Albert Schäffle and organicist sociology in the 19th century

While the concept of the social organism was a central model for describing modern societies and their functional structure in the 19th century, organic metaphors are hardly used in sociology anymore or are even rejected as inappropriate. Early sociologists, like Comte and Spencer, used biological analogies to describe the structures and development of modern societies in a scientific manner, hoping that drawing on biology would lend legitimacy to sociology as a newly emerging science. By the end of the 19th century, however, criticism of organicist sociology and mismatched analogies was growing. The work of the German sociologist Albert Schäffle is notable because he responded to this criticism and attempted to develop approaches to social theory that did not rely on organicist imagery. Schäffle was the first to coin the concept of functional differentiation. He can therefore be regarded as a forerunner of sociological systems theory. Schäffle’s work provided productive inspiration for Émile Durkheim and Albion Small but fell into oblivion at the beginning of the 20th century.