Soc: Class Notes
12/1:
W. E. B. Du Bois - “The Souls of Black Folk” (1903)
Niagara Movement
Leader
Opposed Appeasement and assimilation
The Philadelphia Negro in 1899 - exposes the harms of racial segregation
Leader in the Pan-African Conferences and movement of ea. 20th c.
Background
Du Bois’s positions at Fisk and Atlanta brought him face to face with the virulent racism and terror of the south
Lynching of Sam Hose in 1899 deeply disturbed Du Bois
“For many years it was the theory of most Negro leaders that…white America did not know or realize the continuing plight of the Negro”
The Color Line
Decided to write in a more “soulful” voice
Like Marx, Du Bois viewed consciousness as reflective of one’s structural position in society
“The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line”
The color line imprints itself on black consciousness in the form of the veil or double-consciousness
Double Consciousness
“It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others…”
D.C. → “self-questioning, self-disparagement, and lowering of ideals”
Also leads to conflict - how to be Black and American?
“The Souls…” as Expression
One way to read “The Souls of Black Folk” is as an expression of double-consciousness
The text is written for an audience but it is also self-reflexive
The text presents a distinctive voice - it is not written from the perspective of the neutral (white?) social scientist
Explores double-consciousness as a potential strength
Double-consciousness is consistent with Du Bois’s view that blacks embrace race-consciousness
Being Black-American
Blacks must discover and cultivate their own voice-develop a self-awareness that counters damaging perceptions of others
Makes it possible to relate being black with other categories (e.g., being American) but in a way that:
Doesn’t require sacrificing being black (e.g., assimilation)
Contributes to changing what it means to be “American”
“Henceforth, the destiny of the race could be conceived as leading neither to assimilation nor separatism but to proud, enduring hyphenation.”
Spiritual Striving
Black American struggle → quest for self-realization, dignity, recognition
Must strive to merge dual identities into a truer, fuller self, not by erasing Blackness but by elevating it
Celebrates resilience and cultural creativity of Black Americans, who persist despite odds
11/19:
Anna Julia Cooper - “A Colored Woman’s Office” A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South (1892
“A Voice from the South…
…by a Black Woman from the South”
Theme of voice and representation
Voices of Black women have been ignored (“stand mute”)
Black women are uniquely positioned to speak on the issues of race (and gender) - they possess an “indispensable agency”
“The regeneration, the restraining of the race, as well as the ground work and starting point of its progress upward must be the black woman”
True Womanhood?
Cooper appears to be drawing on Victorian ideals of “true womanhood” - “the indispensable agency of an elevated and trained womanhood”
Idea that women possess a superior morality and virtue - only applied to white, middle class women
Functioned to keep women in their place - but women harnessed the ideology to justify expanded agency in world
Representation?
Who represents the Black people? Do Black Leaders speak for all black people?
Black Leadership - overwhelmingly male and relatively privileged
Attacks false universals - Martin Delany claimed he brought the entire Black race with him as he gained access to the white elite
No man can be regarded as representative of the whole race
Why? Many reasons - for one, he has no understanding of the experience of Black women
Formal Equality
Cooper exposes the lie of formal quality - the doctrine of “separate but equal” codified in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
The doctrine never matched the reality
Embodied experience informs much of Cooper’s analyses
Public sentiment ←→ the law
Points of failure of citizens to honor the high ideals of American equality
Women’s Movement
Cooper critiques as well the place of Black women in the women’s movement of 19th c.
Women are uniquely positioned to lead, instruct, and reform society - they are oppressed because of their gender
But Cooper recognizes that white women, esp. from the south, will not accept Black women in this effort
Black women, Cooper suggests, are particularly situated to contribute to reform - they are oppressed for their gender and their race
Race and Gender
Black women “are confronted by both the women question and the race problem, and is as yet an unknown or an unacknowledged factor in both”
White women’s expanded public role has legitimacy - but not Black women’s
Black men not open to Black women’s role
So Black women cannot speak on behalf of Blacks or on behalf of women
Colored Woman’s Office
As women and as Black, Black women share a distinct experience and knowledge that makes them uniquely prepared to take of an active role in remaking society
11/17:
George Herbert Mead - Society and the Self
Background
Self is product of social relationships - or of interaction between human organism and social environment
Self-Consciousness
Requires the subject relate to itself as an object
We are objects first to other people; secondarily we become objects to ourselves by taking the perspective of other people
Individual relates to self no directly but indirectly through the same experiential field as that of other individuals with whom he/she acts in given social situations
Other and Self
Individual must summon an image of him/herself as if it is from the perspective of other individuals
Accomplished by taking the attitudes of other individuals toward him/herself
Significant Gestures
Significant gestures - distinguishes humans from other animals
Gesture becomes significant when idea behind it arouses same response in self as in others
Communication is directed not only to others but also to self
Mead’s Stages of the Self
Initiation Stage (Up to Age 3)
Children imitate the activities of significant others
playing with pots and pans while dad cooks
Separate senes of self not yet developed - activities not seen as belonging to a role
Role - set of rights, duties, expectations, norms and behavior assumed by individuals who occupy a given social position or status
Play Stage (Ages 3-5)
Children are able to imaginatively assume the perspective of the other
Role-playing restricted to dyads - does not reflect a fully developed self
Game Stage (Early School Years)
Child who plays in a game must be able to take the attitude of everyone else involved in that game
One role defined by relationship to other roles
Self is formed when we can see our own selves and conduct from the perspective of the game as a whole
Generalized other - when we understand our own role as it relates to many sets of roles in society
The “I” and the “Me”
Self is a dynamic process, not a thing - the “I” and the “Me” are phrases of the self
The “Me”:
The socialized, organized set of attitudes of others
The internalized norms and expectations of the generalized other.
