Module 1

Question 1

What does Comte mean by the term Positive Science?

Answer 1

• Scientific
• Methods of natural sciences
• The study of sociology is logical and follows general laws

Question 2

What aspect of society is Comte referring to when he discusses social statics and social dynamics?

Answer 2

Social static - how order is maintained in society

Social dynamic - how society changes over time.

Question 3

In which way did Comte suggest the new science of sociology could be like a natural science? How is this way of thinking different from the way philosophers and religious thinkers have thought about society in the past?

Answer 3

1. ) Observation
2. ) Experiment
3. ) Comparison

Differences:
Marx & class struggle 

Compte & restoring social order

Compte abandoned search for first principles or esoteric abstractions for research and empirical observation by observation, experiment & comparison

Question 4

What was it about Comte’s social reality that troubled him and made him look for answers?

Answer 4

• Compares progression of society to progression of the mind
• theological to metaphysical to scientific
• search for perfection of social order

Question 5

What are the main characteristics of positivism?

Answer 5

(a) Science is the only valid knowledge.
(b) Fact is the object of knowledge.
(c) Philosophy does not possess a method different from science.
(d) The task of philosophy is to find the general principles common to all sciences and to use these principles as guides to human conduct and as the basis of social organization.
(e) Positivism denies intuition, prior reasoning, theological and metaphysical knowledge.

Question 6

How do the characteristics of positivism apply to sociology?

Answer 6

In research methods, but it is is more rational and therefore may exclude reason, which is an integral element in sociology

Question 7

How do characteristics of positivism not apply to sociology?

Answer 7

Rationalism and excluding reason

Question 8

Name some aspects of society, as you know it, which are more appropriate to being studied from a positivistic approach than others.

Answer 8

Statistical data

Question 9

Name some aspects of society in that would be difficult to study using a strictly positivistic approach.

Answer 9

The lived experiences of oppressed people

Collecting data relies on their personal emotions and experiences (relationships)

Question 10

What sort of times did Comte live in?

Answer 10

After the French revolution
Early capitalism
technology and the industrial revolution

Question 11

Who were Comte’s most influential colleagues?

Answer 11

the Comte de Volney (1757-1820) and Georges Cabanis (1757-1808) and who were known collectively as the “ideologues.” Comte also read the political economists Adam Smith (1723-1790) and J. B. SAY (1767-1832) as well as histories by WILLIAM ROBERTSON (1721-1793) and David Hume (1711-1776). Of greatest importance, however, was Comte’s encounter with Condorcet (see Lecture 10), whom Comte would later call “my immediate predecessor.”

became the secretary to the French utopian socialist Saint-Simon

Question 12

How did the historical time period Comte lived in and his relationships with his colleagues impact his work?

Answer 12

• the scientific method & the church
• an ordered society
• after the chaos of the revolution

Question 13

What are the sources of our illusions about reality according to Collins and Makowsky?

Answer 13

• taking our social arrangements for granted because we know of no others
• ideological distortions based on the interests and perspectives of our social positions
• inability to detach ourselves from an evaluative stance
• repression of things that make us feel shameful or guilty
• The fallacy of psychological reductionism
• the misconceptions that a good-literal identification with physical science can engender

Question 14

What are the two greatest sources of illusion?

Answer 14

• The fallacy of psychological reductionism (reducing complex phenomena into most basic parts)
• Biases

Question 15

Collins and Makowsky suggest that “what we believe to be reality is but a reflection of our socially determined interests,” and that our beliefs and values depend a great deal on our position in society (our social class). How would belonging to the working class affect how you interpret tax cuts to businesses?

Answer 15

-The question the workers ask is whether tax cuts benefit the worker, or only the employer?

Question 16

How would an ideology of equality, which professes a classless society, serve to colour our view of poverty in Canada?

Answer 16

-Looks at those in poverty as victims of a class based society

Question 17

What do Collins and makowsky mean when they say that “the voyage to the other side of town is harder to make than a trip around the world, and a voyage of discovery in one’s own home is the hardest of all”?

Answer 17

It is most difficult to see and be critical of that which we are most familiar.

Question 18

What were the great breakthroughs of modern knowledge?

Answer 18

• Durkheim, dynamics of social solidarity
• Weber, ideas and ideals interact with material and power interests
• Freud, human as social animal
• Mead, both individual minds and social institutions are the result of symbolic communication

Question 19

What is the meaning of ideological bias?

Answer 19

-People.ms personal ideologies affect how they see the world and study it.

Question 20

How does ideological bias influence sociological research?

Answer 20

• It is difficult to be objective in the field of sociology when we all have-live with ideological biases.
• it is difficult to determine our own biases

Question 21

What are the most important aspects of creating sociological theory?

Answer 21

• looking at micrio and macro systems

- being as unbiased as possible

Question 22

Why is it important to go beyond one’s personal experiences?

Answer 22

Personal experience doesn’t account for or look at the whole of society, or how an individual is affected by different systems within society

Question 23

How is it possible to avoid letting our personal interests and experiences bias and distort our thinking?

Answer 23

looking at different systems and how they affect groups of people
personal accounts of other people
taking a wider approach and looking at how systes affect you ad others

Question 24

How is social theory different from the sort of theorizing people do in everyday life?

Answer 24

personal theorizing looks at direct causes and effects “I am laid off, I need to look for a new job”
social theory looks at why the layoffs occurred - economically, the business involved, the culture of the community, etc.

Question 25

How are modern sociologists influenced by the work of other, earlier, social thinkers?

Answer 25

expanding on ideas of other, earlier social thinkers. Marx and neo-marxism for example. Marxism is still relevant due to capitalism, but there are other new theories that are relevant and incorporate race, gender into issues of social class

Question 26

How does the work/ influence of earlier sociologists perpetuate certain world views?

Answer 26

Positivism and rationalism having a negative effect and bureaucratization of society for example

Question 27

What is meant by “ideal” of creating sociological theory compared with reality?

Answer 27

ideal is a model of a theory. A theory can be described as it’s relationship to the ideal social theory