SOCIOL 2S06 Lecture Notes - The Philadelphia Negro, Georg Simmel, Social Forces
22 Apr 2013
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Document Summary
The theoretical ideas of du bois: theoretical orientation. He never presented an overarching theory or society. He distrusted the grand theory produced in the 19th c. Du bois" work was quite different from marx, weber and durkheim as these theorists did write about overarching theory and were interested in grand theory. On the other hand, du bois was much more interested in developing theory that focused on specific issues and problems in society. Therefore, his work was similar to the work of simmel (looking at smaller aspects of society) He was not interested in deduction --> uninterested in taking theoretical ideas and testing them against empirical observations. He was interested in induction --> begin with empirical observations and then develop theoretical ideas. Similarity to marx, du bois did not distinguish between theory and practice --> uninterested in theory; only interested in developing sociological theory as a way of advancing political practice.