The “Me” is the part of the self that is defined by its past and by the present situation in which its situated
The “I”:
The “I” is a phase of the self that is a source of discretion and “choice” - creativity, spontaneity
The “I” can choose to act but must do so under the conditions of the “Me”
The self’s response to the attitude of the “me.”
Activities of “I” contribute to the “Me’s” ongoing development
Implications?
Implication of Mead’s account of the self: the self is not transparent to itself
Also, control? “An individual does not mean a great deal of what he is doing and saying”
The self, is not singular, but multiple - we have different relationships with many different people - we have different relationships with many different people - we are one thing to one person and another thing to another
11/12:
Sigmund Freud - “Civilization and Its Discontents” (1930)
Happiness
Individual ←→ society or “civilization”)
The title points to the focus of Freud’s inquiry: not only why are individuals unhappy as members of the collective but why is it not possible for them to be ever fully happy?
Subjects are inherently conflicted, according to Freud
Instincts & Drives
Human nature → biologically based instincts or drives
Groups them under Eros and Thanatos
Eros (life drive) - oriented around preservation of life - respiration, eating, sex - energy created by life drive is called “libido”
Thanatos (death drive) - violence and aggression
Satisfaction of instincts is called the “pleasure principle”
Subjectivity → conflict and struggle
Self → Society
Freud transfers the intra-psychic conflict of the individual to the domain of society
Thus, Eros, to Freud, is in the service of Civilization, which seeks to combine individuals into collective unities (families, cultures, societies, etc.)
Civilization requires that individuals curb their instincts
Conscience & Superego
The social demand to curb individuals’ instincts produces conscience -
Aggressiveness is met by an external threat (a parent or society) and this relation is introjected and gives rise to the authority of the superego
Demands of parents/society become internalized
Contd.
Internal development of conscience is induced by an external threat - the potential loss of love (esp. Parent’s)
Individual realizes their helplessness and dependence on others
Society “sets up agency” within the subject to watch over its instincts - this agency is the superego
Even More Conflicts
External authority and super-ego demand: “renounce thy instincts!”
We can refrain from acting on our instincts and avoid harsh judgment of others
But inner wishes and intentions cannot hide from super-ego - thus, guilt.
Curbing outward satisfaction of instincts leaves the inner wish intact
External unhappiness (punishment and loss of love) is avoided at the cost of internal happiness
Cultural Super-Ego
Society’s highest ideals - “turn the other cheek,” Love thy neighbor,” “treat others as one would like to be treated”
Problem is there are too inflexible
Failure to live up to these ideals all together
What can be done? Greater realism?
Sip Rather Than Gulp
We trade immediate gratification for longer term stability - we sip rather than gulp
We escape into illusions (fantasy, religion, drugs, conspiracy theories)
We seek substitute satisfactions
Sublimation: the process of deflecting sexual or aggressive instincts into acts of higher social valuation (e.g., marriage and family, sports, career, etc.)
Cope is All We Can Do
Society demands that individuals curb their instincts but individuals become dependent on society to achieve any level of satisfaction or happiness
But moderate satisfactions never leave us fully content
Being Less Unhappy
Society demands renunciation of instincts and threatens punishment for failure
The “cultural super-ego” establishes certain injunctions - “love they neighbor,” “turn the other cheek,” “treat others as one would like to be treated”
- which only cause more distress since it is not realistic
But even worse is the judgment of the super-ego and its threat of punishment
It can’t make itself happy - it can only relieve some of its unhappiness
11/10:
Georg Simmel - “The Stranger”
The Stranger
What is a stranger?
