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Classical Sociological Theory and Foundations of American Sociology: Chapter 2: The Causes

Classical Sociological Theory and Foundations of American Sociology
Chapter 2: The Causes
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table of contents
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright
  3. Table Of Contents
  4. Introduction
    1. Aims and Goals
    2. Organization Overview
      1. Outline of the Textbook
      2. Translating Passages
      3. Modernizing the Text
      4. Some Useful History
        1. Ten Things Marx, Weber, and Durkheim Took for Granted about the History of the World that you Might Want to Read More About
      5. Suggested Further Reading
      6. Timelines (Marx, Weber, and Durkheim)
      7. Major Themes
  5. Downloads
  6. Marx and Engels
    1. Biography of Marx by F. Engels (1868)
    2. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
      1. Introduction
    3. Marx on Wages
      1. Introduction
      2. Ch. 19: The Transformation of the Value or Price of Labor Power into Wages
    4. Marx on Wage Labor and Capital
      1. Introduction
      2. Wage Labor and Capital
      3. The Nature and Growth of Capital
      4. Relation of Wage-Labor to Capital
    5. Value, Price and Profit
      1. Introduction
      2. Value and Labor
      3. The Different Parts into Which Surplus Value is Decomposed
      4. Attempts at Raising Wages
      5. The Struggle Between Capital and Labor and Its Results
    6. Capital, part 1
      1. Introduction
      2. Part I: Commodities
      3. Part II: Transformation of Money Into Capital
      4. Part III: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value
    7. Capital, part 2
      1. Introduction
      2. Part VII: The Accumulation of Capital
      3. Part VIII: Primitive Accumulation
    8. Eighteenth Brumaire
      1. Introduction
      2. Opening Passages
      3. Part Two
      4. Part Three
      5. Part Four
      6. Part Five
      7. Part Six
      8. Part Seven
    9. Principles of Communism
      1. Introduction
      2. Principles of Communism
    10. The Duchess of Sutherland and Slavery
      1. Introduction
      2. The Duchess of Sutherland and Slavery
    11. Revolution is Coming
      1. Introduction
      2. Marx's Speech on the Toast to the Proletarians of Europe
    12. The Communist Manifesto
      1. Introduction
      2. Bourgeois and Proletarians
      3. Proletarians and Communists
    13. Concepts/Dictionary
  7. Durkheim
    1. Biography of Durkheim
    2. Rules of Method (1895)
      1. Introduction
      2. Part I: The Rules of Sociological Method
        1. Introduction
        2. What is a Social Fact?
      3. Part II
        1. Chapter 2: Rules for the Observation of Social Facts
          1. Section 1. Treat Social Facts as Things
          2. Section 2. Guidelines for Sociologists
          3. Section 3. Rules on the Distinction Between Normal and Pathological
    3. Division of Labor, Introduction
      1. Introduction
      2. Preface
      3. Book One
        1. Ch. 1: The Method for Determining this Function
        2. Ch. 2: Mechanical Solidarity Through Likeness
        3. Ch. 3: Organic Solidarity Due to the Division of Labor
        4. Ch. 4: Further Proof of the Preceding
        5. Ch. 5: Progressive Preponderance of Organic Solidarity
        6. Ch. 6: Progressive Preponderance cont.
        7. Ch. 7: Organic Solidarity and Contractual Solidarity
      4. Book 2
