Transition from philosophy to social theory: Saint Simon and Auguste Comte; Emile Durkheim: the sociological method, division of labour and religion; Max Weber: methodology in social sciences, Protestantism and the spirit of capitalism; Karl Marx: the dialectical method and materialist interpretation of history; George Simmel: social types; Functionalism and neo-functionalism: the rise, dominance, decline and revival of functionalism; Reactions to functionalism: radical, conflict and exchange theory; Interpretive sociology: European and American phenomenological theory in sociology; Neo-Marxism; Current trends in Western sociological theory.
