Review for Final Exam SOC 101

1. Review for Final ExamSOC 101 César Ayala Isaac Speer Brooks Ambrose

2. Weber • Money-making – provided it is done legally – is, within the modern economic order, the result and the expression of diligence in one’s calling...

3. Weber • Above all, the “spirit” of capitalism had to wrestle with the kind of feeling and conduct that is customarily termed “traditionalism.”

4. Weber • We shall nevertheless provisionally use the expression “spirit of capitalism” for that attitude which, in the pursuit of a calling, strives systematically for profit for its own sake in the manner exemplified by Benjamin Franklin.

5. Weber • Ascetiscism turns all its force…against one thing in particular: the uninhibited enjoyment of life and of the pleasures it has to offer.

6. Weber • Wherever the power of the Puritan philosophy of life extended, it always benefited the tendency toward a middle-class, economically rational conduct of life.

7. Weber • The most general presupposition for the existence of this present-day capitalism is that of rational capital accounting as the norm for all large industrial undertakings which are concerned with provision for everyday wants.

8. Weber • Rational capitalistic calculation is only possible on the basis of free labor: only where in consequence of workers who in the formal sense voluntarily, but actually under the compulsion of the whip of hunger, offer themselves, the costs of products may be unambiguously determined by agreement in advance.

9. Weber • The real distinguishing characteristic of the modern factory is in general, however, not the implements of work applied, but the concentration of ownership of workplace, means of work, source of power and raw material in one and the same hand, that of the entrepreneur.

10. Weber • Only the occident knows the state in the modern sense, with a professional administration, specialized officialdom, and law based on the concept of citizenship.

11. Weber • Rational capitalism…is organized with a view to market opportunities…and the more rational it is the more closely it relates to mass demand and the provision for mass needs.

12. Durkheim • Social life is derived from a dual source, the similarity of individual consciousness and the social division of labor.

13. Durkheim • The similarity of consciousness gives rise to legal rules which, under the threat of repressive measures, impose upon everybody uniform beliefs and practices.

14. Durkheim • …that human consciousness that we must realize within ourselves in its entirety is nothing other than the collective consciousness of the group of which we form part.

15. Durkheim • …rules with a repressive sanction…express the conditions of that solidarity sui generis which derives from resemblances, and to which we have given the name mechanical solidarity.

16. Durkheim • …the advance of the individual personality and that of the division of labour depend on one and the same cause.

17. Durkheim • …suicide varies inversely with the degree of integration of the social groups of which the individual forms a part.

18. Durkheim • …we may call egoistic the special type of suicide springing from excessive individualism.

19. Durkheim • A regulative force must play the same role for moral needs which the organism plays for physical needs.

20. Durkheim • The state of de-regulation or anomy is… further heightened by passions being less disciplined, precisely when they need more disciplining.

21. Durkheim • In anomic suicide, society’s influence is lacking in the basically individual passions, thus leaving them without a check-rein.

22. EQ1 • 1) According to Weber, what is the ‘spirit of capitalism’ and how did it contribute to the development of modern capitalism?

23. The spirit of capitalism is a rational economic ethic that supports a specifically capitalist form of economic organization. Central to the spirit of capitalism is the belief that hard work is a moral duty and that overindulgence and idleness are immoral. For Weber, the writings of Benjamin Franklin exemplify the spirit of capitalism; adages like “time is money” are ethical teachings that predispose people toward behaviors conducive to capital accumulation. Though supportive of capitalism, Weber argues that the spirit of capitalism is not necessary for the functioning of modern capitalist economies where the threat of competition provides sufficient impetus for accumulation. • Weber traces the origins of the spirit of capitalism to what he terms the Protestant ethic. In a period before capitalist competition was developed, the Protestant ethic alone was sufficient to generate capital accumulation. Protestantism was similar to the spirit of capitalism in its ethical consequences — it produced hard work and frugality (asceticism in Weber’s terms) in its adherents — but the religious meaning behind the ethic created a much stronger motivation for believers than does its secular counterpart. Based in the Christian concern with the fate of the immortal soul, Weber traces the development of the Protestant ethic back to three principles: Luther’s conception of a calling, Calvin’s doctrine of predestination, and Baxter’s notion of evidence of the state of grace. The calling consecrated mundane occupations with a religious significance, making one’s work a duty to God rather than a selfish pursuit. Predestination — the belief that one could neither know whether God had destined you to heaven or hell nor do anything on earth to earn salvation — caused tremendous anxiety that explained the motivational force of the ethic. Such anxiety was channeled, and partially relieved, by the teaching that worldly success due to hard work in a calling, so long as wealth was not enjoyed, provided “clues” (but no incontrovertible proof) that one was a member of the elect. This combination of religious ideas created for Weber a “rationalizing” ethic leading to capital accumulation and reinvestment, perpetual improvement of business activities, and pitiless exploitation of laborers characteristic of what would become modern capitalism. • At the time of the writing of the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber implies that the Protestant ethic alone was sufficient to generate capitalist economic activities; by the writing of the General Economic History Weber relegated the ethic to one among a variety factors characteristic of Western civilization that each were necessary for the development of modern capitalism.