        1. Ch. 1: The Progress of the Division of Labor and of Happiness
        2. Ch. 2: The Causes
        3. Ch 3. Secondary Factors--Progressive Indeterminancy
        4. Ch. 4: Secondary Factors--Heredity
        5. Ch. 5: Consequences of the Preceding
      5. Book 3
        1. Ch. 1: The Anomic Division of Labor
        2. Ch. 2: The Forced Division of Labor
        3. Ch. 3: Another Abnormal Form
    4. Division of Labor, Book 1
      1. Introduction
      2. Chapter 3: Organic Solidarity Due to the Division of Labor
      3. Chapter 4: Further Proof the Preceding
      4. Chapter 5: Progressive Preponderance of Organic Solidarity; Its Consequences
      5. Chapter 6: Progressive Preponderance of Organic Solidarity, cont.
    5. Division of Labor, Book 2
      1. Introduction
      2. Chapter 2: The Causes
      3. Chapter 5: Consequences
    6. Division of Labor, Book 3
      1. Introduction
      2. Chapter 1: The Anomic Division of Labor
      3. Chapter 2: The Forced Division of Labor
      4. Conclusion
    7. Le Suicide (1897) - Introduction/Book 2
      1. Introduction
      2. Book Two: Social Causes and Social Types
        1. Ch. 1: Method of Determining Them
        2. Ch. 2: Egotistical Suicide
        3. Ch. 3: Egotistical Suicide, cont.
        4. Ch. 4: Altruistic Suicide
        5. Ch. 5: Anomic Suicide
    8. Education and Sociology (1922)
      1. Introduction
      2. The Nature and Role of Education
        1. Part 1: Different Definitions of Education
        2. Part 2: Defining Education
        3. Part 3: The Social Character of Education
        4. Part 4: The Role of the State in the Matter of Education
        5. Part 5: The Power of Education and the Means of its Influence
    9. Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912)
      1. Introduction
      2. Part 1: The Sociological Study of Religion
      3. Part 2: Theories of Knowledge
    10. EXTRA: Review of Année Sociologique (1898) article
    11. EXTRA: Review of Suicide by Havelock Ellis
    12. Concepts/Dictionary
  8. Weber
    1. Biography of Weber
    2. Methodological Foundations of Sociology (1921)
      1. Introduction
      2. Methodological Foundations of Sociology
        1. Point 1: Meanings are Empirically Situated
        2. Point 2: We cannot always find the intentions of the actors
        3. Point 3: The goal of interpretation is to generate evidence about the world, and we can do this both rationally and empathetically
        4. Point 4: Meaningless actions are still important insofar they impact social actions
        5. Point 5: Sociological understaning is explanatory
        6. Point 6: Sociological understanding is hypothetical
        7. Point 7: Motives of actions are crucial to sociological interpretation because they are related to causality
        8. Point 8: Meaningless actions are not unimportant, but they are not sociological facts
        9. Point 9: Individuals...are the intelligible performers of meaningful actions
        10. Point 10: Sociology is distinct from psychology
        11. Point 11: Sociology is distinct from the discipline of history
    3. PESOC, part 1
      1. Introduction
      2. Part 1: The Problem
        1. Chapter 1. Religious Belief and Social Layering
        2. Chapter 2. The "Spirit" of Capitalism
        3. Chapter 3. Understanding Luther's Conception of Beruf (Calling)
    4. PESOC, part 2
      1. Introduction
      2. Part 2: The Vocational Ethic of the Ascetic Braches of Protestantism
