Learning Objectives

• understand that this chapter provides an overview that will help them to put subsequent chapters into context of the overall development of classical sociological theory;
• discuss the qualities that make a classical sociological theory classical;
• list the social forces that contributed to the development of classical sociological theory and explain how each gave shape to it;
• list the intellectual forces that contributed to the development of classical sociological theory and explain how each gave shape to it;
• understand the key figures of French, German, and British sociology, and be able to explain their main ideas;
• explain how the ideas of the theorists introduced in this chapter relate to one another and how they influenced one another, and describe the trajectory of ideas about science, modernity, social order, and social change; and
• describe the continuing influence of classical sociological theory on sociology today.