Comte thought the study of sociology was another science and believed all societies go through three stages, the theological/fictitious stage where society believes in gods/ goddess and myths, the second stage is the metaphysical/ abstract stage where society believes that something is there but are not sure what and the final stage is the scientific/ rational/ positive stage where human beings can explain and control things for themselves. He went on to say that not everyone gets to stage three at the same time and at the time of writing he believed France was moving on to it because of the French revolution which over powered the church, he also said that not every individual and every society go through the stages at the same time. Comte was living in a time of scientific revolution, where new discoveries were being made etc. At stage three he believed you get the emergence of sociology, he said that in the study of sociology you should use scientific methods to explain human behaviour and to do this you should use accurate observations and get quantitative data so you get an right and wrong answer. Comte said the main purpose of sociology was for it to be a vocational subject on how to improve the life style of human beings; it’s a tool for the government.
Durkheim was another functionalist to comment on this, he believed that there was a Reification of society, where society had an existence of its own. According to Durkheim society is an abstract thing, it is as real as a table, and it’s reacting against individualism, because you don’t have much freewill and you’re controlled and constrained by the society you’re brought up in. He believed in the collective conscience, he felt that this was real and that shared norms and values are not questioned because people believe what society tells them an example of this is that America accepted racism as the norm whereas in Britain racism is frowned upon. Durkheim also put forward the idea of anomie where there are no norms in a society, if a society has anomie it means that the collective conscience has broken down, which will lead to society collapsing for Durkheim this is a bad situation as people need an agreement on what’s right and wrong, but he thinks this very rarely occurs but usually caused by natural disasters I.E. people looting after hurricane Katrina, in the society before the disaster this was not the norm but the collective conscience had been broken down by the disaster and caused people to do things they wouldn’t normally do. Durkheim like Comte believed sociology was science and that it was a social fact as they were looking at something that is measurable, when studying human behaviour Durkheim looked for the things you could measure for example in his suicide study he was concerned with what the person was thinking or what was going on in their mind he was concerned in the nature of society and what was happening in society to cause people to commit suicide.
Talcott Parsons was another functionalist that looked into the theory of sociology, he believed that sociology was established as a discipline and agrees with Durkheim idea that society is a collective conscience and that society needs common values, and went on to say the main task of sociology is to see how the common values are established which he believed was socialisation; primary and secondary. He put forward four functional prerequisites known as the GAIL model. The first was Goal attainment in which all societies need a goal and something to aim for such as the march of progress, society wont be the same forever, so you need a political system to set goals and change when needed. The second function was Adaptation; the relationship between people and their environment, which is established through the economy. The third part of the model is Integration, where some sort of co-ordination is needed in society and people who deviate from the norm are stopped by the legal system. The fourth and final part of the model is Latency; tension management, there is always going to be people upset, but they have to try and keep people happy and in control this is achieved through family, religion and education as it makes people feel better. Talcott Parsons also put forward the idea that there is social change and that society does change over time, but the changes should always be slow and casual. The March of progress is always likely to change for the better for example homosexuality is now accepted in some societies so religion should keep up and change their views on it to and on things such as women’s rights. He also believed that in human society there was moving equilibrium, which is another idea that comes from science and says that if you change one thing other things will change to fit with it like family, religion and education.
Merton was another sociologist writing in the 20th century and questions assumptions made by other functionalists. The first thing he thought was that he doesn’t think that everything in society is functional for example religion can be a devise for disruption, particularly in societies with plurality for example N. Ireland. Merton also didn’t agree with moving equilibrium where when one thing changes others change too, he believed that one aspect of society can change and others can stay the same, he called this functional autonomy. He also disagreed with Parsons idea that all parts of society perform positive functions he believed that some parts have no function and that some parts of society can be dysfunctional for some but positive for others and he introduces the idea of conflicts of interest to functionalism. Merton also believed that you cant simply assume society is well integrated and that you must investigate empirically and develop theories of the middle range where you look at specific features of specific societies and not just use Parsons idea of the grand theory. Merton also contributes the idea of manifest and latent functions; manifest being official functions E.G. the rain dance to make it rain at times of drought and latent functions or hidden functions E.G. the rain dance reinforces solidarity at a difficult time.
Overall the functionalist view of sociology is to view it like a science and they use science as a way of looking at everything in society such as viewing society as a human body or by the methods they use when doing research, this can be good but also has its down sides as sociologists such as Durkheim don’t look in to things that are going on in people heads which could be said to be the main reason things happen in society. They are too deterministic and don’t look at the individual enough and over emphasis the functions that society has on the individual and that individuals are shaped by the society they are brought up in and have no free will. They also seem to not look at the dysfunctions of society and don’t look at the conflict that things like religion can cause they focus mainly on the positives and seem to over look the negatives.