Not quite a wanderer who is “here today and goes tomorrow” but also not an insider
Occupies intermediate position between detachment and attachment, closeness and remoteness
Stranger is fixed within a social spatial circle, even though they are the qualities they bring to it are not indigenous to it
Closeness and Remoteness
One who is close by is remote but “his strangeness indicates that one who is remote is near” (361)
Stranger is a positive relation - it is constituted by virtue of a kind of belonging
The Trader
In economic history, stranger invariable shows up as a trader
A trader is a mediator for goods produced outside the group
Trader, in their role, is a figure who resides between groups, belonging to no one group
The trader is most suitable activity for the stranger
Restriction to trade and finance (and land ownership) gives stranger character of mobility
Objectivity
“Not bound by roots to the particular constituents and partisan dispositions of the group” (362) - thus, can relate to group with objective attitude
Stranger’s opinion matters because it doesn’t really matter
Strangers often assume role of confidant, approached by group members with revelations and confessions, matters that must be kept secret from other members
Especially true of strangers who move on
Objectivity → Freedom
Dangerous Possibilities
Strangers are denied individuality they are seen as representatives of a type
In times of real or perceived threat, upheaval, or misfortune → tendency to identify causes with outside influences - the strangers among us become targets
Other times, characteristics normally taken as merely human are “disallowed to the other” (364) - that other is no longer a stranger - it lies completely outside of the group
11/03:
Friedrich Engels - The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State (1884)
The Origin of the Family
Explains how family, property, and the state evolved through history
Shows how economic (the mode of production) shaped social institutions
Links the oppression of women and class domination to the rise of private property
Background
Based on anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan’s research Ancient Society (1877)
Engels reinterprets Morgan’s evolutionary model through Marxist analysis
Focus - changes in production, property, and inheritance transform social life
Stages of Social Development
Savagery - hunting, gathering, communal living (Primitive communalism)
Barbarism - agriculture, herding, early private ownership
Civilization - full private property, class divisions, state formation
Transitions driven by changes in production and property relations
Primitive Communal Societies
Group marriage: communal sexual relations, no exclusive pairs
Matrilineal descent: lineage and kinship through the mother - paternity unknown
No private property - shared production and resources
Egalitarian gender relations - women had social authority through kinship
Early Agricultural and Pastoral Societies
Development of agriculture and animal domestication → surplus production
Men’s role in production grows → control over wealth and exchange
Property moves from communal to private ownership
“Civilization”
Large-scale agriculture, animal husbandry, slavery, and early trade
Private property replaces communal ownership
The Rise of Patriarchy
Economic control → male dominance within both society and the household
Women excluded from production and property ownership
The household becomes the center of female subordination
Emergence of Monogamy
Men wanted to ensure their property passed to their biological heirs
Women’s sexual exclusivity became essential to inheritance and legitimacy
Monogamy was imposed on women but not necessarily on men
Patrilineal Descent
Inheritance and family lineage traced through the male line
Ensures property stays within the father’s family
Impact":
Replaces earlier matrilineal systems
Reinforces both monogamy and male authority
Solidifies women’s economic dependence on men
The Origin of the State
As property and class divisions grew, society needed a tool to protect wealth and order
The state developed as an instrument of class domination, not of the “common good”
Class, Property, and Family
Family, Property, and the state are interconnected
The patriarchal family has become a unit of consumption
The family mirrors the economic order:
Patriarchal family = microcosm of class hierarchy
Ruling class maintains control through inheritance, property, and political power
Toward Socialism
Abolition of private property → end of class divisions
With economic equality, the patriarchal family will dissolve
Relationships will be based on mutual affection, not economic dependence
10/27:
Max Weber Contd.
Charismatic Authority
Based on certain qualities as individual is believed to possess
Authority of charismatic leader esp. dependent on its recognition by his/her followers
Leaders seen as standing apart from mundane world - often proclaim superior morality - regular morality does not apply to them
Promise of Liberation
Often leader claims to oppose forms of established authority
Appeal rests not on the established order but on the promise of liberation from it or even its destruction
Charismatic figures → “messiahs”
Unique - not antecedents and no descendants
Leader as Singularity
Only he/she can lead the people
Political order and will of people are identified with the leader
Any action taken against leader is taken as threat to political order and will of people
Crisis of Liberal Democracy
People most receptive to charismatic authority during times of cynicism - arising from (justified or unjustified) feeling of aggrievement
Sometimes systems of legal-rational authority become the target of frustration and cynicism
By comparison charismatic authority offers a fantasy of power as pure, personal will—the will of the leader, the will of “the people,” etc. - not laws, procedures, rights, etc.
Transgression as Signs
Evidence that leader possesses special qualities he/she is alleged to possess
Extreme, ethically, or legally questionable action
Personal qualities - departures from decorum or social norms of morality
Self presentation - anger, power in the body, apparent, carelessness, vulgarity
Charismatic - Legal - Rational
Charismatic authority often benefits from a place in system of legal-rational authority
Charismatic leaders often parasitic of legal-rational authority
Charismatic authority can be at odds with legal-rational authority
10/22:
Max Weber Contd.
Calvinism
While on earth one never knew whether one was a member of the Elect or the Damned - lead to intense anxiety
One way to relieve anxiety was to commit oneself to a calling - hard work and self denial in pursuit of a vocational calling
Calvinism Contd.
One had to act as if one was one of the Chosen
More one conformed to the strict standards, less they feared they were not
Success → confirmed one was in state of grace with God
Opposite - poverty - evidence of moral failure
Elective Affinity
New work ethic ←→ capitalism?
Purpose (ends) of the new work ethic was not capitalist accumulation
Capitalism didn’t give rise to the Protestant work ethic
The two shared an “elective affinity”
Iron Cage
Is work in the capitalist ecnomy still oriented around the same ends?
For Weber, the Protestant ethic constructed an “iron cage”
Eventually the “spirit” flew from its cage - all that remains is the cage
Max Weber The Types of Legitimate Domination (1914)
Domination
Domination - “The probability that certain specific commands (or all commands) will be obeyed by a given group of persons…”
“…Every genuine form of domination implies a minimum of voluntary compliance”
Belief in legitimacy of power (authority) is element of power itself
Types of Legitimate Authority
Classifies types of authority based on legitimacy claimed for each:
Traditional authority - traditional grounds
Rational authority - legal grounds
Charismatic authority - Charismatic grounds
Traditional Authority
Legitimacy comes from long-standing customs, traditions, and inherited status
Obedience owed to person who occupies position of authority by tradition
No distinction between private person of ruler and public role (King Charles is always King)
Legal-Rational Authority
Obedience is owed to the legally established impersonal order
Power does not lie within the person of one individual but in the office he/she occupies which is determined by law
Law → extent and limits of power
Obedience is not to the person occupying office but to impersonal order (the law) to which the office belongs
Charismatic Authority
Based on certain qualities with an individual is believed to possess
Authority of charismatic leader esp. dependent on its recognition by his/her followers
Leaders seen as standing apart from mundane world - often proclaim superior morality - regular morality does not apply to them
Promise of Liberation
Often leader claims to oppose forms of established authority
Appeal rests not on the established order but on the promise of liberation from it or even its destruction
Charismatic figures → “messiahs”
Unique - not antecedents and no descendants
10/20:
Max Weber
What is Sociology?