        1. Chapter 4. The Religious Foundations of Worldly Ascetism
        2. Chapter 5. Ascetism and the Spirit of Capitalism
    5. The Development of Commerce
      1. Introduction
      2. Chapter 14: Points of Departure in the Development of Commerce
      3. Chapter 15: Technical Requisites for the Transportation of Goods
      4. Chapter 16: Forms of Organization of Transportation and Commerce
      5. Chapter 17: Forms of Commercial Enterprise
      6. Chapter 21: Interests in the Pre-Capitalistic Period
    6. The Rational State
      1. Introduction
      2. The Rational State
        1. A. The State Itself; Law and Officialdom
        2. B. The Economic Policy of the Rational State
        3. C. Mercantilism
    7. The Evolution of the Capitalistic Spirit
      1. Introduction
      2. The Evolution of the Capitalistic Spirit
    8. Politics as a Vocation
      1. Introduction
      2. Lecture
    9. Bureaucracy
      1. Introduction
      2. Part 3, Chapter 6, Section 7: Bureaucracy
    10. CSP
      1. Introduction
      2. Introduction on Power
      3. Distribution of Power within a Gemeinschaft Community
        1. Classes
        2. Status Groups (Stände)
        3. Parties
    11. Concepts/Dictionary
  9. Early American Sociology
    1. Biography of Early American Sociologists
      1. William Graham Sumner
      2. Lester Frank Ward
      3. Albion Woodbury Small
      4. Franklin Henry Giddings
      5. Thorstein Veblen
      6. Charlotte Perkinds Gilman
      7. Jane Addams
      8. Robert Ezra Park
      9. Charles Horton Cooley
      10. Edward Alsworth Ross
      11. W.E.B. Du Bois
      12. Charles Abram Ellwood
    2. Comparison of Spencer and Ward by Barnes (1919)
      1. Introduction
      2. The Sociological View of the State
        1. Part I: Sumner, General Characteristics of His Sociological Thought
        2. Part 2: Ward; General Characteristics of His Sociological System
    3. Thorstein Veblen, on Labor(1898)
      1. Introduction
      2. The Instinct of Wokrmanship and the Irksomeness of Labor
    4. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Women and Economics (1898)
      1. Introduction
      2. Preface
      3. Chapter 1
      4. Chapter 15
    5. Du Bois on The Study of Social Problems (1898)
      1. Introduction
      2. The Study of Social Problems
        1. Development of the Problems
        2. The Present Problems
        3. The Work Already Accomplished
        4. A Program of Future Study
    6. Jane Addams, “Trade Unions and Public Duty” (1899)
      1. Introduction
      2. Trades Unions
    7. Edward A. Ross on Social Control (1900)
      1. Introduction
      2. Social Control
    8. Charles A. Ellwood on Revolution (1905)
      1. Introduction
      2. Revolutions
    9. Charles Horton Cooley, “Social Consciousness” (1907)
      1. Introduction
      2. Social Mind in General
      3. Social and Individual Aspects of Consciousness
      4. Social Will
    10. Lester Ward, “Social Classes” (1908)
      1. Introduction
      2. Social Classes and Inequalities
    11. Franklin H. Giddings on Theory and Public Policy (1911)
      1. Introduction
      2. Theory and Public Policy
        1. Evolution is Simple or Compound
        2. Can war then be outlawed and generally prevented?
    12. Small on the Sociological Point of View (1920)
      1. Introduction
      2. The Sociologists' Point of View
        1. "Why need we study society?"
  10. Creative Commons License
  11. Recommended Citations
  12. Versioning

