STATICS AND DYNAMIC SOCIOLOGY
For Comte, the difference between the periods of harmony and social stability compared to those of progress and social development was similar to the distinction in biology between anatomy and physiology. Thus, he regarded social stability and social progress as correlative aspects of the same system. Although Comte approached human society as analogous to a biological organism,
August Comte devided sociology into Static and Dynamic, which are related to the philosophy. The idea of this division comes from biology which is the major discipline of Hierarchy of sciences. In fact, the notion of social statics and social as deal with the idea of social progress and human Deplopment. These basic concepts discover those laws that make order and er and progress possible. In vol. Il of his Positive Philosophy comte wrote: “The distinction is not between two classes of facts, between two aspects of theory. It corresponds with the double conception of order and progress: for order consists … in a permanent harmony among the conditions of social existence, and Progress consists in social development.” It seems Statics and Dynamics, Progress and Order are interrelated to each other. Statics studies the conditions of the existence of society what Comte calls the social consensus. It is related to the social order. Social Statics deals with the simple positive analysis of the amatory of various societies and the bonds of mutual solidarity among the institutions of a particular collectively. In this context, Comte writes about the foundations of social stability and social order.
According to him, “The statical study of sociology consists in the investigation of the laws of action and reaction of the different parts of the social “system apart, for the occasion, from the fundamental movement which is always gradually modifying them “.Social statics studies about the balance of mutual relations of elements within a social whole. There must be a “spontaneous harmony between the whole and the parts of the social system. Hence, social statics is a theory of social order which maintains harmony between the conditions of man’s existence in society. Statics involves the study of the conditions of the existence of society (STRUCTURE) while dynamics requires study of its continuous movement/or of the laws (CHANGE) of the succession of the individual stages(CHANGE). The main fact of statics is order; the main fact of dynamics is progress. More explicitly, statics is a theory of order which is tantamount to harmony between the conditions of man’s existence in society, while dynamics is a theory of social progress which is tantamount to the fundamental development, or evolution, of society. But order and progress are closely interrelated: no real social order can be established if it is incompatible with progress, and no durable progress possible if it is not consolidated in order. The study of the two must be separated for analytical purposes only. Static and dynamic tied together throughout the system. In the present Shout the system. In the present day, this optimistic identification of statics with order and of dynamics with progress longer accepted. But Comte’s basic division of sociology though expressed in different terms, such as sociable in deterrent terms, such as social structure and social change, categories familiar to undergraduate students.
( Relative to an organism, the proposition is correct: even without any training, one understands the behaviour of a man, a dog, a cat; while the using of the operation of the parts, or organs, requires some study. The proposal however, hardly tenable relative to society.)
On the other, Social dynamics studies the continuous movement or laws of the succession of individual stages in society. In other words, “dynamics is the description of the successive stages through which human societies pass” Social dynamics is also known as the theory of social progress. According to him, dynamics is a theory of social progress which amounts to the Fundamental development or evolution of society.
In addition, Contain conception of statics is fully discussed in his major work System de Politique Positive of volume II. In this work, Comte divided the concept of statics into two parts:
the study of human nature and
the study of social nature and again,
the Structure of human nature and
the structure of social nature.
In study of human nature, Comte made division into two or three parts. In the twofold divisions, he considers a heart and a mind are its constituent parts. If threefold, the heart again divides into sentiment (or affection or emotion) and action (Courage). Man, in fact, is emotional, active, and in fact, is emotional, active, and intelligent. Man, according to Comte’s famous formulas, is to act by emotion think in order to act.
On the other hand, , emotion, to him, will always be the soul of humanity and the soul of action. The intelligence will never be more than an organ to guide, direct, and control. Comte also suggested the breakdown of these three elements of human nature in various parts. First, the breakdown or ego, two parts: Egoism and altruism. Second, the breakdown of intelligence into two parts: understanding and expression. Understanding may be passive or active. Finally, the breakdown We will is threefold: courage (to undertake), prudence to execute), and steadfastness (to complete).
The interpretation of social nature is discussed by Comte to deal with the second part of social statics. In this part, Comte outlined the theory of religion, theory of property, theory of the family, theory of language and theory of the social organism or the division of labour. Comte began his discussion by “analysing the notion of religion in the social context. Religion, in fact, is an inevitable part of every human society.
