Social Theory Test 1- Important terms/themes

Karl Marx

German conflict theorist that focused on capitalist theories and ways to change society.

Dialectical philosophy

contradictions exist in reality and studying their development is how to appropriately understand reality

Dialectical Method

A method of studying developed by Marx, focus on real, existing contradictions

Social values, social facts, social influence

Social values aren’t separable from social facts. Social influences never flow in one direction as a cause-and-effect relationship. One factor may affect another, or vice versa.

Human Potential

believed there was a contradiction between our human potential and the way we must work in capitalist society

Human Nature

creating external objects out of our internal thoughts, link between labor and human nature. Important to all sociological theory

Labor

Encompasses all work, Labor is in response to a need, but also transforms our needs. Labor is a social activity that transforms society. Capitalism has changed the process of labor (Leads to alienation).

Alienation

Comes from the relationship of labor and human nature that is affected by capitalism. Shifted labor from an expression of our purpose to earning money, alienating them from the object, the product, other workers, and human potential.

Fetishization of commodities

Everything becomes a commodity under capitalism, even our labor.

Reification

believing that human created social structures are natural, absolute, and unchangeable/out of their control

Proletariat

workers who sell their labor and do not own their own means of production

Capitalists

those who own the means of production

Capital

Money that produces more money, invested rather than being used to satisfy human needs/desires

Reserve Army

what the group of desperate unemployed are called, makes employees easily replaceable

Surplus value

difference between value of sold product and value of capital used to build it (including labor), increases when paying workers low wages

Proletarianization

inevitable increase in proletariat

Class (Marx definition)

defined in relation for potential conflict. A theory about where this potential exists is required before identifying class (factions)

Materialist Conception of History (Historical Materialism)

the way in which people provide for their material needs determines/conditions the relations that people have with each other, their social institutions, and their prevalent ideas. material forces of production in society come in conflict with existing relations of production at a certain stage of development.

Ideology (First version)

ideas that naturally emerge out of everyday life in capitalism. vulnerable to disruption b/c it’s based on underlying material contradictions

Ideology (Second Version)

systems of ruling ideas that attempt once again to hide the contradictions that are at the heart of the capitalist system. lead to the creation of subsystems of ideas (a religion, a philosophy, a legal system, etc.) that makes the contradictions seem coherent

Freedom

having control over your own labor and its products. people are not free under capitalism.

Use value

defined qualitatively, how useful something is

Exchange value

defined quantitatively, amount of labor needed to appropriate useful qualities

General law of capitalist accumulation

where capitalists seek to exploit the worker as much as possible

Emile Durkheim

French functionalist known for his study on suicide as well as advocating for sociology to be treated as a science and to separate it from psychology and philosophy.

Social facts

the forces and structures that are external to, and coercive of, the individual. Social facts can only be explained by other social facts

Material Social facts

styles of architecture, forms of technology

Non-material social facts

Exist in our mind, Morality comes from society

Collective Conscious

the general structure of shared understandings, wants, and beliefs. Defined by volume (# of people), Intensity (how individuals feel about conscious), Rigidity (how clearly it’s defined), and content (form that it takes). When people are assigned to specialized tasks, they no longer connected through collective conscious

Collective representation

religious symbols, clothing, etc.

Restitutive Law

law that requires restitution for breaking the law

Anomic division of labor

lack of instruction on what to do, leading to increased isolation

Forced division of labor

outdated qualms and expectations that place people in areas not best fit for them

Integration and regulation

outdated qualms and expectations that place people in areas not best fit for them

Egoistic Suicide

Low integration

Altruistic suicide

high integration

Anomic suicide

Low regulation

Fatalistic suicide

High regulation

Debate between structure and agency

We are agents of our social action vs our agency is determined by the structure of society

Religion

an all-accompanying moral compass in “primitive” society. Must be a development of religious beliefs, a set of religious ritual, and a church/place of gathering along with these for a religion to develop

Empiricim

contends to our concepts

Apriorism

contends that we must be born with some initial categories of understanding

Force

derives from experiences of social forces

Society (Durkheim)

a totality, governed by social facts and structures

Max Weber

German historical sociologist who spoke on the relationship of history and science, types of authority, and rationality

History (Weber)

appropriately concerned with both individuality and generality

Positivists on history

believed history was composted of general laws

Subjectivists on history

reduced history to reactions and socratic events

Verstehen

sociologists had the ability to understand social phenomena, unlike natural scientists. Derived from hermeneutics

Hermeneutics

A special approach to the understanding + interpretation of published writing

Causality

The probability that an event will be followed/accompanied by another event

Ideal Types

formed by the one-sided accentuation of 1+ POVs, present a concrete individual phenomena, essentially a measuring rod

Historical ideal types

relate to phenomena found in some particular historical epoch

General sociological ideal types

relate to phenomena that cut across a number of historical periods + societies

Action ideal types

pure types of action based on the motivations of the actor

Structural ideal types

these are forms takes by the causes + consequences of social action

Values and teachings/research (Weber)

Social scientists should not let their personal values influence their scientific research in any way. need for teachers to control their personal values in the classroom (facts, not values). separate fact from value in research, but not to be withdrawn completely.

Means-ends rationality

when the ends justify the means

Value rationality

when social action is driven by values

Ethical Action

Social action driven by ethics

Class

a group of people whose shared situation is a possible basis of action by the group

Status

every typical component of the life of men that is determined by specific, positive or negative, social estimation of honor

Party

a structure struggling for domination

Middle classes (Weber)

felt were dominated by shortsighted, petty bureaucrats

Domination (authority)

the probability that certain specific commands will be obeyed by a given group of persons

Rational legal authority

bureaucracy (considered the purest type of exercise of legal authority). Most efficient. reduces every worker to a cog, which gives them the mindset of always trying to become a bigger cog (drives us into despair). Un-shatterable

Characteristics of ideal-type bureaucracy

Consists of a continuous organization of official functions (offices) bound by rules. Office has a specified sphere of competence and must stick to its job. offices organized hierarchically. offices may have technical qualifications that require training. staff does not own means of production. the incumbent is not allowed to appropriate the position.

Traditional Authority

Based on a claim by the leaders and a belief of its followers

Gerontocracy (Trad. Authority)

rule by elders

Primary patriarchalism (Trad. Authority)

leaders who inherit their positions

Patrimonialism (Trad. Authority)

Traditional domination with a large military force and administration that is owned by the master

Feudalism (Trad. Authority)

limits the discretion of the master through the development of more routinized, even contractual, relationships between leader and subordinate

Charismatic Authority

A form of leadership where a ruler's legitimacy and power derive from the followers' belief in their exceptional personal qualities, heroism, or divine connection, rather than from laws or traditions. Charismatic leader is a threat to other forms of authority.

Objectified rationality

action that is in accord with some process of external systematization

Practical rationality

every way of life that views and judges worldly activity in relation to the individual’s purely pragmatic and egoistic interests

Theoretical rationality

a cognitive effort to master reality through increasingly abstract concepts rather than through action

Substansive rationality

directly orders action into patterns through clusters of values

Formal rationality

involves means-ends calculation. Focus on efficiency, emphasize calculability, ensuring predictability, reduces human tech and ultimately replaces human tech with nonhuman tech, seek to gain control over an array of uncertainties, tend to have a series of irrational consequences for the people involved and the systems themselves.