SOCIOLOGY

Sociology

[Name of the institute]Sociology

Enlightenment and Social Change

Enlightenment social science, one of the major eighteenth-century achievements, began in the claim to apply scientific criteria to thought about society. The hope of building a science of man, both man as an individual and man living in society, was characteristic of the Enlightenment. The “human sciences” could be founded on a scientific and empirical basis, with the study of a variety of human societies in both space and time. Even the established discipline of history could be improved by what were believed to be the methods of the natural sciences. This Enlightenment social science was not morally neutral. The philosophers hoped to found moral philosophy, and thus morality, on a scientific rather than a religious basis (Houston 2004, 14).

The term Enlightenment has become standard in discussing the progressive and (mostly) secularly minded intellectuals, or philosophers, of eighteenth-century Europe and North America. However, enlightened individuals and movements varied in their opinions of many things, including science, and the Enlightenment should not be treated as a set of dogmas. Science unquestionably played a leading role in Enlightenment thought and culture, although most writers preferred the older term natural philosophy. Many of the most important thinkers and writers of the Enlightenment came from scientific backgrounds, and the majority took an informed interest in scientific developments. A common career pattern was for a philosopher to establish a reputation in the sciences before turning to social or political questions. This path was followed by Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, and Benjamin Franklin, among others. Even more important, the progress of science furnished a model for the Enlightenment itself. As many enlightened thinkers saw it, science had made enormous advances in the great age of the seventeenth century by throwing off traditional authorities Aristotle and the church and boldly assuming the right to think and speak freely. It was the thinkers of the Enlightenment, and not the scientific revolution itself, who freely applied the term revolution to changes in natural philosophy. Even if some scientific ideas became outmoded, the philosophies believed that the empirical and mathematical methods of modern science could be applied to all spheres of thought, and would result in similar intellectual progress. Science was also the one area in which the moderns surpassed not just all previous Western Christian civilization, but also the much admired ancient pagans, and was thus indisputable proof of the truth of progress. Among the moderns, Isaac Newton (1642-1727), in particular, was virtually deified as the greatest man who ever lived. However, many philosophies attacked what Newton himself had seen as the central feature of his system: the alliance between the system of nature and the fundamentally religious truth of the providence of God (George 2006, 136).

Stages of History and Progress

All efforts to assist the poor and needy started from the Church and inspired by charity. It was a field of activity created by the Church centuries ago, as an essential part of their presence in the world and then fostered ...