Chapter 2- Lecture Flashcards
What is a theory?
a statement that tries to explain how facts or events are related in order to predict future events
What did Thomas Hobbes believe?
People are responsible for creating they social worlds.
What was Hobbes’ natural state?
How humans existed prior to the emergence of social structures.
- motivated by pursuit of power and self-interest
- people were brutal; constant state of fear
What did Hobbe’s believe about religion?
a group comfort
How did Hobbes’ suggest people eliminate fear?
give up a certain amount of agency to allow things to be done for them. Suggest that we allow gov’t to police us so that we would not kill.
Why were the churches worried about what Hobbes had to say?
he believed we had our own rights and thoughts and beliefs that were different from god. Monarchs and churches were worried–idea of being our own person. Not doing what they said.
Who believed that God was responsible for the emergence of society and gov’t?
John Locke
What is tabula rasa? Who thought of it?
John Locke
people are born as blank slates.
John Locke believed that people had a right to what 4 things?
self-preservation and private property, individual autonomy, and freedom
What did John Locke try to link and balance?
make a link and balance between individuality and religion
What did John Locke believe about gov’t?
that it was more about maintaining individual rights than stopping violence.
What did Charles Montesquieu believe about society and people?
people never existed outside or without society; humans created and defined by societ
Montesquieu believed that___define the spirit of the people? What are the three types?
- laws
- republic, monarchy, and depotism
What did Montesquieu appreciate?
cultural diversity and comparative methodology
What did Montesquieu believe defined society?
laws
Who created the social contract idea?
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
What is the social contract?
people existed in symbiotic and idyllic relationships in the natural state.
How did Rousseau believe that people can achieve their potential?
only through society
True or false: Rousseau believed that people were perfectible?
True
How do we enter the social contract?
as free individuals
What did the enlightenment challenge?
years of christian teachings
Who were the Philosophes?
advocated critical thinking and practical knowledge and built on natural sciences.
- challenged beliefs sided in tradition
- resulted in the ability of masses to challenge their oppressors
What was sociology born out of?
the conservative reaction against enlightenment
What do Conservatives believe about society?
it is not the product of individuals, rather an entity in itself.
What are the 10 parts of the conservative reaction?
- society exists on its own
- society produces the individual
- individuals simply fill positions
- smallest unit of social analysis is the family
- parts of society are interrelated and interdependent
- change is a threat
- social institutions are beneficial
- modern social changes create fear and anxiety
- emphasis on seeming irrational factors
- return to social hierarchies and healthy competition
What are some examples of seemingly irrational factors?
Honour killings
- ability to control their women occurs legally through honour killings.
- Canadian society rejects this
- how do we integrate these people in mainstream Canadian society
- do we assimilate them? Do they acclimate?
- they feel lost and cling to what they know when they arrive
What is functionalism?
- social world is a dynamic system of interrelated and interdependent parts.
- social structures exist to help people fulfill their wants and desires
- overrides individuals because individuals are supposed to keep it going
What do functionalists believe human society is similar to?
an organism–when it fails to work together the “system” will fail
True or false: functionalists believe that society must meet the needs of the majority?
true
When was functionalism the dominant theoretical paradigm?
between the 1920s and the early 1960s.
Functionalism is a ___theory? What does this mean?
- systems theory
- all about the system, very little about the people
Who are the main functionalist theorists?
- Herbert Spencer
- Emile Durkheim
- Robert Merton
How coined the term survival of the fittest? What does this mean and how does it apply to society?
- Spencer
- Justifies why only the strong should survive
- societies evolve because they need to change in order to survive.
- environmental pressures allow beneficial traits to be passed onto future generations.
What was Spencer concerned with?
overpopulation and competition for resources
What is Spencer’s term, social Darwinism?
draws upon darwin’s idea of natural selection; asserts societies evolve according to the same principles as biological organisms
What is the laissez-faire approach (Spencer)?
opposes regulation of or interference with natural processes
-Society will seek its own level and we should just let it happen
What did Durkheim believe about human action?
originates in the collective rather than in the individual
What is the collective conscience that Durkheim described?
Drives behaviour
- common values, norms, ways of behaving
- expected ways of behaviour (not killing, for ex.)
What are some examples of things that slip away from the collective conscience in SK?
drinking and driving, domestic violence
What are social facts?
General social features that exist on their own and are independent of individual manifestation.
- religion, social activities, laws, roles
- products of the collective conscience
- exist apart from us as humans but we create them and keep them strong
What did Durkheim believe Anomie was?
a state of formlessness that results from the lack of clear goals and creates feelings of confusion that may ultimately result in higher suicide rates.