24. EQ2 • 2) Discuss how Weber extends Marx’s analysis of capitalism. On which preconditions of capitalism do Weber and Marx agree? On which preconditions does Weber go beyond Marx (list at least two preconditions)

25. Weber extends Marx’s analysis of capitalism by offering a more complex explanation for the origins of modern capitalism. Weber agrees with Marx about some of the main preconditions of modern capitalism. However, Weber goes beyond Marx by seeking to explain why modern capitalism developed only in Western Europe, rather than in other parts of the world. • Weber agrees with Marx on several preconditions of modern capitalism: 1) the appropriation of the means of production by entrepreneurs (i.e. capitalists), 2) free markets (within countries), and 3) a class of free laborers who are both legally free and who are property-less. Weber also agrees with Marx that the development of new technologies plays an important role in modern capitalism, but unlike Marx emphasizes the “rational” character of technological development. • Weber goes beyond Marx by identifying particular conditions that accounted for why modern capitalism developed in Western Europe and not in other parts of the world. Two of those conditions were modern, rational states (with rational legal systems and citizenship) and a rational ethic for the conduct of life (i.e. the spirit of capitalism).

26. EQ3 • What are the two types of social solidarity identified by Durkheim? How are the two types of solidarity different? [Make sure you explain the concept of social solidarity.]

27. “Solidarity” in Durkheim is roughly equivalent to “what keeps society together.” Durkheim distinguishes between "mechanical and "organic" solidarity. The former is typical of societies in which the division of labor is not very developed and in which there is an overarching collective consciousness which envelops individuals uniformly. Societies which are characterized by the mechanical form of solidarity and typically integrated and cohesive, and the cohesion is based on homogeneity, that is, on the fact that different individuals in society experience similar lifestyles, work experiences, and forms of kinship. Mechanical solidarity is typical of small scale societies. Organic solidarity, by contrast, develops in societies in which the social division of labor has produced heterogeneity among individuals and has advanced the process of individuation. In such societies, solidarity is not based on homogeneity bur rather on the functional interdependence produced by a complex division of labor which has differentiated individuals within society. Organic solidarity is typical of modern, industrialized societies.

28. EQ4 • The state of California experiences a sudden economic boom due to the simultaneous expansion of industrial output in Silicon Valley, the discovery of new oil reserves, increased tourism from abroad, and the discovery of vast, previously unknown energy sources. Average incomes in the state experience increases of 20 to 30 percent across the entire economic spectrum.  Given these circumstances, using Durkheimian notions, what would you expect will happen to the rate of suicide?

29. Fast changes in society, whether they are positive or negative, produce “moral deregulation” or a kind of fuzziness of the norms of society. This is associated with the state which Durkheim described as anomie. Given the speed and dimension of the changes described in the question for the state of California, one would expect that sudden changes in the regulatory power of society would ensue, thus weakening the bond between society and the individual, or, put differently, a decrease in the moderating role of society. The weakening of this bond in Durkheim’s theory will result in an increase in the rate of suicide. One would expect the rise in the rate of suicides to be driven by anomic suicides, since the origin of the rise in suicides lies with fast changes which produce moral deregulation, or changes in the collective order, rather than increased individuation (which produces “egoistic” suicides). • .