Statics and Dynamics

Contemporary usage of the terms statics and dynamics has its roots in the work of Auguste Comte (1798–1857). Comte developed social physics, or what he eventually referred to as sociology (Comte was the first to use this term), during the 1830s in France. He believed that sociology should be strongly modeled after the hard sciences, particularly biology. He saw society as a social organism and was interested in studying how various components, or subsystems, contributed to the social system as a whole. Comte was relatively unconcerned with the domain of the individual (although his thinking was shaped by basic assumptions about individuals) but, rather, was concerned with the social groupings of individuals, collective existence, and macro-level phenomena (especially the family). Furthermore, Comte gave priority to theory over empirical research.

Statics and dynamics are cornerstones of Comtean theory. Comte argued that sociology should be concerned with both existing social structures, or social statics, and social change, or social dynamics. Comte's study of social statics is a forerunner to much contemporary work in sociology in general, and sociological theory in particular, especially structural-functionalism. He was interested in the ways in which the various parts of the society functioned and, more important, with their relationship to the social whole. He saw the parts of society and the whole in a state of harmony (what would later be called equilibrium) and privileged starting from the social whole and proceeding to the parts. Social statics, as the name implies, also meant freezing time to get a look at society as it existed at a particular historical moment.

In contrast to social statics, social dynamics involves looking at the ways in which society changes over time. Time is a necessary element for the study of social dynamics since it is inherent in what Comte saw to be the natural evolution of society toward a final harmonious state. Comte ([1830–42]1855) even refers to social dynamics as the “theory of Natural Progress of Human Society” (p. 515). He believed that society was continually improving and that the same law of progressive development applied universally to all societies. Thus, although the speed of social evolution may vary from one society to another, or from one time period to another within a given society, there is a continual progression toward the goal of a more harmonious society.

Although Comte felt that studying both social statics and social dynamics were important for understanding society, he placed a greater emphasis on social dynamics. This relates to Comte's view that society did not need a revolution in order to make things better (he was largely critical of the French Revolution and its effects on society) because the natural progress of things would eventually deal with the ills that were plaguing the social world. Therefore, he [Page 794]advocated reforms, but only as a means of helping along the natural evolution of society. Since society was constantly evolving, and such evolution brought with it continual improvement, the study of social dynamics was privileged over the study of social statics.

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