Chapter 2. The Causes

What causes the progress of the division of labor?  [It is not a quest for happiness (see Chapter 1, not included here)]

Part 1. Moral/Dynamic Density

It is in certain variation of the social context that we must search for that which explains the progress of the division of labor.  The results of Book 1 allows us to immediately see what those variations are.

We have already seen how the organized structure and the division of labor developed as the segmented structure faded away.  So, it is either that this fading away is the cause of the development of the division of labor, or that the development of the division of labor is the cause of the fading away.  We know that the latter option won’t work because segmentation is an obstacle to the division of labor, and it must have weakened at least partially in order for the division of labor to arise.  Once the division of labor appears, it can contribute to the fading away of the segmental structure, but we only see it once the fading away has already begun.

But the fading of the segmented structure can have this consequence for only one reason.  Its waning allows individuals who were previously separated to come into more contact with others.  Social life, instead of being concentrated in like pods, becomes generalized.  Social relations multiply.  The division of labor develops when there are more individual people sufficiently in contact with each other to act and react upon one another.  We can call this relation and the active exchange resulting from it dynamic or moral density.  Thus, the progress of the division of labor is in direct ratio to the moral or dynamic density of society.

This relationship can only produce this effect if the real distance between individuals is itself diminished in some way.  Moral density cannot grow unless material density grows at the same time.  We can use material density as a measure of moral density.

The progressive condensation of societies in the course of historical development is produced in three ways:

  1. Where early groups of people were spread out over large areas relative to their small population, population is concentrated among advanced peoples. Dispersion over a large area was necessary for the work of nomads, hunters, and shepherds. In contrast, agriculture requires a settled life, and presupposes a certain restriction of society in spatial terms, although there remain stretches of land between families.  As cities developed, condensation was even greater.  From their origins, European societies have seen a continuous growth in their density.
  2. Thus, the formation and development of cities is key. Cities always result from the need of individuals to be in close contact with others. It is here that the social mass can contract more strongly than anywhere else.  New recruits arrive by immigration.  As long as social organization is segmented, cities cannot truly exist.  There are no cities in early-stage societies.[1]
  3. Finally, communication and transportation are made easier and faster. By decreasing the gaps separating segments of society, new forms of communication and transportation increase the density of society.

If condensation of society produces more division of labor, it is because it multiplies intra-social relations.  These relations will be even more frequent if the number of population rises.  In other words, if there are both more individuals who are at the same time more intimately in contact with each other, the effect is stronger.  Both social volume (the number of people) and social density (the concentration of people) increase the division of labor.

We offer the following proposition: The division of labor varies in direct ratio with the volume and density of societies; if the division of labor progresses in a continuous way in the course of social development, it is because societies generally get denser and more populous.

Part 3. Intensification of the struggle for existence

If labor becomes every more divided as societies become denser and more populous, it is not because there are more varied external circumstances, but because the struggle for existence is more ardent.

Darwin rightly observed that the struggle between two creatures is as active as they are similar. Having the same needs and the same objects, they are rivals.  So long as there are enough resources for both, they can live side by side, but when resources become insufficient for them both, war breaks out.  It is very different if the two creatures are of different species or variations.  Since they do not eat the same things or live the same kind of life, they do not disturb each other.  The chances of conflict diminish.  Animals and plants thrive when they differ.

People are the same. In the same town, different jobs can co-exist.  They each pursue different objects: the soldier seeks glory, the priest moral authority, the politician power, the person of business wealth, the scholar academic fame.  Each can attain her end without preventing the others from attaining theirs.  The optometrist does not struggle with the psychiatrist, nor the shoemaker with the hatter, nor the bricklayer with the cabinetmaker, nor the physicist with the chemist. Since they each perform different services, they can all perform then in parallel.

The closer the functions, however, the more contact and the more exposed to conflict.  Just as with animals that seek the same food, they inevitably seek to limit each other’s development.  The judge may never be in competition with the person of business, but the brewer and the vintner, the poet and the musician, do try to supplant each other.  And for those with exactly the same function?  They can succeed only to the detriment of others.

That said, it is easy now to understand how all concentration of the social mass, especially when accompanied by an increase in population, necessarily advances the division of labor.

[Specialization occurs as a cure of side-by-side conflicts]

The division of labor is a result of the struggle for existence, but it is a relaxed end to it. Because of the division of labor, would-be opponents are not forced to fight to death, but can instead exist beside each other. In addition, as it develops it provides the means of maintenance and survival to a greater number of people who, in more homogeneous societies, would be condemned to extinction.  [So, it is that in modern societies those that may be weak physically can still find a good position using their brain. Everyone has talents unique to them that can be put to use. No one need to be condemned as wholly useless]

Economists regard the division of labor differently than what we have discussed here.  For them, it is essentially about increasing production. But we have seen that greater productivity is only a necessary consequence of the underlying phenomenon. If we specialize it is not in order to produce more but to allow us to live under new conditions of existence [denser and more populous societies].

Annotate

Next Chapter
Chapter 5: Consequences
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Copyright © 2019 by Allison Hurst. Classical Sociological Theory and Foundations of American Sociology by Allison Hurst is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
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