Schools and trends in western macrosociology

The main idea of ​​the mechanism: society is like an aggregate of elements, each of which can be studied independently of each other. People can be studied independently of each other as gas molecules.

The authors who worked within this direction: Henry Charles Carey , Adolph Quetelet ^[1] .

Quetelet even tried to explain social life with the laws of physics and established a statistical relationship between types of crimes, gender, origin, age, and place of residence of the criminal. From this, Quetelet concluded that a certain number and certain types of crimes accompany a society with the need for the law of nature. To describe the society, you need to detect the characteristics of the "average person".

The main idea: geographical factors affect society, for example, the climate affects the temperament of the inhabitants, the size of the territory affects the form of government and the size of the population; Small countries prefer to introduce a republic, medium-sized countries like a monarchy, and large countries like tyranny, according to the principle “the bigger the country, the harder the regime”.

Authors: Charles Louis de Montesquieu , Henry Thomas Bockle , Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky , Friedrich Ratzel , Lev Ilyich Mechnikov . ^[2]

The main idea: society and the organism are similar to each other.

Authors: Thomas Hobbes , Herbert Spencer , Pavel Fedorovich Lilienfeld-Toal , A. А.. F. Sheffle , R. Worms . ^[3]

In his work “Leviathan”, Thomas Hobbes expressed the idea that the state is an artificial person, in which the supreme power is the soul, the executive and legislative authorities are the joints, the reward and punishment are the nerves, the wealth and wealth of the citizens is the strength , the safety of the people is the occupation of Leviathan, the king’s advisers are memory, justice and laws are reason and will, civil peace is health, distemper is a disease, civil war is death. Herbert Spencer pointed out that growth is characteristic both for society and for the organism. Lilienfeld pointed out that trade resembles blood circulation. Scheffle pointed out that economic life resembles metabolism. Worms compared the workshop with a small gland, a factory with a liver, a commodity with a gland excretion, railways with vessels, a government with a brain. Conclusion: the very comparison of society and the organism is correct, but some metaphors do not help much in scientific research.

The main idea: the mechanism of social evolution is no different from the mechanism of biological evolution, therefore the strongest survives in society. Thus, heredity, variability, natural selection and the struggle for existence are factors of evolution both in society and in the biosphere.

Authors: Thomas Malthus , Herbert Spencer , Joseph Arthur de Gobino , Houston Stewart Chamberlain , Ludwig Voltmann , Georges Yours de Lapouge , Francis Galton , Ludwig Gumplovich . ^[four]

Conclusion: The results of the Nazi experiments on the implementation of the theory of social Darwinism horrified the whole world.

The main idea: the laws of society can be reduced to the laws of psychology. Community life is a game of innate instincts, especially sexual and aggressive instincts. The life of society can be reduced to imitation, to the psychology of the crowd or to the national psychology. The progress of society can be explained by a conscious desire for progress.

Authors: William McDougall , Sigmund Freud , Gabriel Tarde , Gustave Lebon , Moritz Lazarus, Heiman Steinthal , Leicester Frank Ward, Franklin Henry Giddings ^[5] .

Error: psychological reasons did not explain the mechanism of social evolution, as the instincts, the psychology of the crowd, the mechanism of imitation, the "people's soul" were the same today and ten thousand years ago, but society has changed dramatically during this time, these psychological factors cannot be the cause of the progressive development of society. Emile Durkheim proved that psychological causes cannot be the cause of even suicide.

The main idea of ​​behaviorism: human behavior can be reduced to responses to environmental stimuli on the principle of conditioned reflex. Any act of a person can be explained by material reward or the desire to avoid corporal punishment.

The founders of behaviorism: John Brodes Watson , Berres Frederick Skinner ^[6] .

The main idea of ​​the theory of exchange: in the process of social interaction, people exchange goods, services, information, thanks, etc. Before we enter into social interaction, people weigh future rewards and costs. If the expected costs are more than remuneration, then people refuse to engage. The exchange takes place on the principle of "You - me, I - you." In the process of communication, a person is forced to expend efforts to find a common topic for conversation, in order to make our communication sustainable. Human behavior is due to how his actions were rewarded in the past, for example, a man today went fishing because his fishing was successful yesterday. ^[7]

The author of the exchange theory: George Caspar Homans.

The mistake is that the human mind is more complex than the consciousness of the rat, on which Skinner conducted experiments. A man, unlike a rat, has not only conditioned reflexes, but also abstract thinking, oral speech, and the ability to engage in weapon activity.

The main idea: with the help of sign language you can exchange information and exercise psychological control. With the help of playing scenes, you can humiliate or show your high opinion about the person. At work and in politics a person is forced to create his image. "Shameful stigma" interferes with communication. Embarrassment is a sign of an error in the game and an expression of a request to try again.

