Dystopian Views of Classical Sociologists and Their Social Extensions

Abstract

Classical sociologists such as Marx, Comte, Durkheim, Weber have made significant contributions to the understanding of social life, institutions, norms and structures by studying society, social dynamics and the complexity of human behavior, providing profound insights and laying the foundation for modern sociological thought. While the theories of these sociologists have greatly enriched the understanding of social structures and the formation of predictions about future social order, their works also contain sharp warnings about utopian fictions of social trends and their potential dystopian consequences, but they often offer gloomy predictions of a dystopian future depicting an undesirable or chaotic society. While critically examining the dystopian elements in the works of classical sociologists, who portrayed the depressing picture of social life in different ways by emphasizing social inequality, the oppressive nature of capitalism, the alienation of the individual and the anomie of modern society, from a sociological perspective, this article discusses the theories based on dystopian thought and addresses their relevance to contemporary issues and their validity in today's society, and also assesses the validity of ideas and the consistency of predictions in the contemporary world where dystopian elements continue to manifest. It is therefore important to gain a deeper understanding of the sociological imagination and the continuing relevance of classical sociological thought by examining these dystopian perspectives of sociologists who emphasize their concern about the potential consequences of uncontrolled social developments.