Interpretive understanding of social action
Social action → when an actor attaches subjective meaning to behavior - the subjective meaning becomes a “cause” of action
Action is social in as much as its subjective meaning is oriented around the behavior of others
Interpretative Understanding
Involves the achievement of an interpretive understanding (“Verstehen”) of the subjective meanings which orient action
Ideal Types
Relationship between concepts (the tools of understanding) and the reality to be understood
Ideal types are concepts are “abstractions from reality”
Serve various purposes:
Organization of complex, chaotic phenomena
Compare extent to which reality approximates or deviates from ideal type
Comparison of empirical variations of ideal type
Types of Social Action
Traditional action - determined by habit or long-held custom
“All my family went to college, so I’m going too”
Affective action - marked by impulsiveness or a display of unchecked emotions
“I love college! I enjoy being a student. Beats working!!”
Types of Social Action contd.
Value-rational action - pursued as an end in itself - motivated by certain ultimate values - independent of prospect of success
“I go to college because becoming educated is, in itself, very important”
Instrumental-rational action - geared toward the efficient pursuit of goals through calculating the advantages and disadvantages associated with the possible means for realizing them
“I’m getting a college degree because I want to get a job that pays well”
Protestant Ethic
Link between religious and economic activity
How to explain the fact that Protestants predominate in the modern capitalism economy?
Eliminates certain explanations: accumulated wealth, unequal educational opportunities, etc.
Focuses on elements of Protestant belief and practice that were conductive to development of modern capitalism
Asceticism
Approach to life based on discipline, hard work and self denial
Individuals expected to subject all aspects of their lives to the most exacting standards of hard work and thrift - idleness or any kind of non-productive work (or pleasure) was condemnable
Economic Traditionalism
Work just enough to meet usual needs
The new spirit of capitalism → maximization of productive work
Material acquisition is now a moral imperative even as the enjoyment of gains is frowned upon
Calvinism
Neither hard work, discipline, or thrift nor rewards of hard work (profit) were ends in themselves
Calvin espoused doctrine of predestination - thus, new work ethic not necessarily a means of achieving salvation
Why work so hard and deprive oneself?
Calvinism contd.
While on earth one never knew whether one was a member of the Elect or the Damned - lead to intense anxiety
One way to relieve anxiety was to commit oneself to a calling - hard work and self denial in pursuit of a vocational calling
10/15:
Emile Durkheim contd.
Restitutive Law
Restitutive sanctions - seek to restore state of affairs or relations to the way they were before
The offense is not between an individual and a collective but between two individuals (or parties)
Rules where sanctions are restitutory involve little or no part of collective consciousness
Restitutive Law Contd.
Repressive law - diffused throughout society - restitutive law - specialized areas covering particular interest
Serves to regulate interdependent parts of a highly differentiated, function system
Restitutive law implies multiple, functional relationships
Moral Order
Modern division of labor not just economic order - also, ideally, a moral and social order
Pathological Forms
Anomic Division of Labor - lack of regulation, leading to normlessness and conflict
Forced Division of Labor - inequality or coercion determined roles
Poorly Coordinated Division of Labor - Specialization becomes too fragmented
Durkheim Contd.
Two Factors
Integration - strength of social bonds that connect individuals to a group
Regulation - degree of moral control and rules guiding individual desires
Three (actually 4) types of suicide - degrees of social integration →
Altruistic Suicide
Persons closely oriented to fulfilling expectations of group, suicide - obligatory when they fail to meet expectations. or necessary to carry out group goals
Fatalistic Suicide
Excess of control over the individual
Due to the despair of living under very restrictive conditions
Egoistic Suicide
Individuals are excessively self-oriented
Takes precedence over relationships and community
Looked at suicide rates across a number of factors - marital status, family size, religion, etc.
Anomic Suicide
Anomie - absence of norms or established standards
Suicide increases when normal patterns of social life are uprooted
Can result from rapid social change, turmoil, and crisis
“The scale is upset; but a new scale cannot be immediately improvised. Time is required for the public conscience to reclassify men and things”
Anomic Suicide Contd.
Suicide rates increase not only in midst of negative events such as disasters or crisis
Durkheim found that rates increases as much during economic upswings as economic downswings
Both have disruptive effects upon accustomed modes of life
10/13:
Emile Durkheim
Social Facts
Proper object of sociology? How do we know this object?
Durkheim → social facts - “Manners of acting, thinking, and feeling external to the individual, which are invested with a coercive power by virtue of which they exercise control over him”
On individualism - “We are victims of an illusion which leads us to believe we have ourselves produced what has been imposed upon us externally”
What is Society?