Authors: George Herbert Mead , Herbert Blumer , Irving Hoffman , Harold Garfinkel ^[8] .

Information exchange and control using gestures is an ancient, primitive method of information exchange and psychological control, which is inherited by man from animal ancestors. In addition, the person has invented other, more modern ways of exchanging information through words and ways of social control through the threat of sanctions and the introduction of stereotypes.

The main idea: a person looks at the world through the prism of his assessments (this thing is good, but this is bad) and acts in accordance with these assessments. He seeks to achieve good and avoid bad. Value systems in different eras differ from each other. The system of values ​​is imposed on a person by his environment in the process of socialization, in the process of assimilating norms. Cultural values are fundamental norms and requirements (imperatives) in society about dignity, beauty, piety, and so on. Axiology is the science of cultural values. ^[9]

Max Weber founded the "understanding sociology" ^[10] . He wrote that a man is doomed to choose between duty and conviction.

The main idea: every organization, every custom, idea or belief has its function in society.

Authors: Herbert Spencer , Emil Durkheim , Bronislav Caspar Malinovsky , Alfred Radcliffe-Brown , Robert King Merton , Peter Sztompka , Tolkott Parsons . ^[eleven]

Malinovsky and Radcliffe-Brown were anthropologists and argued this position on the example of the customs found by them in the primitive societies of Melanesia and the Andaman Islands. Social phenomena that do not have their own functions, such as conflicts, are dysfunction and should disappear. According to Durkheim, a person’s refusal to perform his family and religious functions leads to loneliness and, ultimately, to suicide. Thus, society takes revenge on a person for refusing to perform functions. The function of the crime is that the punishment for this crime allows people to confirm the rules prohibiting the crime. The division of labor between people in society was not in primitive society, where people were similar to each other. In modern society, public opinion hovers over people, which dictates people to perform certain actions. Errors of structural functionalism: underestimation of the role of conflicts in society, the use of overly abstract concepts, the lack of classification of the stages of development of society.

The main idea: social conflicts are inevitable, but they need to be settled. Coser believed that conflicts give way to major innovations, prevent the "ossification" of society, are the cause of the development of society. The functions of conflict, according to Koser, are that they contribute to defusing tensions and are “diversion channels”, through conflicts they get to know each other better. Dahrendorf believed that conflict is the result of resistance to relations of domination and subordination, that conflict is a generator of change, that the suppression of conflict leads to its exacerbation, and settling - to a controlled evolution. A person subordinate at work can calm his vanity by becoming a leader and supervisor during off-duty hours - in a sports team, in a church community, in a party organization, etc. It is impossible to influence the causes of conflicts, but the intensity of conflicts can be reduced. The state, the court, the press - these institutions settle conflicts. Geiger believes that in the 20th century, the methods, tools and techniques of class struggle were officially recognized and legally formalized by society, thanks to which they were put under control. The class struggle today proceeds according to certain rules and, therefore, has lost its point. Capital and labor enter into mutual compromises, negotiate dispute resolution and thus determine the working conditions - the level of wages and the duration of the working day. The West is no longer threatened by the socialist revolution, so Marx was wrong in his predictions. There are three methods of conflict resolution - the method of avoidance, conquest or conquest.

The authors of the conflict school: Lewis Coser , Georg Simmel , Ralph Dahrendorf , Theodor Geiger ^[12] .

Conclusion: the conflict can be settled only when the loser recognizes the fact that he has become the object of control by the winner or ceded his sphere of influence to the winner. Until this recognition, the goal of resolving a conflict is an impossible task. You can only settle the question of the price of willingness to obey.

The main idea: technology develops independently of the will of man according to the law of endless improvement of technical parameters. Within this area there is a discussion between technocrats and technophobes. The first are optimistic and believe that the development of technology will solve all problems, for example, to solve environmental problems need filters, septic tanks, etc. The second believe that humanity will die from technology, for example from a bad environment or as a result of the war with robots, therefore to break technical devices, for example, Luddites in England broke mechanical looms; you need to escape to an uninhabited island or to the taiga. Time will tell who is right in this discussion ^[13] .

Authors: Samuel Butler , Thorstein Bunde Veblen , Marshall McLuhan .

Veblen made a prediction about the revolution of managers, during which power will pass from entrepreneurs to technocrats, but this prediction turned out to be utopia. Marshall McLuhan divided the story into three periods, depending on the change in communications.

Many sociologists tried to create a theory of the synthesis of these schools and trends in sociology in order to unite in one theory all the best that has been accumulated in other schools. Tolkott Parsons tried to do this on the basis of the union of axiology and structural functionalism. Homans tried to do this on the basis of the theory of exchange. Integrative theory has not yet been created.

• History of sociology
• Cultural values
• Sociology of revolution
• Positivism
• Comte Auguste

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