Overview
-Origins Sociology in 19 century
-Study of society (relationships between individuals, collections of people)
-Social Facts are produced by social relationships
-Study of things that are apparent but not always obvious.
-Always an interaction between our stories and the larger history.
-Empirical knowledge vs. theoretical knowledge
th
What is a Social Fact?
-All human occurrences are social
-Facts, concepts that DO NOT come from individual responses and preferences, but
rather
from the social community which molds and socializes each human.
-Social constraints (things you cant do because society says its bad) hold a coercive power.
- Social facts could be any general thought or action if it is clearly individual from the individual.
-Anyway of acting over whole society, independent of things.
-Way of thinking about social reality.
-Thoughts on society are influenced by social structure you exist in.
-Social facts are social interactions.
Social Currents
-Thoughts, emotions, or feelings that come over a crowd of people that is felt by all, but
originated by none.
-Shared experience, originates itself outside the individual.
Sociology Hesitant, WEB Dubois
-Generally regard society as an entity.
-Object of sociology is to study the deeds of men.
-Confusion because sociologists are unable to find laws like ones you would find in science.
- We are not limited by the world we create.
-Positive social human change is possible.
-We can change social current.
-If people dont change, they will adapt
Comte
-Theoretical, based on a notion of the way things are, rather than a study, explanation of history.
-Theory is historical, depends on historical period.
-Theorizes about why many people were not considered human.
Elementary Forms of The Religious Life, Emile Durkheim
-Religion as a social phenomenon.
-Credits the development of religion to the emotional security attained through communal living.
Elementary Forms of The Religious Life, Emile Durkheim (cont.)
-Totemism----Aborigines----represent the most basic, elementary forms of religious life within a
culture.
-Essence of Religion= concept of the sacred, which unites all religions.
-Religion was NOT divinely or supernaturally inspired, but rather a product of society.
-Social origin of religion, a source of individuality for the individual within a society.
-Religion provided a meaning of life; it provided authority figures.
-Reinforced the moral and social norms within a society.
-Certain elements of religious belief are common across different cultures.
- Common= separation of the sacred (spiritual realm) and the profane, each of these depend on
one another.
-Views society as a machine
-Goal=wanted to prove that you could research and write about religion in a respectful way.
Wanted to reveal a fundamental and permanent aspect of humanity and all social institutions
through the study of a religion.
- Why he chose religion= Religion is an eminently social thing. Religious representations are
collective representations that express collective realities; rites are ways of acting that are born
only in the midst of assembled groups and whose purpose is to evoke, maintain, or recreate
certain mental states of those groups
-Why he chose this particular religion= History alone enables us to break down an institution
into its component parts, because it shows those parts to us as they are born in time, one after the
other. Second, by situating each part of the institution within the totality of circumstances in
which it was born, history puts into our hands the only tools we have for identifying the causes
that have brought it into being
Ideology and Utopia, Mannheim
-Felt the term ideology should be broadened, felt ideology was the deliberate obscuring of facts.
-A whole social groups thought was formed by its social position. Everyones beliefs were a
product of the context they were created in.
-Fear of relativism (certain things are true only at certain times, but that doesnt make themselves
true)
-World is not given to us, we interpret through culture, social status, religion, and ideologies.
-Ideologies, particular vs. total
-What a person says/means/sees is a function of their place in society.
-Utopias are not ideologies; the difference between ideology and utopia is how they affect the
world.
-Ideology= set of ideas that conceals the present by attempting to comprehend it in terms of the
past.
-Utopia= set of ideas that transcends the present and is oriented towards the future.
-Ourselves do not develop our ideas and social attitudes; they are imposed upon us by the
physical and social world.
-Viewpoint of the world comes from society
-They are social beings; social relationships give them the psychological state.
More Durkheim
-Social facts consisting of the manners of acting, thinking, feeling external to the individual.
-Social reality vs. the individual
-Take away the individual, no social---If you remove the social, our relationships are changed.
-Our stare of being is that we have certain relationships that allow us to be ourselves.
-Sociology is ultimately the study of social facts.
Epistemology
-The study of theory of nature and grounds of knowledge
Essentialism
-Things are the way they are because thats just because thats how they are supposed to be.
-Sometimes there is an element of God made it that way.
Social Constructivism
-Things are the way they are because they have been made that way through social contexts.
Paradigm
-The group of fundamental concepts that dominate a certain field of study.
-Often change, more often in the hard sciences than the social sciences.
Structural Functionalism
-In sociology, it is an umbrella paradigm for theories that treat society like it is a human body;
each part plays its own role.
Norms, Folkways, More
- Explicit and implicit rules about social behaviors and choices.
- Folkways are more informal than mores.
The Communist Manifesto
-Attempt to explain the goals of communism.
-Class struggle is the motivating force behind all historical developments.
-Class relationships are defined by an eras means of production.
-Class conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
-Proletariat will lead a revolution, they if do obtain control, classes themselves will disappear.
-This development is inevitable, capitalism is unstable.
-Elimination of social classes cannot come about through social reforms or changes in
government.