“Society is not mere sum of individuals, but the system formed by their association represents a specific reality which has its own characteristics”
Society → a moral (normative) order
Consists of shared sentiments, values, beliefs, codes of behavior, etc. which serve to bind members of society to one another
Social Facts Contd.
Treat social facts as things:
They should be approached objectively, without presuppositions
The sociologist should observe, compare, and classify them empirically
Person opinions or moral judgments must be suspended
The rule of causality
Social facts must be explained by other social facts, not by individual psychology or biology
Observing Social Facts
Durkheim → Study social facts as things
The problem → “things”—like community, religiosity, alienation, and so on—not always directly observable
Must focus, therefore, on observable manifestations or indicators of phenomena in question
Division of Labor in Society
Does transition from traditional to modern societies mark decline in cohesiveness (solidarity)?
Or are modern societies held together by a different kind of solidarity?
Durkheim compares the principles of social organization in traditional and modern societies
Law ←→ Solidarity
How to observe solidarity (social organization)?
Law functions as indicator of social solidarity
Repressive sanctions → solidarity in traditional societies
Restitutive sanctions → solidarity in modern societies
Traditional Societies
Tightly bound together by a shared morality - values, beliefs, a common sense of tradition and identity
Moral consensus is so strong members are bound by a “collective conscience” or “consciousness”
This kind of social organization → mechanical solidarity
Repressive Law
Law → generally repressive - purpose is to impose a harm or disadvantage on the perpetrator
Transgression → violation of the group’s collective consciousness rather than any of its individual members
“An act is criminal when it offends the strong, well-defined states of the collective consciousness”
Repressive Law Contd.
Punishment does not serve to correct the offender or deter others
Real function → maintain social cohesion and collective consciousness
Punishment provides occasion for the arousal and reaffirmation of collective consciousness
“Gives voice to the unanimous aversion” that the crime evokes
Modern Societies
Society is held together by a system of functional interdependence
Individuals relate through differences, such as in modern division of labor - called organic solidarity
Individuals relate to others more through differences rather than sameness - development of individuality
10/8:
Marx Contd.
Restless Capital
Capital possesses within itself a tendency to disrupt and destabilize - “All that is solid melts into air”
Also, immense pressure to expand (e.g., imperialism)
Pressure to maximize profits - achieved in many ways - Marx focuses on:
Division of Labor
Harnessing latest technology
Pressure to Grow
But the capitalist’s competitors follow suit
Tap into new labor markets (e.g., among the global poor) or new consumer markets (e.g., China or new technologies (online retail) or dominate marketshare (amazon)…
Falling Rate of Profit
But competitors will do the same - the process leads to falling rate of profit
Markets may become saturated (even for monopolies)
Overall economies may stagnate
Crisis Tendencies
Crises are a natural part of capitalism - crises are deferred by various means:
Imperialism, corporate welfare, deregulation, denationalization of industry, increasing scale of firms, penetrating new markets, war, disasters, new technologies, creation of new needs, etc.
Bourgeoisie must constantl be “recolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of productoin, and with them, the whole relations of society”
To Marx, the magnitude of the crises tend to increase and eventually will lead to the collapse of capitalism
Development of Proletariat
In early stages, laborers form an incoherent mass
With the Growth of industry, workers grow in number and are concentrated in greater masses (urban slums, factories, etc.)
Capitalism → equalizing effect on workers
Dev. of Proletariat Contd.
Collisions between workers and owners becomes collision between classes
⬆ worker awareness (Class consciousness) of their common plight and thsu a common identity
Leads to workers rising up against oppressors (revolution)
Capitalism produces not only capital but the forces that will defeat it (“its own gravediggers”)
“The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte” (1852)
Article published in Revolution in 1852 - Marx comments on significance of Louis Bonaparte’s Coup d’etat of 1851
Raises important questions regarding Marx’s views on:
The state
The bourgeoisie as a class
the role of peasants in class struggle
Historical materialism (progression of history)
Also studied as a harbinger of 20th century
Democracy and Capitalism
For Marx, rule of bourgeoisie is strongest under democratic
Yet in democratic republics, esp with universal suffrage lower classes can assert their rights and interests in ways that threaten interests of bourgeoisie
Faced with threat of lower classes, French bourgeoisie sacrificed democracy to protect their interests
For Marx, its a self-sacrifice - it negates all values the bourgeoisie stood for
Highlights conflict between democracy and capitalism
Class and the State
Proletariat - active during June Days but then repressed
Petit bourgeoisie - middle class small shop owners and professionals - vacillated between revolution and conservative impulses
Lumpenproletariat - ruffians, petty criminals, drunkards, the “social scum” - prone to be reactionary - manipulated by Bonaparte to be his personal base
Bonaparte had lots of support from peasants - why, according to Marx?
The traditional pleasant way of life no longer existed by mid-19th century
No lonegr bound by commons conditions of existance peasants could no recognize themselves as a class
“they cannot represent themselves; they must be represented.”
Bonapartism
Political form hwere authoritarian leader claims to represent the whole nation
But actually preserves the interests of the dominant economic class
Pretends to transcend class - similar to 20th c. Fascism - nation presented as classless unity (the people) or class distinction is subordinated to “friend-enemy” relation
10/6:
Marx Contd.
