SOC 305 Final Exam Flash cards

Methodology

we mean each thinker's view of how knowledge of the social world is obtained

Positivism

refers to a theoretical approach that emphasizes using scientific methods, like experiments and statistics, to study society and uncover objective truths about how it functions, based on the idea that social phenomenon can be observed and measured just like natural phenomena in the sciences (positivists believe that knowledge should be based on what can be directly observes and measured, excluding subjective interpretations)

Realism

While there is a gap between appearances and essences, the task of science is to reach beneath appearances in order to grasp essences 

Dialectic/Dialectical:

refers to a progression that unfolds through the working out of a series of internal contradictions. For Marx, historical development reflects the dialectical relationship between the forces of production and the relations of production.

Thesis/ Antithesis/ synthesis

  Reality is an uncle (thesis)

• Reality is a nephew (antithesis or “negation”)

• Reality is the whole of the uncle and the nephew (synthesis or “negation of the negation”)

telos/ teological

 History has a purpose and is moving in a given direction toward realizing that purposes or end

Materialist

 Someone who believes that the material condition of life, like economic factors and production methods, are the primary drivers of social change and structure (Marx)

Alienation

 the worker in his product means not only that his labour

Historical Materialism

 Marx’s theory of how societies develop over time is referred to as this

Mode of production

 the ways that different societies have organized productive activities through economic systems such as feudalism, capitalism, socialism, or communism. forces of production + relations of production

Forces of production

 refer to the available technology used in production (e.g plough, steam, engine, computer, etc)

Relations of production

 refers to the social organization of production as reflected in the legal system, the form of the state, and especially, the social class structure. 

Social Classes

: the agents of historical change; Marx refers to individuals who are in different positions with respect to the ownership of property

Tribal mode of production

is based on hunting and gathering, pastoralism, and basic cultivation

Slave mode of production

 is based on a more advanced form of agriculture

Feudalism

 is a mode of production based on agriculture and limited manufacturing in towns;  is based on unfree labor in which serfs/apprentices are tied to lords/ masters

Serf/serfdom

Serfs exchange their labor on Lord’s land for access for a small parcel on which to produce their own subsistence (laborers)

Capitalism

is a mode of productions based on industrial production

Communism

 is the final mode of production

Bourgeoisie/ Proletariat

The social class structure is based in the division between the bourgeoisie (or capitalist) owning class and the proletariat (or workers)

Bourgeois: of or characteristic of the middle class, typically with reference to its perceived materialistic values or conventional attitudes. 

Base/ superstructure

 Superstructure: religions, culture, the state, etc.) Base: “its the economy, stupid”

Overproduction

the situation where a society produces more goods and services than its consumers can effectively purchase, leading to an excess of supply; the reason for the demise in capitalism

Ahistoricism

 the tendency to analyze social phenomena without considering their historical context 

Atomism

the tendency to analyze the individual in isolation from other social actors 

Commodity

  is, in the first place, an object outside of us, a thing that by its properties satisfies human wants of some sort or another

Use value

he natural worth of anything consists in its fitnes to supply the necessities, or serve the conveniences of human life. (we typically find “worth” in the sense of value in use, and “value”” in the sense of exchange value.

E.g, iron, corn or a diamond is a material thing, a use-value (something useful)

exchange value

at first sight, it presents itself as a quantitative relation, as the proportion in which values in use of one sort are exchanged for those of another sort, a relation constantly chang­ing with time and place. (trading worth)

Value

socially necessary labor time: labor necessary to produce the commodity under “average” conditions; the common substance that manifests itself in the exchange-value of commodities, whenever they are exchanged; (worth/ price)

Socially-Necessary Labor Time

A use-value, or useful article, therefore, has value only because human labour in the abstract has been embodied or materialised in it. Then seeing that this type of labour is necessary for its production.

