mill’s idea of the power elite can help us understand modern society. The power elite in modern society are the people and organizations that control resources. They control big corporations als well. These organizations like the military, government and corporate officials hold power over society so have the ability to define societies norms and influence decision making, therefore they are able to be given by all their mutual interests and not the interests of the people. In the United States the power elite can be seen as people with power and wealth who have the ability to influence others because they have those qualities. The power elite can have a major impact on the United States because they have the ability to influence political decisions by influencing different politicians and voters. An example of this are lobbyists. Lobbyists have the ability to use their wealth and prestige to their advantage to influence certain politicians to make certain decisions. It can help to understand this theory by also thinking about how Marx’s idea of conflict theory. According to Coser (2003) Marx conflict theory is idea that there are power differences, in things such as class and dominant ideologies. This can be used to examine Mill’s idea of the power elite because the power elite can cause an exacerbate conflict between classes, and individuals in society. The sociological imagination can help us understand society today by helping us better evaluate and question various aspects of society. It can also help us understand the social consequences of the various social issues of society. For example, it can help us study oppression and society because its focus in on the relationship between self and society. For example, let’s say an individual is unemployed. At first is sounds like that individual has a personal issue however then we learn that the United States unemployment rate is a record high. That little piece of important fact changes that individual issue into a public issue.
Citations
Coser, L. A. (2003). Masters of sociological thought: Ideas in historical and Social Context. Waveland Press, Inc.
Mills, C. W. (1956). The power elite. Oxford University Press
Mills, C., 1959. The sociological imagination. New York: Oxford University Press, p. Chapter 1-2.