Every society involves consensus, agreement between groups, agreement between individuals, a unifying principle.” In this context, religion has been playing a major role to unite peoples. Religion is based on unifying principle. In the words of Coser, “Religion furnishes the unifying principle, the common ground without which individual differences would tear society apart. Religion permits men to overcome their egoistic propensities and to transcend themselves in the love of their fellow men. It is the powerful cement that binds a society together in a common cult and a common system of beliefs. Religion is at the root of social order.” At the same time, religion also address the notion of intelligence, the emotions, and the will of human nature simultaneously in order to create unity among individuals.
Property and language are the second dimensions of Contain analysis of social nature. Property is the accumulation of goods transmitted from one generation to another; whereas language is the vessel in which the thought of preceding generations is stored. In this sense, property and language are the two essential agents of human civilisation which are necessary to maintain the continuity. of thoughts of various generations.Coser puts it rightly , “without a common language men could never have attained solidarity and Consensus without this collective tool no social order is possible. A common language is indispensable for a human community Which is used as a medium of verbal interaction among them .
Another most important dimensions of social nature is the Family .The family is the most elementary social unit .Comte tried To understand the various relations existing within the family Structure .these family relations are a relation of equality between Brothers .a relation of veneration between children and parents a Complex relation of authority _obedience between husband and wife However, family is the basic social unit that fulfils the basic necessity Of the individual . As comet says , It is by the Avenue (of the family ) That man comes forth from his mere personality and learns to live In another while obeying his most powerful instincts.
The division of labour is one of the important’ and last parts of Comte’s analysis of social nature .Comte’s division of labour is Based on the differentiation of activities and the cooperation of man . Division of labour makes a link between man and to his fellows .men are
Bound together by the very distribution of their occupation and it is this distribution which cause the extent and growing complexity of the social organism .The social organisations tends more and more to rest on exact estimate of individual Diversities , by so distributing employments as to appoint each one to the destination he is most fit for from his own nature … from his education and his position ,and in short from All his qualification , so that all individual organisations, even the most vicious and imperfect ..may finally be made use of for the general good .
Comte believed that division of labour made contribution to human solidarity by creating in each individual a sense of his dependence on others .However ,he also accepted that certain negative aspects of the division of labour are seen in the modern industrial society.
Comte finally expressed the hope that in the future both temporal and spiritual power would unite to Keep up the idea of the whole ,and the feeling of the common interconnection “ In addition, comtian analysis of social nature may be regarded as the functional .His analysis of social institutions , whether language or religion or the division of labour or family, give emphasis on interconnectedness of all these phenomena that maintain wider social order. In this context extends of all these phenomena there must always be a spontaneous harmony between Social order. In this context, As Comte puts it, “There whole of the social systems …. It is evident that maintains harmony between the parts and the systems …. It is evident that not only must political institutions and social manners, on the one hand manners and ideas on the other, be always mutually connected, further that this consolidated whole must always be connected, by its nature, with the corresponding state of the integral development of humanity.” In brief, social statics and social dynamics are simply the study of coexistence on the one hand and succession on the other. Thare interrelated and interlinked to each other. They are the study of the essential human and social order; of its transformations and fulfilment. Scientific terms-statics and dynamics represent philosophical terms-order and progress respectively. Despite of difference between statics and dynamics, they linked together throughout the system.
Statics involves the study of the conditions of the existence of society (STRUCTURE) while dynamics requires study of its continuous movement/or of the laws (CHANGE) of the succession of the individual stages(CHANGE). The main fact of statics is order; the main fact of dynamics is progress. More explicitly, statics is a theory of order which is tantamount to harmony between the conditions of man’s existence in society, while dynamics is a theory of social progress which is tantamount to the fundamental development, or evolution, of society. But order and progress are closely interrelated: no real social order can be established if it is incompatible with progress, and no durable progress 15 possible if it is not consolidated in order. The study of the two must be separated for analytical purposes only. Static and dynamic tied together throughout the system. In the present Shout the system. In the present day, this optimistic identification of statics with order and of dynamics with progress longer accepted. But Comte’s basic division of sociology though expressed in different terms, such as sociable in deterrent terms, such as social structure and social change, categories familiar to undergraduate students.
( Relative to an organism, the proposition is correct: even without any training, one understands the behaviour of a man, a dog, a cat; while the using of the operation of the parts, or organs, requires some study. The proposal however, hardly tenable relative to society.)
STATICS: CONSENSUS
In Comte’s view, the total social order establishes itself according to the laws of nature. Each particular order may contain many, sometimes serious deficiencies, but this situation can be rectified by rational intervention of human beings. This conception is in full accordance with Comte’s ideas on the relative flexibility of social laws. Order, however, is possible only on the basis of a certain community of ideas held by those forming a society; therefore, no complete liberty of opinion should be granted.