Commodity Fetishism

actors engage in a form of fetishism in exchange; means to treat what is a social relationship as a relationship between things

Capital

the circuit in which surplus value is created; it is self-expanding value; it is self-expanding value

surplus value

 the extra value created by a workers labor that exceeds the cost of their wage

Exploitation

when a worker has not been paid for the full value produced, but only for the part corresponding to her own production

Labor power

 There is only one commodity that exchanges at its value but it at the same time creates more value than itself contains. labor power combines a use-value (the work performed) and an exchange value (labor time necessary for production/reproduction of worker).

Absolute Surplus value

the absolute limit to how far the surplus value can be increased 

Relative surplus value

Another way to increase surplus value by increasing productivity through technological innovation

Ideal types

Weber develops this concept in context of the “merthodenstriet” debate about the objective of social science: 

• Marginalists: social sciences should be modeled on the natural sciences in searching for general laws (Economics)

• German Historical School: Social sciences should aim to understand a given social outcome as unique by situating it in a particular historical context and describing the multiplicity of factors involved (anthropology and History)

Rationality/Rationalization

the key idea of all of Webers work, he uses it to refer to social practices that stand against tradition or custom. Anything that stands against tradition is a rational practice (Rationality is also understood as the organization and systemization of social practices)

Ascetism

a social system where people are divided into rigid hierarchal castes based on birth, often with strict rules regarding social interaction, occupation, and marriage

Calling

refers basically to the idea that the highest form of moral obligation of the individual is to fulfill his duty in worldly affairs.

Predestination

 that only some human beings are chosen to be saved from damnation, the voice being predetermined by God

Bureucracy

Impersonal rule-based system (given a position based off your credentials) Modern state runs through this organization (criminal justice, census)

Rational Legal Authority:  

 obedience owed to the office holder on the basis of a general framework of laws, rules, and regulations (e.g, elected office holder)

Traditional authority

obedience based on personal loyalty reinforced by customary obligations (e.g king)

Reconstruction period

refers to periods after the end of the Civil war from 1865 to 1877 In which southern states were re-integrated into the union. It was doomed by a regime of terror in the south and by the gradual withdrawal of republican support from the project of racial equality in the north

Industrial democracy

DuBois means some kind of Democratic socialism. A society in which the working class has power and runs the society democratically

Essentialism (applied to race)

the belief that race is fixed, inherent biological category that determines a persons characteristic and abilities

Social constructionism (applied to race)

the idea that individuals actively shape and define their own racial identity through interactions with others and within the social context, rather than passively accepting a pre-defined racial category assigned to them

Talented tenth

Refers to a concept by dubois, describing the idea that roughly 10% of the african american populatioin possessed the intellectual capacity and potential to become educated leaders who could uplift and advocate for the wider Black community through higher education and social activism

Negritude

an anti-colonial cultural and political movement that began in the 1930s in attempt to challenge colonialism , promote black pride

What are the characteristics of Marx’s method?  What does Marx’s method draw from Hegel, and where does Marx differ from Hegel?

• The characteristics of Marx’s method are 1- realist, 2- dialectical 3- historical 4- materialist

• Hegels methodology is realist, dialectical, historical and Marx adds materialism by suggesting that the contradictions to be overcome are not logical contradictions in the real world

• For Hegel, alienation is a mental process while it a material process for Marx

Explain Marx’s analysis of alienation under capitalism

• For Marx, alienation is a material process- separation between labor and the objects created by labor 

• Four different kinds of separation constitute the alienation of worker under capitalism 

• 1- Man is separate from the product of his labor

  • Under a system of private property, the workers product is taken from him by the capitalist

  • The more the worker produces, the wealthier the capitalist becomes, and the more the worker is enslaved

  • Thus, the workers creation confront him as an alien power

• 2- man is separated from the process of production

  • Worker is not autonomous but under the direction of the capitalist

  • Work is not voluntary but coerced

• 3- Man is separated from his own essence as a human being

  • Man had consciousness of himself not only as an individual, but as a member of the human species

  • Man is therefore only living in accordance with his nature when he lives as a social being

• Under capitalism, man is alienated from his own spiritual life

• 4- Man is sperate from other producers

  • Process of capitalist production forces individuals to compete with one another

  • Social relationships is under capitalism are inherently adversarial

• In all of these respects, capitalism represents a negation of the true human essesnce

What is a mode of production?  What modes of production have existed historically?  How does Marx explain the emergence of new modes of production?  

