Classical Sociological Theory Lecture Notes

Thing about classical theories and then think about contemporary theories as well.  Teleological thinking -- the idea that we're always marching towards progress.  How does the textbook build off of older theories?  Challenge theories bad reputation. It is not an obscure mind game.  Theories is...

Thing about classical theories and then think about contemporary theories as well.  Teleological thinking -- the idea that we're always marching towards progress.  How does the textbook build off of older theories?  Challenge theories bad reputation. It is not an obscure mind game.  Theories is a way of thinking and understanding.  \- Theoretical thinking is about generalization  o Relating a new situation to an old one to figure out patterns and predict what will happen,  Theories can be used to shed light on everyday scenarios.  A theory provides an explanation of a phenomena.  \- It is not a definition.  \- It's the how a change occurs, not just that it changes.  Opinions is a view or judgement, not necessarily based in fact or knowledge.  A fact is something that is indisputable.  \- It exists outside your head.  Facts, opinions, and theories all get mixed up in discussions and debates.  Common sense assumptions is based off of personal preference and opinions.  We have to take into account our common sense assumptions in order to be the best theorists.  \- The frameworks that we use to make sense of the world have to be questioned.  \- The familiar has to become strange before we can be a good theorist  \- Everyone phenomena needs an explanation.  Ask questions about everyday reality even if we think we already know the answer.  Mapping Social Relations:  Social theories map the space we navigate. We have to negotiate social relations in the same ways we use maps to navigate the school. When is it appropriate to make eye contact? To sit in silence? We use our base knowledge to know when to do what.  Social theory's aim is to make the social relations we navigate everyday, visible to us.  \- Many key aspects of society are not visible to us.    [Introducing Classical Sociological Theory] Older/earlier theories.  \- People think they're irrelevant and outdated. This is not true. Social media has changed our worlds. Classical theories can relate to social media.  A theory tries to explain how certain facts or variables are related in order to predict future events.  Towards a Science of Society:  Sociology was developed because they wanted to control the development of people in the 19^th^ and 20th centuries.  \- The thinkers of this time needed a framework to identify and contemplate the structure they were in.  \- They needed to anticipate the consequences of their attempts to change this structure.  Henri de Saint-Simon and the Study of Industrial Society (1760-1825):  \- He was described as wild and uncontrollable.  \- He tried to promote canal building in France  \- When the French revolution broke out he gave it his full support.  \- He was one of the first to recognize a new social order was emerging out of the decline of feudalism.  \- He was one of the first to introduce the term industrial society.  \- He argued that industrialism was bringing a new society.  \- Thought this new society would provide a base to solve all of the problems based in feudalism.  Social physiology -- the way that this new society should be studied.  The idea that society was like a living organism that could be studied its social organization. Eg. Its growth, its stability.  \- Begin by closely observing the course of civilization. This would yield laws of social organization.  Move from a Christian perspective to a scientific perspective.  He was one of the first to apply scientific thinking to the analysis of social organization.  The earlier writings about society were not based in science. Most used the explanation that "God said so" Saint-Simon was the one of the first to use science to explain. He advocated for the industrial revolution.  He wanted to preserve society, but also saw the pressing need for change of social norms. He was both radical and conservative.        Auguste Comte and the Founding of Sociology:  He sought to reconcile the aftermath of the French revolution.  \- The distraught brought by the reign of terror.  He believed that European society was in a state of crisis because one form of social organization was being replaced by another.  He didn't believe something new and exciting was happening. He was not an optimist.  He saw the French revolution as a little more then social disorganization. Very pessimistic view of what was happening.  He proposed a new scientific approach. Positivism.  What are the criteria by which we can distinguish scientific from non-scientific knowledge?  He believed through careful study he could find some kind of natural laws.  "Society is more then just the sum of the individuals who make it up." Ones these laws had been proven they could be used to modify or change these worlds.  Any given society was an organic whole. Society needs to be a science of the whole given organism. Interdependent relation to one another. You have to study all of it, not certain parts.  You cant study any part of society if it is separated into divisions. You can't study a single finger to decide the health of the entire body.  Positivism: every justifiable claim we make can be scientifically proven. Or it can be proven logically or mathematically.  How do we get to a positivist world?  Law of Three Stages:  Theological -- sought absolute knowledge. To know the cause of everything. Why things happen. Imagination rules over observation. IMAGINATION AND FAITH  Metaphysical: transitory stage -- you can't go from being theological to scientific immediately. This is the stage in between. Pulls on some facts but also some religious.  Positive -- observation trumps imagination. Truth is judged by empirical facts. OBSERVATION.  Advantages to Positivism:  The positive system discovers other systems within.  Positivism is based on empirical observation. Provides the base for agreement.  He was opposed to the idea of "agree to disagree" concept.  He wanted to find a way out of this and create a basis for agreement.  Positivism provides relief from the seeming arbitrariness of human existence. Politics based on beliefs was not based on reason and was harmful to society. This did not provide a basis for agreement.  He was trying to find the laws to create that would be able to create that base.  He was an elitist. He thought positivism would dominate because it would uncover so many laws.  He thought if we just waited, everything would get better over time.    **January 16, 2025** Durkheim and the Promise of Sociology:  Durkheim wanted to use science to defend his theories and morals and politics.  Key concepts in his work:  \- Society has no material existence. It is independent of the individuals who are affected by it. It's best understood as a synthetic higher level of reality that should be accorded its own level of experiences.  o All of us in the course of our day to day activities, while we are our own individuals, we still do things like others. We do things because of our personal worlds but also because of external forces.  o These external forces are society. They push us to do certain things.  o He wanted to use society to uncover the ways that external forces impinge on and shape the experiences of individuals.  o How does society shape our behaviours even while we are individuals?  \- Collective Conscience. The principal factors that hold society together are the shared values and norms. Collective conscience is where we share basic values.  o He saw social norms as a social collective. They were a product of a collective conscious. They are more prominent in traditional societies.  o This is what holds our society together. Our shared collective conscious.  \- Theoretical typology of Social Solidarity. The degree to which social units are integrated. **The feeling that you as an individual is part of the whole. The actual constraint of individual behaviours for the benefit of the group as a whole. The organization of social units and groups into a single system. Different groups have different degrees of social solidarity. ** **MIDTERM QUESTION: ** Mechanistic vs organismic analogy.  Mechanistic: how do the different parts in a little machine relate to each other. The relationship is physical and involuntary. The machine is fairly simple and the parts are similar. They communicate with each other in a mechanistic manner. The relationship of each piece to the whole is very clearly there and easily known. Each individual unit is this machine is restrained and coordinated by the whole. High degree of solidarity, each piece is controlled by each other. It is a closed machine. Organismic: provides information to one another through chemicals, signals, etc. They will make adjustments based off of the information received. It is an open machine. Eg. Humans. Solidarity of an organism is more precise. If you put your hand on a hot stove you will take it off, if you put a clicker on a hot stove it can't react and move.  The Division of Labour:  Two types of solidarity -- mechanical and organic.  Mechanical is found in older societies while organic is found in modern societies.  Simple Societies:  Fundamental simplicity. Born into a specific kin group that has certain roles.  \- Eg. Pioneer homestead. Father takes care of the animals. Mother takes care of the domestic duties.  This was held together because people shared similar beliefs and morals. Everyone had their own role and continued it out throughout their life. There was very little autonomy. Society was held together through mechanical solidarity. Shared collective conscious. Harsh punishment for anyone who wanted to go against the norm. Mechanical solidarity everyone has their own place and has to stay in their roles in order for them to survive. Very simple.  Modern societies -- more complex type of society. Everyone is doing different things and there isn't a certain role for each person. People are serving different functions in society and we often rely on others to carry out their functions in order for us to complete ours.  \- Eg. We need the bus driver to do his task so we can get to campus. Multifunctional kin groups are replaced by a multitude of specialized social institutions. Eg. Economy, welfare, military, education.  Non familiar institutions specialize in these functions. (healthcare, education)  Organic solidarity -- different parts all working together to maintain stability. What our society is today. Different parts of society are mutually dependant on each other.  \- Eg. Our economy depends on families to socialize children so they will be motivated to work and be apart of the economy. The families rely on the economy to provide jobs and income. Every part of society influences and relies on one another.  More stable and durable then the traditional form of solidarity. A modern society is more adaptable to change.          Karl Marx and Dialectical Materialism:  He wanted to overthrow capitalism.  Proletariat -- workers or working-class people.  Bourgeoisie -- the higher class. People who own the businesses.  Karl Marx looked for the day with a society functioning with communism.  His study of the world was heavily influenced by his politics. He was not a blood thirsty radical. He was a humanist and a journalist. Someone that was out on the streets listening. He saw what was happening to working class people under capitalism. This is what made him push revolution.  \- He believed that everyone was fundamentally good but that the social structure that capitalism is has warped us into doing bad things. Humans aren't inherently bad, society makes people that way.  Dialectical/Historical Materialsim:  \- His approached is rooted in patterns of opposition, specifically in class conflict. He believes every society is made up of integrated classes of people. Certain classes in any given society will come into conflict with one another and it is through this conflict that change occurs.  \- Members of different social classes are ultimately enemies because they have opposing interests that contradict. It's what makes the conflict inevitable.  o Moving away from individuals, now we're looking at the groups as a whole.  \- It's difficult for the working class to control there activities. The working class under capitalism is in an insubordinate position. But, they have an interest in changing the society.  \- The upper class is in control of their activities and have the money. They have the time to realize their full potential as an individual. They have no interest in changing the society.  What does the working class have to do to band together to overthrow capitalism?  Mode of Production: a way of categorizing and describingdifferent types of societies. Characterized by different structural arrangements with respect to the ownership of the forces of production.  \- He wants to understand the different types of class relationships and conflicts in different eras of time (modes of production).  \- Mode of production = an era in time.  \- During the era of which we had feudalism we had peasants and land owners. They had conflicts and they we moved to the next mode of production (capatilism).  Mode of Productions:  \- Primitive communism  \- Ancient societies  \- Feudalism  \- Capitalism  \- Advanced communism  Very theological concepts. We continue moving through each era.  Material forces of production and the social relations of production.  Material forces -- every material needed for humans to survive. Eg. Tools, physical materials.  Social relations -- the factory owners and the workers. The relations between the two.  In all societies there are things that need to happen. Produce food, raise children, heal the sick, etc. These tasks are split between individuals.   Each mode of production produces:  \- Specific ways of obtaining necessities  \- Specific social relationships  \- Specific social institutions. Eg. Political, legal, educational.  How a society produces its means of existence shapes the political, social, and cultural shape of that society and its future development.  \- The things that we see as making up society (religion, politics), these are impossible to understand without first looking at the foundation of which they are build.  o They are build on the mode of work and production  Base:  Material forces of production -- raw materials, tools, workers, skills workers have.  Social relations of production -- the class relations. Those involved in the productions.  Superstructure:  Develops in conjunction with the specific mode of production.  \- Consists of institutions. Eg. Educational institution.  Relationship between these is 2-fold. Our superstructure expresses and legitimates the base. The legal and political institutes legitimates the base of our economic structure.