SOCI 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Émile Durkheim, Anomie, Social Fact
26 Sep 2016
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Studied social facts and decided to make a science that studied social facts. Functionalism posits that individual social institutions function as pieces of society as a whole. Established sociology as a unique academic discipline. Durkheim focused on solidarity and spoke of anomie in his book suicide. Anomie is a condition in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals. Anomie is basically a disconnect between society and the individual, and durkheim posited that anomie arose from a mismatch between individual or group standards and the wider societal standards. Materialism in sociology means that a person"s material condition (economic situation) determines how they view the world (ie people in a capitalistic economy value private property) Idealism is the idea that ideas cause material conditions and change. In his book the protestant ethic , weber claimed that protestantism caused capitalism, an example of sociological idealism. Emphasized rationalization as historical process that defined social evolution.