Some Terms
Forces of production - means of production - physical infrastructure (tools, machinery, factories) used in the production process; labor power; technology and scientific knowledge
Relations of production - any mode of production will require that society organize itself in a certain way establishing distinct social relations
Mode of production - unity between the forces and relations of production - the way a society produces and reproduces itself
Historical Materialism
History → progressive development → how societies organize their material production
Historical change fueled by contradictions (antagonisms) inherent to existing socio-economic arrangements
Leads to the decline of one mode and its replacement by another
Contradictions → crisis → overturning of socio-economic order - revolution
Modes of Production
Primitive Communism (Barbarians) → Asiatic → Antique or Ancient (Greek City States) → Feudalism (Serfs) → Capitalism
Revolution
Example: French Revolution (1889) - bourgeoisie overthrew feudal monarchs and aristocracy and established democratic institutions in its place
Capitalist markets rapidly eclipse feudal modes and relations of production
New material and social relations of production become basis of new society
Base and Superstructure
Base and Superstructure
Base - focuses of production and relations of production
Superstructure - institutions (state, legal, educational, cultural, religious, family) which serve to protect the interests of the ruling class and reproduction of the base
Restless Capital
Capital possesses within itself a tendency to disrupt and destabilize - “All that is solid melts into air”
immense pressure to expand (e.g. imperialism)
Pressure to maximize profits - achieved in many ways - Marx focuses on:
Division of Labor
Harnessing latest technology
Pressure to Grow
But the capitalists competitors follow suit
Tap into new labor markets (e.g. among the global poor) or new consumer markets (e.g., China) or new technologies (online retail) or dominate marketshare (amazon)…
Falling Rate of Profit
But competitors will do the same - the process leads to the falling rate of profit
Markets may become saturated (even for monopolies)
Overall economies may stagnate
10/1:
Karl Marx Contd.
Alienation
Alienation of workers from the products they produce:
Worker no longer recognizes self in product of labor
Products made by workers are not their’s to use or buy
Workers’ labor is not their own - it belongs to their employers
Alienation of workers in the production process
“Active Alienation”
“Worker’s own physical and mental energy is turned against him”
Example: Automation
Contd.
Alienation of workers from their species-being
Work → means of physical existence
No longer creative extension of ourselves
Alienation from one another
No longer product of cooperative interaction of individuals
Historical Materialism
Materialist Method:
Begins with real individuals, their activity, and the material conditions under which they live
Consciousness, intellectual life, culture, politics, etc. are secondary
Critique of the German idealist tradition, especially Hegel
09/29:
Karl Marx - “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844: Wage-Labor and Capital” (1847)
Background
Born in Prussia 181 died in London 1883
University of Bonn and University of Berlin - philosophy history and law
Hung out with radical political liberals - the Young Hegelians
Contd.
Wrote for radical newspaper in Germany (Rheinische Zeitung) - got him expelled from country
Moved to Paris - met Engels - wrote for Germany-French Annals and Forward! - gets kicked out of France
Moves to Brussels - League of the Just → London - HQ of Communist League - wrote Manifesto (1847)
Revolutions of 1848-1849 - Berlin
Human Nature
Humans are Productive
Humans work with and transform nature to produce things and in process produce themselves
“Humans make their life activity an object of their will and consciousness”
Humans put themselves into the products of their labor
Humans are Cooperative
Humans engage in cooperative activity directed toward mutual satisfaction of basic human needs
Product of Labor becomes meaningful only when recognized as useful by - or satisfying the needs of - another person
Mutual Recognition is what forges bonds within a society
Wage-Labor
Capitalism necessitates divsion of society into two unequal groups:
Capitalists who control the means of production (Resources)
Workers - who don’t
Workers “own” one thing - their labor
Workers sell labor for a wage - labor becomes a commodity
Contd.
Unlike Slaves, workers are “Free” right?
The wage is just enough to sustain the life of the worker
The worker has to create enough value through her labor so that it exceeds her costs to her employer and leave extra (surplus, profit)
Thus, her use-value (the value created through her labor) exceeds her market value (wages)
Labor-Power
Thus, Marx distinugishes between labor-power and labor
Labor-power is capacity to do work (usually for a period of time) - a “definite amount of productive labor”
Labor is the actual act of working
Why? Value created by worker and value of wage are not equivalent
Workers produce value that exceeds (as surplus) the cost of their labor
Contd.
The exchange of labor for a wage secures continuous supply of labor-power
Reproduces status of worker as worker - in aggregate, a mass of workers, a mass of labor-power
Ensures future generations of workers, source of labor-power
09/22:
Alexis de Tocqueville - “Tyranny of the Majority” (1840)
Absolute Sovereignty
Essence of democratic republic is absolute sovereignty of the majority
Legislature - organ of the majority - most easily swayed by the wishes (and passions) of the majority
Don’t really have a checks and balances system
people are more so the rulers
Moral Authority
Assumption that majority possesses greater intelligence and wisdom
Bestows majority with moral authority
Right to govern derived from presumed superior intelligence
Interests of the many preferred over the interests of the few
Contd.
Power is greater than that of any monarch or aristocratic class
Power of monarch or aristocrat does not rely on maintaining their own moral authority
No Guardrails
Moral force of the majority has no obstacle - few protections for minority
One can argue that there is a source of authority (Justice and Reason), principles that transcend authority of majority
Tocqueville → no
Or Accountability
If majority rule harms people, to whom do they appeal for justice?