• It is a definite form of activity of these individuals, a definite form of expressing their life, a definite mode of life on their part. Characterizes the way that different societies have organized productive activities.

• The tribal mode of production is based off of hunting, gathering, pastoralism, and basic cultivation (rudimentary); Slave mode of production is based on a more advanced form of agriculture (more developed); Feudalism is based on agriculture and limited manufacturing in towns; Capitalism: is a mode of production based on industrial production, between bourgeoisie and proletariat(very advanced stage); Communism is the final mode of production where private property is abolished

• History moves through a series of modes of production until communism is established; the driving force of history is material conditions (superstructure and base)

What are the unique features of capitalism as a mode of production?

• The social class structure is based on the division between the bourgeoisie (or capitalist) owning class and the proletariat (or workers)

• Institution of private property and full commodification of labor are key institutional features of the capitalist mode of production

What are Marx’s critiques of utilitarian social theory?

• Marx's historical analysis of capitalism stand in sharp contrast to the ahistoricism of Smith and Mathus

  • Each historical stage (e.g feudalism, capitalism) is subject to its own unique laws

  • Marx accuses Smith and Malthus of generalizing features of capitalism inappropriately by treating these as universal aspects of Human nature.

• Marx also critices the atomism of political economists such as Smith and Malthus

According to Marx, how does the capitalist make profits? 

• In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.

• The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honored and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage laborers 

How do the capitalist’s attempts to extract ever greater profits lead capitalism toward its inevitable demise?

• Initially, the capitalist who introduces technological innovation reaps windfall profits

• But eventually, as the innovation is adopted widely, the price of the good is reduced since the value of the commodity has fallen.

• Meanwhile, the capitalist has replaced labor with machinery, eliminating the ultimate source of surplus value.

• Marx and Engels do not give a full account here, but point to the role of overproduction in destabilizing capitalism

Describe Weber’s methodological approach to social science.  How does his use of ideal types reflect this methodology?  What are examples of ideal types?

What are the different meanings that Weber attaches to rationality?

• Weber adopted the idea that the “understanding of meaning is essential to the explication of human action, etc. that were regarded by many others as necessarily ties to the interpretative understanding of conduct. 

• Most important he rejected the view that recognition of meaningful character of human conduct entails that causal explanation cannot be undertaken in the social sciences.

• Ideal types: Marginalists: social sciences should be modeled on the natural sciences in searching for general laws (Economics)

• German Historical School: Social sciences should aim to understand a given social outcome as unique by situating it in a particular historical context and describing the multiplicity of factors involved (anthropology and History)

• Weber uses the concept of rationality to refer to social practices that stand against tradition or custom:

• Example: Rational legal authority versus traditional authority.

Why, according to Du Bois, does the emancipation of 4 million former slaves fail to usher in an “industrial democracy” in the United States? 

- the expectation would be that you now have 4 million free people and should be added to the working class. It should now allow this working class to take power which is what he is expecting after emancipation. The white working class fails to recognize that black workers are also workers. The working class allies themselves. 

What is the “white mask” worn by colonial subjects?

- essentially talking about the way the colonial subject emulates the colonizer. People who are subjugated in this system of oppression. The way they adopt forms of speaking are very European which is an emulation of white European values. French allows them to elevate their status because they have a different way of speaking. That a way of performing a higher status b its a movement toward European culture. That’s one-way colonialism inflicts injury as they are caught between the European world and the community they come from. The way that racism invites people who are subjected to it to