Introduction to Social Theory

1. Introduction to Social Theory 3 Approaches to Social Theory 1. Scientific theories aim to discover laws and principles that apply to human behavior over all societies and times • true knowledge is the domain of science while novels, journalism, etc. are opinion and prejudice • true knowledge requires that observations, research and facts are organized as general principles or laws 2. Philosophical approaches do not approach problems based on empirical observation and research but as based in conceptual thinking • So one must first decide what is the important focus in social life. For example, what social institutions (e.g., religion, the economy) are most important?

2. Introduction to Social Theory 3. Social theory as having a moral vision views social knowledge as valuable because it has the potential to make the world a better place • theories address social problems and issues, trying to create a dialogue in society that can aid debate and social change • theorists give social accounts that advocate specific social and political responses regarding freedom and democracy

3. Chapter 1: The Enlightenment and Auguste Comte Key Features of the Enlightenment • Science is key to the modern project; it provides valid, objective knowledge • Science is based on methods of observation which claim objectivity • Science more accurately reflects the world, is not ideologically driven and can thus bring reason into it • Humanity and society can become better, replacing religious beliefs with scientific knowledge based on observations and facts • Industrial capitalism was the motor of modernity, entailing shifts from rural to urban living as well as from a feudal society to a democratic one

4. Chapter 1: The Enlightenment and Auguste Comte Comte is considered the founder of sociology, coining the term sociology. In his book The Course of Positive Philosophy (1830-42 )and later System of Positive Polity (1851-4), he elaborates three evolutionary stages in the development of the human mind. They are the theological, metaphysical and the positive • He says that the human mind explains the origin and purpose of the social world through reference to religious traditions, revelations and beliefs, such as spirits, divine beings, gods. For example, Christian world views exemplify this stage or any of the great religions. • metaphysical thought looks at first order principles that are beyond the physical world. • Scientific knowledge is dominated by sociologists who use science to discover natural and social laws.

5. Chapter 2: The Revolutionary Theory of Karl Marx In Marx’s German Ideology, he outlines his materialist method, which has 4 premises: 1.) We must begin not with thought, not with self-consciousness or ideas or values, but with the existence of real, living individuals. That is, the physical organization of individuals and their consequent relationship to the rest of nature. 2.) Humans produce their own means of subsistence (we do not have a fixed nature; we mold and shape our own nature creatively and inventively). 3.) This mode of production affects everything in society, from the self-consciousness of individuals, to the relationship of individual to individual, to the relationship of nation to nation. 4.) If one wants to understand history, one must understand the division of labor. Or who owns and has control over the means and mode of production?

6. Chapter 2: The Revolutionary Theory of Karl Marx In Capital, Marx outlines the elementary unit of capital: the commodity • Commodities have 2 parts: • Use value • Exchange value • Two formulas for capital circulation • C-M-C • M-C-M C. Surplus Value is defined as value added and is the basis of profit for capitalists and exploitation for the laborer

7. Chapter 3: The Promise of Sociology: Emile Durkheim • The first step to understanding Durkheim’s new sociology is to understand how Durkheim views society and sociological study  • Sociology is neither philosophy nor psychology • Rather, sociology is the study of social facts, which are social structures, cultural norms, and values that are external to social actors. • 3 parts to his study of The Division of Labor in Society • What factors caused the modern division of labor? • What is the function of the division of labor? • What are the abnormal forms that result from it (abnormal meaning these forms do not contribute to its successful function)? • Factors in the development of modern divisions of labor: • weakening of the extended family and the development of the nuclear family • Large population growth • urbanization and people moving away from where they grew up • improvements in transportation and communication • increasing value placed on individuals • rise of professional associations

8. Chapter 3: The Promise of Sociology: Emile Durkheim PRE-DIVISION OF LABOR SOCIETY POST-DIVISION OF LABOR SOCIETY • mechanical solidarity is based on commonality, likeness and lack of social differentiation in labor • A strong collective conscience binds people to one another • This society is strongest when the collective conscience is greater than the individual • Law is repressive since the collective consciousness cannot tolerate any violation of individuality • Organic solidarity is based on specialization and interdependence of occupations • A weak collective conscience due to strong individuality • In this form we have greater individuality, flexibility and productive capacity in labor relations • Law is based in restitution since individuals can repay debits through money or time

9. Chapter 3: The Promise of Sociology: Emile Durkheim In solidarity, then we have abnormal forms, which include: • the pace of social change can create unsuccessful solidarity • social inequalities develop when people participate in labor relations they would not voluntarily choose to but feel compelled or forced out of economic necessity (nod to Marx) • national markets are so large that they are impersonal and do not promote feelings of attachment among people

10. Chapter 3: The Promise of Sociology: Emile Durkheim pre-Modern Society MODERN SOCIETY • Religious (fixed morality) • Undifferentiated • Functional generality • Homogeneity of parts and whole • Weak individuality • Cultural homogeneity • Repressive sanctions (affirms society) • mechanical solidarity • Secular (fluid morality) • Differentiated • Functional specificity • Heterogeneity of parts and whole • Strong individuality • Cultural pluralism • Restitution (affirms individuals) • Organic solidarity

11. Chapter 4: The Ironic Social Theory of Max Weber Two Ironies of Modernity and Capitalism 1. modernity (which is thought to be secular) has religious origins 2. capitalism (an impersonal, instrumentally rational logic) has its beginnings in religious (Protestant) spiritual practices; that is, the ethos of Protestantism made capitalism possible

12. Chapter 4: The Ironic Social Theory of Max Weber • Weber asked the following question: Why did capitalism and rationalism both develop first in the West (i.e., Europe and North America)? • In trying to answer this question, Weber insists that one must consider not only the role of economic organization, but also the ideas, meanings and the-world images in people’s heads

