Functionalism and Structuralism - Research Article from Encyclopedia of Sociology

This encyclopedia article consists of approximately 18 pages of information about Functionalism and Structuralism.

Functionalism and Structuralism - Research Article from Encyclopedia of Sociology

This encyclopedia article consists of approximately 18 pages of information about Functionalism and Structuralism.
This section contains 4,992 words
(approx. 17 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Functionalism and Structuralism Encyclopedia Article

Sociology's first theoretical orientation was functionalism. In trying to legitimate the new discipline of sociology, Auguste Comte (1830–1842, 1851–1854) revived analogies made by the Greeks and, closer to his time, by Hobbes and Rousseau that society is a kind of organism. In so doing, Comte effectively linked sociology with the prestige of biological science. For functional theory, then, society is like a biological organism that grows, and as a consequence, its parts can be examined with respect to how they operate (or function) to maintain the viability of the body social as it grows and develops. As Comte emphasized (1851–1854, p. 239), there is a "true correspondence between Statical Analysis of the Social Organism in Sociology, and that of the Individual Organism in Biology" (1851–1854, p. 239). Moreover, Comte went so far as to "decompose structure anatomically into elements, tissues, and organs" (1851–1854, p. 240) and to "treat the Social Organism as...

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This section contains 4,992 words
(approx. 17 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Functionalism and Structuralism Encyclopedia Article
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Functionalism and Structuralism from Macmillan. Copyright © 2001-2006 by Macmillan Reference USA, an imprint of the Gale Group. All rights reserved.