Saint-Simon discusses society within an evolutionist and positivist conceptual framework. Accordingly, societies evolve from feudal and military societies to industrial societies. For Saint- Simon, industrial society, which he defines as the “positive” stage, differs from other stages in terms of production, technology, information, science, division of labor, class structure and political structure. This stage will be different from the previous ones due to the advantages provided by positive science and industry. According to Saint- Simon, this positive stage represents a socialist society stage in which all social classes are organized and contribute to production in a collaborative and harmonious way.

Saint-Simon argued that the social problems that occurred during the transition from feudal society to industrial society would be solved with the help of positive science, which he calls social physics, and society could be restructured with this new type of science. Therefore, Saint-Simon is considered “the first sociologist, and the first socialist”

Auguste Comte examines “society” within an evolutionist and positivist framework. Saint-Simon contributed to the development of sociology with his studies, and Comte used the term “sociology” for the first time and established a tradition known as positivist sociology. Thus, he is agreed to be the founder of sociology by some researchers in the field.

Broadly speaking, positivism is an approach suggesting that the social and physical world can be examined through observation and experiments. Saint-Simon, Comte and others used the concept “positive or positivism” as equivalent to “scientific”

Comte conceptualized social statics in terms of the laws governing social order, and social dynamics as the laws governing social transformation.

Comte summarizes his ideas about this point of view in his well-known evolution theory known as “law of the three stages”, which he developed under the influence of the studies by Saint-Simon. Accordingly, human thought and societies evolve through three basic stages:

1. a) Theological stage: In this stage, the human mind tries to explain everything through supernatural forces.
2. b) Metaphysical stage: In this stage, the human mind tries to explain all social and physical phenomena and events through abstract forces.
3. c) Positive stage: In this stage, the human mind finally tries to explain all phenomena and events scientifically (based on universal laws). According to Comte, in this stage, the human mind rejects supernatural and abstract forces due to positive sciences and tries to reveal existing relationships among observable phenomena and systematize these relationships within universal laws.

According to Spencer, social transformation in Darwin’s terms operates on the hypothesis that the strong ones survive and weak ones die, that is the natural selection law.

“Surplus value” refers to the difference between the value produced by workers and the payment they are given.

Durkheim defines collective conscience as the common beliefs and feelings of the members of a society.

Durkheim, in his work titled The Division of Labor in Society writes about mechanic solidarity and organic solidarity depending on social division of labor. Accordingly:

1. a) Mechanical solidarity is observed in traditional societies where there is a simple division of labor based on resemblances. In this type of order and solidarity, collective consciousness and collective identity are more powerful and dominant than individual consciousness and identities.
2. b) Organic solidarity is observed in modern societies where there is a complex division of labor based on social differentiation.

According to Durkheim, mechanical solidarity is mainly observed in pre-industrial societies and organic solidarity in today’s industrial societies.

Collective consciousness- that forms the basis of a central value and norm system guide individuals about how to behave in social life by shaping individual consciousness. In addition, it functions as a social control mechanism over the unlimited wishes and demands of individuals.

The theories in modern sociology were inspired by the theories developed by Marx, Weber and Durkheim, the pioneers of sociology. Although these theories are various in nature and have different characteristics, they can be classified and examined under certain general approaches according to their common and similar characteristics. Among these general approaches are

1. a) Functionalism, b) Marxism and Conflict Theory and c) Symbolic Interactionism.

Functionalism has an important place in modern sociology and was initially influenced by Durkheim’s works in sociology in the s19th century. Functionalism adopted a positivist social science mentality while examining social life. Functionalism presents an evolutionary theory of social transformation.

Conflict theories emphasize the importance of social structures in societies; however, unlike functionalism, which focuses on the consensus, they focus on power, social divisions, inequality and struggle among different groups pursuing their own interests.

Marxism, which was later developed by social scientists who were influenced by Marx’s work, is acknowledged to be one of the most effective conflict approaches. It has an important place in modern sociology and consists of different schools of thought. Marxist theories are classified in various ways according to different criteria in the related literature. One of the most common and the simplest classifications divides these theories into two groups: “traditional Marxist theories” and “neo Marxists theories”. Traditional Marxist theories refer to those taking Marx’s original writings and thoughts as the basis for their principles. Neo Marxist theories, on the other hand, are influenced by Marxist theories but they differ from them in certain important aspects. Unlike traditional Marxists who emphasize economic structure, neo Marxist theories emphasize cultural and ideological superstructures of societies.

Critical theory is critical of all forms of domination in modern societies, whether capitalist or socialist, especially to those of technical rationality that is seen as a new form of new domination.

Symbolic interactionism is a sociological approach closely related to social psychology in American sociology. According to symbolic interactionism, society is the product of individuals’ symbolic interactions in social life. George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) is considered to be the founder of this approach. His ideas were later elaborated by his colleagues and students after his death. At this point, Herbert Blumer is also thought to be one of the founders of this approach since his works also contributed a lot to the development of symbolic interactionism.

According to Mead, self is the “generalized others” in the sense of internalizing the habits of the community in which one lives.

The ethnomethodology, which is generally considered to be the application of phenomenological ideas to research, and developed by Harold Garfinkel, is primarily concerned with the methods used by community members in building their social worlds. According to Garfinkel’s ethnomethodology, members of society produce social order through some implicit methods that are given in everyday life and are accepted without questioning. Ethnomethodology tries to reveal how the social world is produced by the activities of community members.

Feminism can be defined as the accumulation of knowledge developed by feminist writers critically against the male dominant information system in order to support the organized struggle of women subject to gender discrimination.

Postmodernism can be defined as an approach reflecting the following ideas: the modernity project based on ideas of reason, rationalization and progress is over; societies are no longer guided by historical developments and meta narratives in a proper course of progress; and a new postmodern society is formed where diversity and pluralism are prevalent.