Erikson Flashcards
Is society an extension of the human mind?
“Society,” he (Comte) said, “is no more decomposable into individuals than a geometric surface is into lines, or a line into points.”
Meaning: Society is not a culmination of individuals, but its own entity. (operates by own laws, and logic)
Is the origin of something important?
Founder / Origin of something doesn’t matter as much, should think about which direction its going in.
What did Marx think about human history?
It had a trajectory of its own
History is the slow emergence of a pattern of development, bringing us closer to our true nature
What did Marx try understand? (Main Point)
Society is an ongoing social conflict
- Dedicate life into how we as a society split
Major Concepts: Class Ideology
“Economic law of motion of modern society”
(Tried to make universal law on society)
Explain Marx and a fixed trajectory?
Viewed history as moving down a fixed path
Conflict between class interest as the energy that propels it
How does Marx explain emergence of new social orders?
human record as a long, relentless chronicle of class struggle.
History unfolds, step by step, as various forces collide and forge a new kind of social order in the fierce heat
they have generated
What does Marx say the critical line in dividing classes is?
A critical line of social classes has always been, those who own property and those who do not
-Old world: Serfs and Landlords -Modern world: those who own the means of production (land, machinery, capital, equipment, technique) and those who own nothing but their own labour power
What is the basic conflict according to Marx?
basic conflict has always been between a class of exploiters and a class of the exploited.
What will the present capitalist structure leading to according to Marx?
He thought it was leading to the outcome: “The victory of the proletariat.”
- A human form of life, mirrors human nature, and that becomes the governing force.
What are the two major themes that that run through Marx’s work?
Alienation:
- effect of class struggle on human spirt
-
Class consciousness / Ideology
-Class struggle on human thought and institutions
Explain Marx’s opinion on what Alienation is:
Heavily related to the work-force
Humans make tools (shaping stones, moving soil etc) and they become extensions of us
Humans create ourselves—become ourselves—by the manner in which we relate to those tools and the objects we produce with them
Division of labour has separated ppl from the results of their labour and the process of production
Ex. a slave makes plants a seed cuz her master ordered it, she has poured something of herself into it, and she has to give that part away.
–So now, people create things with no meaning to them, they are alienated from their own creations
Explain Marx’s opinion on what Class Consciousness and Ideology is?
Social class structure models a societies morality, ideas, beliefs, and general cultural temper
The position one occupies within a class structure sifts ideas that may occur to them, what appeals to them, their morals etc.
Rationally ppl adopt thoughts that appeal to economic self interest.
That human beings, with all the good will in the world, drift as if by accident into moral arrangements that turn out to serve them well economically
Oppressed classes can endure for a long time without realizing they have different economic interests from their oppressors.
–Reason: they tend to adopt the moral / cognitive view of their oppressors, which favour keeping them as oppressed.
–Coercion works for this
Those who control means of production also control cultural instruments (printing presses, classrooms etc)
Say a poorer class child questions the arrangement, a priest, teacher , or elder will explain, and they often reproduce the values of the oppressors.
-- SO result: workers going off to war to fight for those who oppress them cuz they're convinced its the patriotic thing to do.
Main point: the noblest person can convey the interests of the upper classes.
–When we see human institutions and values, we may be only seeing the ideals of the upper class
What was Durkheim trying to understand?
Durkheims project was understanding how human societies managed to cohere
What did Durkheim have to say about Division of Labour?
advanced industrial societies break up everyday work into a variety of specialized tasks
Focused a lot on collective consciousness, so like collective morality and such
What did Durkheim say about suicide?
Most personal, solitary, reculsive, and extremely removed from human influence act one can take (suicide)
But it also follows social patterns across the world
-He decided it was an integration issue
