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Auguste Comte
- French
- Father of sociology
- Positivism
- Techniques to prevent personal biases in research
- Translated Positive Philosophy in attempt to remedy the social malaise of the French Revolution
- Influenced by the utopian socialist Henri Saint-Simon
- Social theories culminated in his "Religion of Humanity", which presented the development of religious humanist and secular humanist organizations in the 19th century
- Influenced the thought of Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, and George Elliot
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Harriet Martineau
- English
- Social Reformer
- Introduced feminism
- Often known as the first female sociologist
- Wrote many books and essays from a sociological, holistic, religious, domestic, and feminine perspective
- Translated various works from Auguste Comte.
- Earned enough to be entirely supported by her writing
- Princess Victoria enjoyed reading her publications and got invited to the queens coronation in 1838
- Believed a thorough societal analysis was necessary to understand women's status under men
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Karl Marx
- German
- Class conflict in social change
- Philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist
- Spent adult life in London, England, where he continued to develop his thought in collaboration with Friedrich Engels
- His work influenced intellectual, economic, and political history
- His theories about society, economics and politics (Marxism), show that human societies develop through class struggle
- Described as one of the most influential figures in human history
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Herbert Spencer
- English
- Evolutionary social change
- Social Darwinism
- Contributed to ethics, religion, anthropology, economics, political theory, philosophy, literature, astronomy, biology, sociology, and psychology as a polymath
- Achieved a lot of authority in English-speaking academia
- Single most famous European intellectual in the closing decades of the nineteenth century
- Best know for the expression "survival of the fittest"
- Made use of Lamarckism
- Developed a conception of evolution
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Emile Durkheim
- French
- Established the academic discipline
- Commonly known as the principal architect of modern social science
- His work was concerned with how societies could maintain integrity and coherence in modernity
- First major sociological work was "The Division of Labour in Society" (1893)
- In 1895, he published "The Rules of Sociological Method" and set up the first European department of sociology
- First professor of sociology in France
- Dominant force in French in intellectual life
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Jane Adams
- American
- First women to be awarded the Noble Peace Prize
- Considered a social worker
- Leader in women's suffrage and world peace
- Created first settlement house in the United States (Chicago's Hull House)
- Helped America to address and focus on issues that were a concern to mothers such as the needs of children, local public health, and world peace
- Role model for middle-class women who volunteered to uplift their communities -Founder of the social work profession in the United States
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Max Weber
- German
- Rationalization
- Ideas influenced social theory and social research
- Key part of methodological anti-positivism, and argued for the study of social action through interpretive rather than empiricist
- Did not believe on mono-causality and proposed that there can be multiple causes for any outcome
- Main intellectual concern was understanding the processes of rationalization, secularization, and disenchantment
- Combined economic sociology and the sociology of religion
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W.E.B DuBois
- American
- Pan African movement
- Social Structure of African American communities
- Co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
- Leader of Niagara Movement (a group of African-American activists who wanted equal rights for blacks)
- Peace activist
- Advocated nuclear disarmament
- Surveyed the American Soldiers in France and documented widespread bigotry in the United States military
- Insisted on full civil rights and increased political representation