-Class antagonism, existing history of society means history of class struggle.
-Opressor and oppressed clash
The Communist Manifesto (cont.)
-Capitalism will be overthrown by Proletariats rise again, class struggles is the key.
-Division of labor, people does what they are specialized in. Everyone does a part to accomplish
a task as a whole.
The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism
-Study of the relationship between the ethics of ascetic Protestantism and the emergence of the
spirit of modern capitalism
-Religious groups played a role in creating the capitalistic spirit.
-Correlation of Protestants and business.
-Protestantism= worldly calling and gives worldly activity a religious characteristic.
-Calvinism= predestination, God has already determined who is sacred and damned.
-Material success was a favor to God.
-Being Protestant means being involved in business.
-Modern spirit of capitalism sees profit as an end in itself.
-Catholics=more otherworldly, not as materialistic
-Intimate relationship between capitalism and asceticism, found in purely religious
characteristics.
-Religion can create broader social values, and create society.
-Spirit of modern capitalism= attitude of rational and systematic pursuit of profit.
-Capitalism got to the point where it no longer needed the force of religious conviction.
-Spirit of capitalism is not natural; when it does prosper it is because people have embraced
certain values.
-Economic interactions are the basis for all social and religious institutions.
-Asceticism= opposed the spontaneous enjoyment of life, condemned dishonesty and impulsive
greed. Pursuit of wealth was bad.
-Attaining wealth as the result of ones labor was a sign of Gods blessing.
-Material goods have a huge control over the individual.
-Iron cage, trapped in a larger system of individuals.
-Philosophy of avarice is an end in itself.
-The captains of industry, AND the most skilled workers, are overwhelmingly Protestant.
-A revolution in the economic sphere helped to encourage a revolution in the religious sphere.
-Catholics dont go to school for business arts! Protestants do!
-Weber borrows the idea of the calling from religion
-For Protestants, he says, capitalism becomes an ethos a duty, a calling to make money as an
end in itself while denying spontaneous pleasures
-These arent capitalists motivated by greed and self-interest, these are capitalists motivated by
working hard for the greater glory of God
-Once this idea was unleashed on the world it quickly escaped its religious origins and took on a
[secular] life of its own
More notes on capitalism and greed
-Capitalsim is greed.
-The notion that having more money means you are better than others.
-As capitalism becomes more dominant it emancipates itself from religion and sociology.
-Culture of capitalism is the fulfillment of duty in worldly affairs.
-Wealth is good unless it leads to idleness or without care.
Weber and Bureaucracy
-Goal oriented organizations based on rational principles that are used to efficiently reach their
goals.
-Social actions were based on efficiency instead of old types of social actions.
-Behavior was dominated by goal-oriented rationality, less by tradition and values.
Negative Effects=power in small number of people, oligarchy, generally unregulated
-Bureaucracy puts us in an iron cage, limits human freedom and potential.
The Philadelphia Negro
-7 ward, 40,000 blacks, 15-month study.
-Analysis of their relation to their fellow white citizens.
-Insight on the conditions, aspirations, trials and tribulations of the black community.
-Dubois attacked the question what it means to be human.
-Is the Philadelphia Negro applicable to everyone?
-Empirical sociology, science into sociology to the study the conditions and problems of his own
root.
-Weber, Protestant Ethic claim rationalization is the heart of the spirit of capitalism. Dubois
questions this and asks where this rationalization comes from.
-Dubois says how can we make such a broad pronouncement of human faith.
-Inequities are a result of the power relationship.
-Racial politics play a huge relationship in the development of the United States, esp. in the 19
century.
-Our identity is historically laid out with ideas that rest in our narrative.
-Dubois yielded to his racial consciousness in order to survive. Did not see any positive race
relations in his life.
- The purpose of the Philadelphia Negro was to understand the history that led to this moment of
diversity.
-What is it about the black people that doesnt allow them to flourish in society?
-People did not think the African people were human, Dubois challenged this.
-Claims that society needed to change, not the negro.
-Race is generally socially constructed through a set of relationships, which for some have
barriers, but oppurtunities for others.
-Dubois wondered where did it come form? What did it mean?
-Recomedation for change, wants people to be actvisits.
th
th
Notes on Race
-What race is, what race is not
-What we call each other changes over time.
-Meaning of race is context specific.
-Ideas of race are not universally the same, culturally specific.
-Determind by the time period, geo-political area.
-No absolute categorization
-Race is socially constructed, still has strong social implications.
-Race has a real impact on our existence in society.
Parable of Sower
-California in 2024, frightening and violent society, breakdown in civil society.
-Lauren does not believe in god who can be prayed to.
-Believes god is a power that can be shaped by humans who have the will to do it.
-God is change.
-Generational Gap, older people wanted the good old days back.
-Lauren and her group, hold onto human values despite all thats happening.
-Refuse to sink to levels of humans.
-Represent the continuance of civilization and the possibility of new life.
-Racial mix of the group
-Cautionary tale, things will only get worse.
-No justification for excluding people who are different.