INTELLECTUAL FORCES AND THE RISE OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

Although social factors are important, the primary focus of this chapter is the intellectual forces that played a central role in shaping sociological theory. In real world, of course, intellectual factors cannot be separated from social factors. The many intellectual forces that shaped the development of social theories are discussed within the national context where their influence was primarily felt, we begin with the enlightenment and its influences on the development of sociological theory in France.

THE ENLIGHTENMENT

In the view of many observers that the enlightenment constitutes a critical development in terms of the later revolution of sociology. The enlightenment was a period of remarkable intellectual development  and change in philosophical thought. A member of long standing ideas and beliefs many of which related to social life were overthrown and replaced during the enlightenment. The most prominent thinkers associated with the enlightenment were the French philosophers Charles Montesquieu and Jean Jacques Rousseau. The influence of the enlightenment on sociological theory, however, was more indirect and negative than it was direct and positive. As Irving Zeitlin put it, "Early sociology developed as a reaction to the Enlightenment".The thinkers associated with the Enlightenment were influenced, above all, by two intellectual currents- seventeenth century philosophy and science. Overall, the enlightenment was characterized by the belief that people could comprehend and control the universe by means of reason and empirical research (field research). The theorists who were most directly and positively influenced by enlightenment thinking were Alexis De Tocqueville and Karl Marx, although the latter formed his early theoretical ideas in Germany.

THE CONSERVATIVE REACTION TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT

The most extreme form of opposition to enlightenment ideas was French Catholic Counterrevolutionary philosophy, as represented by the ideas of Louis De Bonald, Josepho De Maistre. Louis De Bonald was disturbed by the revolutionary change  and yearned for a return to the peace and harmony of the middle ages. In this view, God was the source of society, therefore reason, which was so important to the enlightenment philosophers, was seen as inferior to traditional religious beliefs, furthermore, it was believed that because God had created society, people should not temper with it and should not try to change a holy creation. 

Bonald opposed anything that undermined such traditional institutions as patriarchy, the monogamous family the monarchy and the catholic church. He represented a rather extreme form of the conservative reaction, his work constitute a useful introduction to its general premises. The conservatives turned away from what they considered the "naive" rationalism of the enlightenment. They not only recognized the irrational aspects of social life but also assigned them positive value.

Zeitlin outlined ten propositions that he sees as emerging from the conservative reaction and providing the basis for the development of classical French sociological theory. 

1. Emphasis on individual (enlightenment thinkers)
2. Society is the most important unit of analysis
3. Individual was not even considered as the most basic element within society
4. The part of society are seen as interrelated and interdependent.
5. Change was seen as a threat to the society
6. To the see large-scale components of society as useful to society and the individual.
7. Small units such as the family, religious, neighborhood as essential to the society and the individual.
8. To see various modern social changes- industrialization, urbanization, and bureaucratization -disorganizing effects.
9. Social changes were leading to rational society- conservative reaction leads to non rational factors (ritual, ceremony, worship) in social life.
10. Conservatives supported the existence of a hierarchical system in society.

The ten proposition, derived from the conservative reaction to enlightenment, should be seen as the immediate intellectual basis of the development of sociological theory in France.