Sociology Notes: Protestant Reformation to Weber
Protestant Reformation and Martin Luther
The pre-press era meant clergy controlled literacy and wrote about salvation, often criticizing the Catholic Church.
Martin Luther broke from the Catholic Church, starting the Protestant Reformation.
Luther was excommunicated but not jailed, allowing other reformers to establish Protestant traditions.
John Calvin, Predestination, and the Protestant Work Ethic
John Calvin introduced the Protestant work ethic: hard work, productivity, and a clean life.
Prosperity was seen as a sign of God's favor and potential salvation, distinct from personal effort alone (predestination).
This theology influenced views on fate, success, and conduct, linking to the rise of cottage industry and later factory production.
The claim: Calvinist predestination facilitated urbanization (migration to cities for prosperity) and industrialization (shift to factory production).
Early Urban Problems in Emerging Cities
New cities faced unemployment, hunger, poverty, disease, and crime, necessitating social reform.
Auguste Comte and Positivism
Auguste Comte proposed sociology as an empirical discipline for social investigation and reform.
Positivism became a key philosophy in social science.
Herbert Spencer and the Structural-Functional Perspective (with caveats)
Spencer offered a structural-functional view and the organic analogy.
His work, "The Theory of General Evolution," is criticized as bad sociology due to biological determinism.
Biological determinism (underpinning Social Darwinism) claims biology dictates success, supporting racist, sexist, and classist ideologies.
The lecturer highlights the ethical and political harms of these views on policy and society.
Emile Durkheim: Social Facts, Cohesion, and Solidarity
Durkheim is a pivotal sociologist, arguing society shapes human potential more than biology.
Social facts are external norms, values, and practices that shape individual behavior (e.g., varying women's rights in different countries).
Birthplace and its social facts significantly determine opportunities.
Micro-level: Higher social cohesion correlates with lower suicide rates (except for altruistic suicide).
Macro-level: Shift from mechanical to organic solidarity.
Mechanical solidarity: In pre-industrial societies, based on similar tasks and shared beliefs (e.g., Catholic Church influence).
Organic solidarity: In modern, specialized economies, cohesion arises from interdependence and division of labor.
This shift means reliance on diverse specialists holds society together despite diverging beliefs.
Karl Marx: Class, Capital, and Alienation (Conflict Theory)
Marx identified two classes: bourgeoisie (capital owners) and proletariat (workers).
Alienation stems from capitalism's exploitative nature, driven by profit.
Profit is the exploited surplus value of labor: workers create more value (V) than they are paid (W), with the excess (SV = V - W) taken by capitalists.
Max Weber: Multidimensional Inequality, Bureaucracy, and Power
Weber critiqued Marx, proposing inequality involves class, status (prestige), and power (political influence).
He noted bureaucracies are self-perpetuating.
His three-tier U.S. class model includes:
Upper class (~1\%: inherited wealth - upper upper; earned wealth - lower upper, e.g., Musk).
Upper middle class (~10\% to ~15\%).
Followed by middle, working middle, working poor, and poor.
Weber stressed that prestige and power influence political outcomes and social status, beyond just economic capital.
Parsonian Foundations and Test Orientation (Course Context)
The test will cover Parsons; Merton is excluded.
Connections to Foundations, Real-World Relevance, and Ethical Implications
The Reformation fostered questioning authority, impacting religion and social organization.
Industrialization and urbanization shaped modern economic structures and social problems.
Positivism provided an empirical method for sociology.
Structural functionalism (Spencer/Durkheim) explains social order but warns against justifying inequality.
Conflict theory (Marx) highlights class conflict and exploitation.
Weber's multidimensional view broadens inequality beyond economics to culture and politics, noting bureaucratic power.
Ethical implications: theories justifying racism, sexism, or classism (e.g., Spencer's ideas) have serious real-world policy and justice consequences.
Key Formulas and Quantitative References
Surplus Value: SV = V - W
Profit: \Pi = \text{Exploited surplus value of labor}
Population percentages (approximate):
Upper class: ~1\%
Upper middle class: ~10\%
Summary of Key Takeaways
Reformation (Luther, Calvin) reshaped religious authority and drove urbanization/industrialization.
Durkheim established social facts, cohesion, mechanical/organic solidarity, and linked cohesion to suicide rates.
Spencer's functionalism, with its social Darwinist caveats, shows dangers of biological determinism.