Organicism refers to the approach in social sciences that sees human society as analogous to an organism, hence its name. French sociologist Auguste Comte is considered one of the founders of sociology, and his ideas inspired later theorists of organicism. Comte viewed society as a collective organism possessing a collective consciousness (consensus universel). Both the organism and society have a harmony of structure and function and act in relation to their environment in order to achieve goals. The final stage of organic evolution is the development of human society. The problems that exist in society are diseases of the social organism and are studied by social pathology. Comte viewed the family as the basic cell of society, while, on the other hand, he believed that religion had a crucial regulatory function for the social organism. Within society, there is a division of functions in the form of specialization and division of labor, while government institutions have the role of uniting these specialized parts and functions.

French sociologist Alfred Espinas belongs to a group of scientists whose ideas were influenced by the theory of biological evolution. While his teaching is most often called zoosociology, he was one of the first theorists of organicism. He believed that each person is a kind of society because society is also composed of different cells that compete or cooperate with each other. Since we find social order in each individual organism, evolution follows a unique path from the first organisms to human society. Since society is analogous to the organism, solidarity in society corresponds to the cooperation of biological cells, and tradition corresponds to biological permanence. He believed that natural sciences are formed based on broader and simpler sciences, which logically precede them. Sociology is also shaped in that way and cannot be a complete science without biology. 

French sociologist and economist Rene Worms studied and taught political economy, but is best known for his organicist theory of society (organicism), sometimes called superorganicism. Worms' definition of society as "a permanent set of living beings doing their work together" can be applied to both humans and animals. Although the relationships between people are primarily psychological, they still resemble relationships in a biological organism. The similarities between society and the organism are: 1) the external structure is changeable and irregular; 2) the internal structure is constantly changing due to the assimilation and integration of opposite processes, 3) the differentiation of parts is coordinated, 4) both systems reproduce themselves.

Russian sociologist Paul von Lilienfeld advocated the position of extreme organicism. He believed that there is not only similarity but an identity between society and the organism. Within society, there is a connection of parts, and over time there is a progressive differentiation of structures. This makes society similar to an organism. What distinguishes society from the organism is its purposefulness and spirituality. In addition, society has more freedom in relation to external, material causality. Society also has the ability to store resources and energy that it will use in the future. Every society has three basic subsystems: economic, legal, and political. These three subsystems correspond to the physiological, morphological, and integrative functions of the organism. Politics performs the functions of integration and coordination and corresponds to the brain within the organism. With the development of society and the increased differentiation of parts, there must be the development of a more perfect government that will have increasing control over force, in order to be able to implement the integration of independent parts of society. Involution, decadence, and pathology are diseases of the organism, and they can be found both in individuals and in social groups or classes. The role of the government is to eliminate these diseases of the social organism.

Other notable proponents of organicism were: Alfred Fouille, Jacob Alexandrovitch Novikov, and Albert Schäffle.

Books:

Espinas, Alfred. Des sociétés animales (1877);

Lilienfeld, van Paul. Die Sociale Physiologie (2018);

Worms, Rene. Organisme et société (1896);