Introduction to Sociology/Famous Sociologists

Sociologist	Time Period	School of Thought	Most Well-Known Contributions
Comte, Auguste	1798-1857	positivism	coined the term "Sociology"; founder of positivism; developed the Law of three stages
Durkheim, Émile	1858-1917	structural functionalism; solidarism	well-known for several books, including: Suicide, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life; The Division of Labour in Society; started the first journal of sociology; also asserted that there are social facts
Marx, Karl	1818-1883	socialism; conflict theory	explained the origins and functioning of Capitalism; advocated socialism; argued that the history of all societies is rooted in class conflict
Spencer, Herbert	1820-1903	social darwinism	created a lengthy volume on sociology; applied Darwinian evolution to social life; coined the phrase "survival of the fittest"
Simmel, Georg	1858-1918		most well-known for his work on social structure and life in large cities
Veblen, Thorstein	1857-1929		most well-known for his book The Theory of the Leisure Class
Cooley, Charles Horton	1864-1929	symbolic interactionism	most well-known for his concept of the looking-glass self
Mead, George Herbert	1863-1931	symbolic interactionism	developed symbolic interactionism
Weber, Max	1864-1920	verstehen	well known for several books, including The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Parsons, Talcott	1902-1979	structural functionalism	formalized the theory of structural functionalism
Garfinkel, Harold	1917-2011	ethnomethodology	developed the methodological and theoretical approach of ethnomethodology
Goffman, Erving	1922-1982	symbolic interactionism	most well-known for his ideas involving dramaturgy and his books Stigma and The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
Bourdieu, Pierre	1930-2002		most well-known for his cultural capital and habitus