If individual with absolute power uses that power to harm adversaries, it is said that they misuse that power
Majority is not liable to same reproach
Power of Public Opinion
Kings and aristocratic classes have little power to prevent certain opinions from circulating
In America, once majority has made up its mind → “a submissive silence is observed”
Power of a king is physical - attack the body to subdue the soul
Tyranny of dem republics - body left free and soul is enslaved
Conformity
Force of majoritarian opinion serves as invisible barrier to liberty of thought
Writer can write or think whatever they want
Won’t be fettered or beheaded but subject to sanctions more subtle and comprehensive - and severe!
Force of majoritarian opinion makes independent thought or dissent not just undoable but unthinkable
Debasement of Character
In European societies - pressure to submit to authority but preserves independence
Undoing of American Democracy?
America will be undone not by its instability or weakness but by its strength - the unlimited authority of the majority
09/15:
Mary Wollstonecraft
Virtue
Society preoccupied with rank, wealth, acquisition of property, and conspicuous display is morally bankrupt
People assume virtue follows from one’s station rather than their duty
Virtue is same for all rational beings, grounded in reason not in gender
Artificial and Natural duties
Draws on natural law to challenge dominant views of women
Women are indoctrinated since infancy with so-called feminine virtues - gentleness, passivity, submission, spaniel-like affection for fathers, brothers, husbands
Expectation that women be pleasing and beautiful (to men) are artifical duties that clash with natural duties
Civil Status of Women
Also women’s civil status
“To render her really virtuous and useful, she put not, if she discharge her civil duties, want, individually, the protection of the civil laws”
“Take away natural rights, and duties become null”
Early advocate of universal suffrage
Education
Critique directed to Roussea ideas, which come out in Emile, or On Education (1762)
Sexual difference should determined form and content of respective educations - Emile and Sophy
Contd.
Education → key to challenging conceptions of women - to society and to themselves
Humans can “only attain a proper use of his faculties by exercising them”
Mothers should plan to raise daughters in way opposite of Rousseau’s
Includes physical development - girls should be encouraged to “run, jump, climb. and frolic in the open air” just like boys
Harriet Martineau
Background
Unitarian - emphasis on inherent worth of every human being - justice, equity, and compassion
Influenced by Adam Smith.- supported Laissez faire economics but later advocated for government intervention
Also, French philosopher Auguste Comte
Methodology
What does sociology study?
Morals and manners
Morals - society’s attitudes and beliefs about actions/behavior
Manners - patterns of social action and behavior
Focused on representations of morals and manners
Study things through people’s explanations (discourse) about them
Contd.
Must take into consideration the meanings actors attribute to their action
Requires interpretation - “Sympathy”
Evaluation - comparing a society’s practices against how much they lives up to a professed standards
Political Non-Existence of Women
Declaration of Independence - govs derive just powers from consent of governed
How can political condition of women be reconciled with these principles?
Gov in US - power to tax, divorce, punish, etc. - how do govs justify these powers in absence of women’s consent
Contd.
Why should women obey the law?
Jefferson - must protect women from corrupting influence of political participation. - should not “mix promiscuously in the public meetings of men”
No person’s interests are identical to any other - women’s interests not identical to their father’s or husband’s
09/10:
The Principle Which Gives Occasion
“it is not from thte benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” “We address ourselves, not to their humanity but their self-love”
Invisible Hand
Smith opposed interventions of state meant to maximize wealth of nation
Why?
Maximization of wealth is achieved naturally by pursuit of private self-interest inherent to capitalist enterprise
Each individual’s effort to maximize private gain is lead by an invisible hand to promote the public interest
Masters and Workers
Private ownership and means of production changes relationship between worker and their production
Before, “the whole produce of laboring belongs to the laborer”
Now they get a wage
Smith sees the relationship between masters and laborers as a kind of contract
But Master generally has the upper hand
Mary Wollstonecraft - Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
Vindication → response to Edmund Burke’s “Reflections of the Revolutions in France” (1790) - defense of monarchy, aristocracy, property, and hereditary succession, and traditionalism (“Prejudice”)
Draws on the authority of natural law and its relation not only to rights but to virtues (duties)
Counterposes artifice and custom to nature and reason
Virtue
Society preoccupied with rank, wealth, acquisition of property, and conspicuous display is morally bankrupt
People assume virtue follows from one’s station rather than their duty
Virtue is same for all rational beings, grounded in reason, not in gender
Interrogates women’s conventional roles, the constraints of propriety, and subordination to men
Denies the natural rights to women
MW → focus on duties - none (i.e., women) can perform duties whose natural rights and capacity for reason are not respected
09/08:
Jean Jacques Rousseau Contd.
The Social Contract
Individuals do not submit to a single individual but to the collective
General Will (Volonte Generale) - individual voluntarily submits themselves to the General Will
In giving themselves to the GW, nothing is sacrificed
Its an obligation that preserves the freedom and equality of each individual
GW - emodies only those elements taht protect the equality and freedom of each individual
Each individual is sovereign - come together to preserv sovereignty (popular sovereignty)
Societies are Conventional
“The social order is a sacred right which is the basis of all other rights. Nevertheless, this right does not come from nature, and must therefore be founded on conventions”
Government, civil society, etc. also conventional, not natural - thus, can change
Adam Smith - The Wealth of Nations
Moral Philosophy
Rejects foundational accounts of morality
Instead mroal questions are imminent to human experience and specific situations
Non-reductive - balances multiple aspects of actions, not just motives or consequences
One way moral faculties can be corrupted is by imposition of systems or principles external to everyday experiences of moral judgement
Wealth of Nations
Why do some societies prosper and otehrs do not?
