Beliefs In Society Flashcards
What is a bellif system? What are ideologie arued to be?
Framework of ideas through which individual makes sense of world
- claim to give facts about how things are
POPPER argues ideologies are secular religions, usually taken to mean particular set of political&economic beliefs (eg/Marxists, Feminists, Functionalists etc) but each theorist wouldn’t describe own view as as ideologies but claim a monopoly on truth (they have only truth, claim status&dominance), are:
- distorted, false, biased views of reality eg/feminists=patriarchy
- ideas conceal interest of particular group/legitimate privileges
- ideas preventing change by misleading people about reality eg/maintain status quo
- self sustaining (breathe life into own set of ideas, expanding hem to gin support) belief system, irrational&closed to criticism
What 4 ideas and beliefs are included in the MARXIST ideology and how do these link to their theory of society?
- equality will never work bc goes against “human nature” (encourage to believe not possible so discourages want for change as told status quo is fixed&permanent-idea strengthened in school)
- victim blaming ideas about poverty (everyone has equal chance in life so poor must be poor bc stupid/lazy not bc of capitalism-distracts from finding blame in system)
- racist ideas about inferiority of minorities dividing B&W workers so easier to rule (deflects blame from gov, principle of divide&conquer bc if unite=threat to system)
- nationalist ideas that workers&capitalists of 1 nation have more in common than workers in rest of world (creates notion of something in common, promoting “all in it together”)
Thus believe ideas of RC become dominant ideas&function to prevent change by creating false consciousness
Despite ideological barriers MARX believes ultimately WC will unite, develop true consciousness&unite to overthrow capitalism, GRAMSCI supports this referring to RC ideological domination as hegemony&WC can develop ideas to challenge it bc in capitalist society workers have dual consciousness so possible to overthrow capitalism but argues this requires political party of organic intellectuals (workers who develop consciousness through anti-capitalist struggles&spread it through WC)
- CRITICS argue its not existence of dominant ideology keeping workers in line/preventing rebellion but economic factors eg/fear of unemployment keeps worker from rebelling
What 4 ideas and beliefs are included in the NEO-MARXIST ideology and how do these link to their theory of society?
MANNHEIM (work done during WWs, time of intense social&political conflict) sees all belief systems as one sided view&distinguished between 2 broad types of belief system/world view:
1 IDEOLOGICAL THOUGHT (justifies keeping things as they are reflecting position of privileged groups who benefit from maintaining status quo, so conservative&favours hierarchy
2 UTOPIAN THOUGHT (justifies social change reflecting position&interests of underprivileged&offer vision of how society could be organised diff.
-sees world views as creation of groups of intellectuals attaching selves to particular class/social group, but are partial views as only represent interest of particular groups not society as whole causing conflict as each group opposes other
- so solution is to detach intellectuals from social groups they represent&create free floating intelligentsia (detached from particular groups, accounting for diff elements of each&arrive at whole world view representing interest of society as whole)
- BUT problem being many elements of diff ideologies are opposed to one another so very hard to imagine how ideas could be synthesized
What 4 ideas and beliefs are included in the FEMINIST ideology and how do these link to their theory of society?
Gender inequality=fundamental division&patriarchal ideology plays key role in legitimating it but bc inequality is feature of all societies theres many diff ideologies justifying it
EG/ MARKS descries how ideas of science have been used to justify excluding W from education, quotes doctors, scientists&educationalists expressing view educating females would lead to creation of “unfeminine females”&disqualify women from their “true vocation” nurturing next generation, OAKLEY says Bowlbys theory=good example of science acting as ideology, justifying gender inequality in workplace by claiming development of young children “damaged” by working mothers, strengthening patriarchal ideas only men should be breadwinners
Those also embodied in religious beliefs&practices been used to define W as inferior eg/ritually impure/unclean bc of childbirth/menstruation which has given way to purifying rituals like churching after giving birth&in some Christian churches new mother cant receive communion until being churched
- HOWEVER evidence in early history of Europe etc before emergence of monotheistic patriarchal religions, matriarchal religions (focused on Goddesses) with W deities=widespread with W priests&celebration of fertility cults
What 4 ideas and beliefs are included in the POSTMODERNISM ideology and how do these link to their theory of society?
Claims religion&science are meta narratives-ideologies seek to explain “truth” are no longer relative due to fragmentation of society as knowledge is relative to individual&scientific facts&religious teachings are no longer automatically accepted as truth
