Dicotomies And Dualities In Sociology Based On The Progressive History Thesis

Abstract

Dealing with the developmental stages of social changes and going to the roots of the effects of these transformations and changes is the main subject of historical sociology. The method of historical sociology for this purpose is the study of classical sociological works. In this study, we have tried to analyse the thesis of progressive history in terms of conceptual dichotomies and dualities. This is done in order to penetrate into the intellectual background of the birth of modern sociology on the European continent as an event and to analyse the system of meanings in this background. As we know, the idea of creating a new society in Europe is one of the main factors that crystallised the existence of modern sociology. In general, the idea of transformation and change depends on a philosophical understanding, which has emerged in the name of innovation in Europe. It can be said that the most powerful of the philosophical foundations of this idea is the philosophy of the Enlightenment, and the thesis of progressive history is one of the theses with high functionality in the transformation of that period. One of the aims of this article is to evaluate the strong relationship between the birth of sociology and the progressive historical thesis through the founding/leading names, and to reveal the intellectual codes and patterns of the developing course of sociology. In order to realise this aim, an attempt has been made to make historical sociology by considering the dichotomous and dualistic concepts in the theories of Auguste Comte, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, Max Weber and Herbert Spencer, who lived in the countries of France, Germany and England where sociology was born and went down in history as the founding names of sociology.