Question of source of value
Smith challenges two dominant perspectives:
Mercantilism - Wealth measured by amount o money or gold possessed - trade surpluses - lead to protectionist policies
Physiocracy - only agriculture ( or mining) produced net surplus of wealth ( beyond subsistence)
Smith → Wealth (or value) supplied by labor or productivity of labor
Division of Labor
“The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labor…seems to have been the effcects of the division of labor”
DoL maximizes productivity by
ꜛSkill through repetition
ꜜWaste of time - ꜛEfficiency
ꜛFamiliarity of tasks → innovation of technology
Contd.
All of society benefits - “Universal opulence…extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people”
“Every workman ahs a great quantity of his own work to dispose of beyond what he himself has occasion for”
Every worker produces a surplus that they trade for part of the surplus of other workers → results in state of plenty for all to enjoy
The Principle Which Gives Occasion
Human propensity to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for another
Humans depend on one another to satisfy their needs and wants
It is not through the benevolence of others but from appealing to the self-interets (self-love) of others
Differences in talent are not the cause but the effect of DoL
09/03:
possible idea for paper proposal: Look for the correlation Video games and School shootings; school shootings and the different responses based upon the shooters race
Hobbes
Background
“Nature hath made men so equall” - No natural hierarchy or order of things
Equality of ability and hope - of egoistic passions and desires
Humans are rational - each can connive best means to achieve self-interested ends
Summum Bonum
Idea of organizing political community around the greatest good made no sense to Hobbes
No agreement over what was the greatest good
Society can only be oriented around a summum malum, or greatest evil - fear of violent death
The Naturall Condition
Desire the same thing? → Enemies
Mere self-defense is inadequate - must over-power the other → precipitates “ware” of each against all
No pleasure - source of “griefe” - leads to constant fear and threat of harm - life becomes “solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short”
Also - society can achieve nothing - no industry, science, culture, etc.
contd.
No law exists under such conditions
Thus, no passions, desires or actions are in themselves a sin
Notions of right/wrong, justice/injustice make no sense
Neither do notions of propriety, dominion, mine, and thine
Criminal acts only exists when there are laws that proscribe these acts
Thus, these qualities are products of association - or society
Naturall Lawes
Liberty to preserve one’s own life - how accomplished?
Will to power
Collective agreement to abandon right to all things and accept limits to liberty
Must cede multiplicity of wills to a single, dominant will - a sovereign power
Multitude united in one person or assembly → Common - Wealth
Representative
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
State of (Human) Nature
Rousseau → humans in Hobbes’ state of nature possess characteristics (aggressiveness, selfishness, etc.) that can only be the result of society
Humans obey one law: self preservation - they pursue self preservation in isolation and in indifference to others
Humans exist in state of balance between their needs and resources in immediate environment
Contd.
Humans are “isolated, timid, peaceful, mute, and without the foresight to worry about what the future will bring:
Human’s generally good - governed by self-interest (preservation) - love of self
Also, pity - humans have imaginations are capable of compassion
Reason arises in state of society - emphasizes sentiment
Origin of Society
Growth of human race, adversity and scarcity disturbed the balance
Humans had to come together to coordinate efforts - formed families and larger collectives
Then language, knowledge, culture
No inequality yet
There was vanity and envy but also love, loyalty, and desire to please
Contd.
Cultivation of plants, domestication of animals, division of labor lead to inequality
Some prosper more than others, accumulate wealth, pass it down to children
Rich come to dominate the poor - resentment grows - some poor acquiesce - others fight back - potential for violent conflict
Laws are passed to benefit all (but really the rich) → political society is born
08/27: Origins
The Enlightenment
Questioning of authority:
Politically - Who rules?
Epistemologically (How do we know things) - what are the grounds of legitimate knowledge
Inseparable questions
Reason and Authority:
Dominant sources of authority - Tradition, Monarchy, the Church - Questioned
Traditional justifications of government (e.g. Divine Right) Repudiated
New basis of authority → Human Reason
Reason and Freedom:
Humans achieve autonomy through the use of reason
Individual is self-governing - freedom is achieved through the exercise of reason
Individuals should use their reason to achieve political freedom and social progress
Immanuel Kant
Natural Law
“Law of Nature”
Universal moral principles inherent in human nature and the natural order
Laws ought to serve as basis for human laws and social institutions
Scientific Reason
Another Question about authority: what are the grounds of legitamate knowledge?
Not Church dogma, monarchy, tradition, or superstition, but reason - scientific rationality
in His 1784 essay “What is Enlightenment?” Immanuel Kant sez sapere aude! (“Dare to Know!”)
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Observation and experience are the grounds of legitimate knowledge
Basically democratizes knowledge
Established tradition of empiricism
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
Methodological skepticism - rejects any idea that can be doubted
Only thing that cannot be doubted is the fact of doubting (or thought) - so, thought exists - something must be doing the thinking (“me”) - conclusion: “I think, therefore I am”
Establishes tradition of rationalism