The basic fact of social order is consensus universalise, the necessary correlation between the elements of a society. Such a consensus exists in all realms of life but reaches its climax in human society. There is consensus among the sciences, between the sciences and the arts, within political institutions, between civil and political society, between mores and ideas. It is claimed, at times, that Comte was unable to identify necessary or required institutional compatibilities and interconnections. This claim is somewhat misleading, for, when presenting the details of his law of the three stages, Comte brings out a number of points concerning these correlations. Consensus universalise to Comte is the very foundation of solidarity as well as the basis for the division of social labour. The latter shows that society is once again analogous to an organism. Here and there specific functions are performed by specific but always solitary organs. Here as elsewhere Comte utilized the organism analogy, though he never identified society and biological organism. There is a great difference between the two, he insisted: organisms are essentially immutable, while society is capable of immense improvement if guided according to scientific principles. This statement reflects both Comte’s faith in progress and his conviction that human society can be improved only on the basis of positive social science.
The division of social labour, continues Comte, is the fundamental cause of the growing complexity of society; therefore, solidarity and cooperation must be carefully studied. Hence his emphasis upon altruism. Another word that he coined. It was not until very late in the nineteenth century that the advice of the father of sociology to study social solidarity was heeded, when another great sociologist, Emile Durkheim, analyzed this phenomenon in a series of important works.
STATICS: SOCIAL STRUCTURE
In society, Comte distinguished three levels: the individual, the family, and social combinations, the highest of which is humanity itself. Show ever, he eliminated the individual from sociological study because a system must consist only of homogeneous elements. Therefore the basic social unit is not the individual but the family.
Nevertheless, he faced up to the persistent sociological problem of the relationship between society and the individual. In society, he noted, continuous and regular convergence of the activities of innumerable individuals is observed. Each individual lives his own life, to be sure, but he also has a spontaneous disposition to participate in the development common to all without consulting others and while he believes that he simply obeys his own impulses. Fundamentally, then, individual and society are inseparable: they are distinguished for purposes of abstract analysis.
Comte made a number of interesting statements about the basic social unit, the family. For instance, he pointed out that the family possesses particular degree of unity, a moral character which makes it different from other social units. In family life, he observed, there is not much reflection; needs are promptly satisfied on the basis of sympathy. Families may exist in the state of isolation, but commonly they do not. Through their coordination social combinations arise, such as social classes and cities, based on conscious cooperation. Of the many social combinations Comte considered carefully only the political type or states. He deplored the fact that groups intermediate between the family and the state had been destroyed by the French Revolution and hoped for their restoration.
Concerning the state, Comte did not add much to the already established conclusions of political philosophers. The political order, he pointed out, is somewhat artificial; but, on the other hand, it is a modification of the natural order toward which all human societies tend. The political order is natural because no society can exist without government, and government is possible because of the widespread desire to command and also because of the fact that many persons wish to be alleviated of the burden of making for them the necessary decisions.
DYNAMICS: EVOLUTION AND PROGRESS
Social dynamics is presented by Comte as history without the names of men and of peoples. Here the task is the discovery of an abstract order in which the major changes of human civilization have followed one another. Throughout the movement, solidarity must be preserved; otherwise the movement would result in a complete decomposition of the social system. Therefore, no isolated development of individual aspects of social life can take place and be studied as such. This conception is based on Comte’s general methodological views and his ideas about the censer universalis.
Social dynamics must begin with the study of development as such. But thereafter the question may be asked whether with the study of development as such equivalent of progress. The increase of the population De asked whether development is the the mental abilities seem to show that the latte reuse of the population and the growth of the prevalent opinion that young savages coven to show that the latter is the case. Comte shared dren born in advanced societies. His optimistic view of program wat young savages could not develop as far as chill. swengthened by his acceptance of the theory that traits acquired by a dividable during his lifetime could be biologically transmitted to programme viewpoint stressed by the physiologist Chevalier de Lamarck . Contemporary biology, except in a curious Soviet Russian version, denies this possibility of the inheritance of acquired characteristics.
Progressive development, Comte understood, does not follow a straight line. Not only do oscillations occur but the speed of progress can be modified by human interference.
Social evolution, he taught, is a continuation of the general progression beginning in the realm of plants. The great social series corresponds to the great organic series, not to the succession of the ages of a simple organism. This proposition is an essential element in a thought system emphasizing continuous progress, since the curve corresponding to the ages of an organism shows descent as well as growth.