13. Chapter 4: The Ironic Social Theory of Max Weber What is the spirit of capitalism? • Drawing on the writings of Benjamin Franklin, Weber illustrates the different parts of this spirit or ethos: 1. time is money; 2. credit is money; 3. money creates money; 4. timely payments are important, for instrumental as well as for moral reasons • How do we get from Protestant theology to “time is money?” From two beliefs: • Martin Luther’s idea of the calling and (2) John Calvin’s notion of predestination • Protestant followers asked themselves if they were one of the elect? And they began to look for external signs. In this context two types of pastoral advice appear: 1. it is a duty to consider one’s self chosen and part of the elect 2. hard work at a vocational calling builds self-confidence in one’s elect status

14. Chapter 4: The Ironic Social Theory of Max Weber The Iron Cage of Bureaucracy • independent individuality gives way to an iron cage of bureaucratic systems without which capitalism would not be possible. • these instrumentally rational bureaucratic systems turn individuals into standardized cogs in a bureaucratic machinery. • So the irony is that, although capitalism and bureaucracies would not have been possible without the strong, inner-directed Protestant personality, once they are institutionalized, they no longer need this foundation.

15. Chapter 5: The Grand Theory of Talcott Parsons and Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann Parson’s The Social System (1951) focuses on patterns of interaction or what he calls “the social system.” • There are 3 distinct systems in society: • The personality system based in individual needs • The cultural system based in shared beliefs • The social system based in the multiple social roles and norms In Social Systems and the Evolution of Action Theory (1971), he developed a more functionalist approach.

16. Chapter 5: The Grand Theory of Talcott Parsons and Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann • Social systems now have 4 functions: adaptation, goal attainment, integration and pattern maintenance. • 4 subsystems compose society: • The economy specializes in material conditions (adaptation) • The political organizes social resources (goal attainment) • The legal system maintains social regulation and solidarity (integration) • The family, religion, and education aim to produce the appropriate needs, values, motives, skills that individuals need (pattern maintenance)

17. Chapter 5: The Grand Theory of Talcott Parsons and Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann • In The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (1967), Berger and Luckmann theory focuses on everyday life as a social accomplishment based in the interactions of individuals • 3 processes construct social reality • Externalization is the physical and mental outpouring of human activity into the external world • Objectivation is the process by which the world takes on a factual existence for individuals • Internalization is the process by which the external world is made part of human’s subjective consciousness

18. Chapter 6: The Scientific Theory of Randall Collins and Peter Blau In Conflict Sociology: Towards an Explanatory Science (1975), Randall Collins argues that individuals are motivated to struggle in meeting their needs and wants • Individuals use whatever material (e.g., wealth or physical strength) and cultural (e.g., education or verbal skills) to secure their goals. • Individuals will be conflict due to the unequal distribution of resources (e.g., wealth, education, prestige) and institutional and culture structures reflect this.

19. Chapter 6: The Scientific Theory of Randall Collins and Peter Blau • Collins, following Weber, says social stratification occurs in 3 dimensions: • Economic or occupational conflicts • Culture or status group conflicts • Political or political party conflicts In Peter Blau’sInequality and Heterogeneity: A Primitive Theory of Social Structure, he develops a theory of social structure that links social association and social integration • Social Structure is defined as the distribution of people among social positions or “parameters.”

20. Chapter 6: The Scientific Theory of Randall Collins and Peter Blau • There are 2 type of parameters in the US used to distinguished people from one another. • Nominal parameters divide people into subgroups with distinct boundaries (e.g., gender, religion, and age) • Graduated parameters distinguish people according to a rank order (e.g., income) • Nominal parameters mark out horizational differentiation (heterogeneity) among social groups while graduated parameters designate differences (inequality) in social status • Blau thesis is that heterogeneity and inequality determine the rate and type of social association and whether society is divided or integrated accordingly.

21. Chapter 7: The Moral Sociology of C. Wright Mills and Robert Bellah In The Power Elite (1959), C. Wright Mills argues that the elite were mostly men in 3 institutions: 1. corporate businesses; 2. political parties; and 3. military sectors • Corporate executives, military leaders and politicians share an interlocking interest in decision making due to their position as top level decision makers in each respective institutional sphere • Their personal ties bind them together as well while simultaneously separating them from the public masses

22. Chapter 7: The Moral Sociology of C. Wright Mills and Robert Bellah • While the power elite are a loosely linked network bound by personal and structural ties, they are interested in maintaining inequalities of wealth, prestige and power in order to maintain their dominance. • It is their professed desire to run society in the interests of the larger public while remaining largely unaccountable that was at the center of Mills’s critique. • Blue and white collar workers are blinded by consumerism and personal affairs and thus elections became thin forms of a democratic ritual that ratifies elite rule.

23. Chapter 7: The Moral Sociology of C. Wright Mills and Robert Bellah In Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life (1985), Bellah et al. write about the 4 traditions that are central to individuals and American society • The biblical tradition is based in Protestant and Christian heritage and focuses on self-realization as tied to an ethical and spiritual life and the Puritan John Winthrop exemplifies this. • The republican tradition is rooted in democratic organizations and constitutional framers like Thomas Jefferson embody this idea.

24. Chapter 7: The Moral Sociology of C. Wright Mills and Robert Bellah • Utilitarian individualism stands as a counterpart to the biblical and republican traditions which emphasize society. This tradition emphasizes how individuals focus on their own needs for wealth, protection, etc. Ben Franklin embodies this. • Expressive individualism is also a self-centered, individualistic world view and focuses on human potential as one’s purpose in life. The poet Walt Whitman exemplifies this.