Sociological foundations: early theorists and theories

This chapter introduces you to the foundational theorists and theories that represent the birth of sociology as an academic discipline. We cover only a selection of key theorists; we acknowledge that this is not an exhaustive list. In providing this overview, rather than offering an in-depth evaluation, we highlight some of the key ideas of each theorist. Our aim is to help you gain an awareness of the range of foundational sociological theories you are likely to encounter in the wider literature. Often referred to as ‘classical sociology’, the theories of Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Georg Simmel are generally regarded as those of the ‘founding fathers’ of the discipline. You will note the masculine bias here—the foundational theorists are all men. According to recent feminist writing, the ‘traditional telling of the history of sociological theory has been shaped by a politics of gender that tends to emphasize male achievement and erase female contributions’ (Lengermann & Niebrugge-Brantley 2004, p. 271). The absence of women is assumed to be a reflection of the relative status and position of men and women in society during the 1800s, when sociology first developed. Few women received a formal education in this era, and most girls were educated at home. Even accomplished women had to struggle for recognition and appreciation of their work. Recent sociological writing has attempted to address the gender imbalance in the telling of the history of sociology by incorporating women whose work has been overlooked or forgotten, such as early sociologist and feminist Harriet Martineau, among others (see Abbott, Wallace & Tyler 2005; Lengermann & Niebrugge-Brantley 2004).3r