In the course of social evolution human nature has been developed, but no new human faculties have been added to the original ones. As a corollary, the study of evolution should start from notions established in physiology concerning primitive men, though Comte made very little actual use of such material.
In the course of social evolution, said Comte (repeating one of the favourite ideas of Saint-Simon), a basic antagonism between the instincts of innovation and conservatism is conspicuous. This conception anticipates Wilfred Pareto’s doctrine of the circulation of the elites.
Finally, Comte put forward a view that underlies a good deal of the work of the later evolutionists. The study of progress, he stressed, was greatly facilitated by the fact that the development of all societies is governed by the same laws, so that the development of general principles may begin with the study of the advances made by the vanguard of humanity. For Comte, this vanguard was evidently France.
DYNAMICS: THE FACTORS OF PROGRESS
Comte’s sociological theory regarding the factors of progress is introduced by a statement that progress is observable in all aspects of society. Progress is physical, moral (toward more generous and nobler sentiments), intellectual, political. The intellectual phase, however, is fundamental and most conspicuous-history is dominated by the development of ideas and therefore, the history of philosophy is of paramout importance. Men often seem to be preoccupied primarily with the satisfaction of material noels and, in actuality, to be sure, progress is apparel in dominance over the forces of nature. But, Comte maintained, intellectual development brings about and stimulates material development.
Comte’s analysis of the factors of progress leads him to the study of inters on which intellectual development depends. This question, however, is left largely unanswered. The main factors of intellectual progress are supposed to be boredom (producing an efforts toward innovation) and fear of death. But when discussing the factors of progress in general (not merely intellectual progress), Comte emphasizes the increase of the density of the population which brings about greater specialization in the division of social labour. Consequently, individuals are pushed to carry out greater efforts to secure subsistence, and society is compelled to regulate more energetically situations deriving from increasing differences between individuals.
So Finally Comte discussed the problem of the differential velocity of progress. Here he was aware of the insufficiency of his evidence and the tentative nature of his conclusions: the differential endowment of the races and, presumably, white superiority; the role of climatic differences with the conditions in the Mediterranean basin being the most favourable for progress; and the view that political action may eventually accelerate or retard progress. He did not deny the role of geniuses in historical development but believed that they were agents of predetermined movements.
In brief, social statics and social dynamics are simply the study of coexistence on the one hand and succession on the other. They are interrelated and interlinked to each other. They are the study of essential human and social order; of its transformation and fulfilment. Scientific terms-order and progress respectively. Despite of difference between statics and dynamics, they linked together throughout the system.
CONCLUSION
French scientist, Father of sociology, August Comte has a remarkable contribution in the development of new science of society called Sociology. The steps involved in the emergence of Comte’s sociology from social physics to the reorganisation of society are really appreciated. Comte is considered to be an evolutionary sociologist for his contribution of law of three stages and the hierarchy of sciences.
However, Comte’s law of three stages has been more or less rejected by the contemporary sociologists. But the essential notion of stages of development ideas and culture in a modified form has been accepted.
In establishing the hierarchy of the sciences, Comte takes the methodological orientation of the various disciplines. In the last stage of the hierarchy of sciences, he accepted the emergence of sociology as the most complex, scientific and synthetic disciplines of science to which society would be studied in a more scientific manner by the method of natural sciences called positivism.
Positivism, in fact, is his methodological tool for the study of society in which the methods of observation, comparison, experimentation, and generalisation are ivolved. In the later period of his life, Comte’s thoughts took a new direction from the positivistic orientation to society to the establishment of humanitarian understanding of society. Comte’s humanitarian, therefore, was reflected in his description of the function of the new science, i.e., sociology. Social science, argues Comte, must ultimately be dedicated to concrete benefit of mankind to the amelioration of the human condition. His main interest to establish the discipline of sociology which was to provide a systematic study of the social background of human history into one body of knowledge and prepare a practical approach to social reform based on a lasting order of principles of humanity and morality.
At this juncture, Comte emphasised that the sociologist must understand three components of society-a common language within a society, a common religion which is the root of social order indispensable for making legitimate the demands of government, and a common division of labour. These three components have major role in the evolution of society from one stage to the other. In this context, Comte goes on to describe the functional relation between statics (order) and dynamics (progress). Comte’s ideas anticipate majority of trends which are observable in contemporary sociology. Major contributions of Comte provide a wide horizon for the coming sociologist in the field of sociological methods, sociological approaches and perspectives, sociological concepts and theories on the one hand, and philosophy of society on the other.