History of Sociology

• Altruistic suicide: care so much about a group and sacrifice yourself. Group takes precedent over the individual. 

• Protestants had a higher suicide rate than Catholics.

• Hegel (german philosopher)

-The ideas of society form and change society

-Marx turned this notion upside down.

-(values, ideas, and beliefs drive the train)To understand what drives society and the direction is going you need to understand the values and ideas of this society.

Materialism opposite of Idealism

• A perspective that holds that humans are ultimately shaped by their material surroundings. Superstructure (ideas)

• Capitalist (owners)

• Workers (sell labor for wage)

The capitalist wants to keep the wages as low as possible and the workers want the highest wage.

• Increasing wealth polarization.

• Eventual Revolution

Where did Marx go wrong?

• Marx did not see the rise of the middle classes and union compromise. (not a revolution)  

Marxs Sociological Legacy

• Exposed the “dark side” of capitalism. 

• This system makes a lot of wealth and the production of commodities (things)

• Some people will get rich and others will get crushed by the system through exploitation. 

Cultural fetishisms

• Commodities take on a mystical quality. 

• A fetish is an object that has magical and mystical powers

• We will begin to become obsessed with the things that capitalism produces. You will treat these things like they are magic and you will never think of the exploited individuals. We are enamored with these products. 

• Social relations begin to imitate commodity relations—the mentality of manipulation leaks into social dynamics.

Capitalism and Alienation 

• Workers would become alienated from their products and each other. 

• The outside is the same but the inside is completely different. 

• Coalitions of vested economic interests, that the former mayor was working for the behest of tech corporations. 

• On the surface, you see the superficial official power structures, however, there is an informal power structure. 

• All these religions and denominations (beliefs) may look different on the outside, but they follow the same bureaucratic system on the inside. (structurally the same).

• A pamphlet on the hierarchy in a company does not fully explain the hierarchy of power and dynamics within a social setting.

The Sociological Legacy of Max Weber(Vaber)

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

• The ideas are the foundation of the house. ( how you are, what you do)

• Capitalism might come from the protestant church.

• THESIS: Protestant religious ideas led to the emergence of capitalism

• Calvinists have a very unique set of beliefs. 

• Weber believed it was important as a sociologist to put oneself in someone else's state of mind and how they live.

Calvinists 

• “Calling” to a particular vocation from god. 

• Predestination because god is all-knowing, he knows which people are going to heaven or hell.

• People were filled with anxiety, they began to look for ways to relieve anxiety.

• They began to look for signs that they had chosen the right job.

• The best way to know if you were part of the “elect” (that was going to heaven) was to be materially successful in your vocation.

• Calvinists reinvest this money into their company, to maintain being successful, which means they are going to heaven.

• Calvinists accidentally created this machine of capitalism.

Modernity

• Traditional to Modern

• Agrarian to Industrial

• When you enter modernity, you can't go back and it fundamentally changes the world.

• Aka put on your seatbelt, there will be a great change. 

• There would be a general loss of meaning, and a feeling of anxiety, and you can easily be pulled in by distractions and addictions.

Traditional to Modern to a Post Modern

• The basic structures of modernity are evaporating and revamping the economy.

Sociology as a Compass

• Equality vs Inequality

• In what ways is the world becoming more equal, and in what ways is the world having more inequality

• Freedom vs Constraint

• In what ways are we experiencing more freedom and in what ways is the world becoming more constrained? 

• A mapping of social relations