SOC201 Final Exam Notes PDF

Readings 1. Democracy in America (Tocqueville) - American have a uniform method and rules for the conduct of intellectual inquires, a philosophical method shared by all - Modernity: Americans rely on individual effort and judgement to escape from imposed systems and reasoning (l...

Readings 1. Democracy in America (Tocqueville) - American have a uniform method and rules for the conduct of intellectual inquires, a philosophical method shared by all - Modernity: Americans rely on individual effort and judgement to escape from imposed systems and reasoning (lead to the break of linkage with ancestors). They don’t want to accept any other man’s word as proof of anything> isolate themselves and rely on self alone to control the judge of the world lead to other mental habits> Only trust what they see by their eyes(dislike mystery) - Power of religion: - It gave birth to the English colonies in America. In the US religion is mingled with all the national customs and feelings which the word fatherland evokes - Religion in america has define its limit> the structure of religious life is entirely distinct from the political organisation - Revolution: must shake ancient belief, sap authority and cloud share idea(America didn’t experience this) The standard of equity between different classes will lead to envy, hatred> divide people with mistrust, the only connection will be interest only - Dogmatic beliefs: - Exist in the past and presence, can exist in different ways and can change both form and substance. - Are use to achieve a common agreement on one belief - Without it, no society could prosper (no common idea> no common action>men might exist but no body social) - Limit of men: No leisure and power to examine and verify - Any man accepting any opinion on trust from another put his mind in bondage> but is a salutary one, allows him to make good use of freedom - Authority is always bound to play a part in intellectual and moral life - Religion in EQUITY: - They look into themselves/fellows for source of truth, hard to establish a new religion - “The nearer men are to a common level of uniformity, the less are they inclined to believe blindly in any man or any class. But they are readier to trust the mass, and public opinion becomes more and more mistress of the world.” - They don’t have trust in others, but the similarity lead them ti unlimited confidence in the judgement of the public - Religion is strong less as a revealed doctrine then as part of common opinion> trust in common opinion will become sort of religion, with the majority as its prophet(Con: Human spirit might bind itself in tight fetters to the general will of the great number) - Intellectual authority will become too great and confine the private judgement within limits too narrow for the dignity and happiness - Trend in equality(2 extreme): 1. Turns one each man’s attention to new thoughts 2. Induce man to freely give up thinking at all - The deity see human as unique > but human intelligence limit them to not see from this perspective, otherwise they will lost in overlook at nuances> they will generalise everything by the similarities (permit human to pass judgement quickly on a great number of things, but the conceptions they convey are always incomplete, and what us gain in extent is always lost in exactitude) - American(under democracy) vs English(under aristocratic) - Americans uses general ideas much more than English - Inequalities make human gradually become dissimilar in the UK - In age of equity all men are independent of each other, isolate and weak (e.g. Jesus came down to earth> proof human are naturally similar and equal) - Characteristic of democratic times: all men have the taste for easy success and immediate pleasure (intellectual pursuit) - American(under democracy) vs French under democratic - American: always manage its own political affairs, French: only speculate(guess) on the best way to manage them - French: conceive broad general idea about ways of government at a time when our Constitution prevented us from correcting them by experience and gradually finding out their deficiencies - Solution for blindly commit to general idea: make the citizen pay daily, practical attention to it> force them to go into details and the detail will show them the weak point in the theory - Religious dogmas are the most desirable> any human action are result from very general conception men have of God, his relation with human race, the nature of their soul, and duties to their fellows (Fixed Ideas is needed because of human’s limitation on time and intelligence to find out answers for mystery) - The chief object and principle advantage of religion: provide answers to each of these primordial questions, must be clear, precise, intelligible to the crowd and very durable - Conequenses of the lost of religion: - Doubt invades the highest faculties of the mind - Opinions are ill-defended / abandoned > in despair of solving unaided the greatest problems of human destiny> ignobly give up their thinking about them - No authority in religion / politics> frightened by the limitless independent with which they are faced - The cons of equity: lead man to an inordinate love of material pleasure - The advantage of religion: - Inspire diametrically contrary urge( place the object of man’s desires outside and beyond worldly goods and naturally life the soul into regions far above the realm of the senses - Impose man in obligations toward mankind, in performed in common with rest and draws them from egoism - The power of religion highly depends on the nature of the beliefs they profess, the external forms they adopt and duties they impose (In order to maintain in a democratic age)  - External ceremonies: Use to fix the human spirit in the contemplation of abstract truths and help grasp them firmly and believe ardently in them - Most obvious characteristic in democratic age: A passion for well-being - Main business of religion: To purify, control and restrain that excessive and exclusive taste of well-being which man acquire in time of equality - American clergy: stay away from public business, they aware of the intellectual domination of the majority and treat it with respect > Public opinion support and protect them, faith thus derives its authority from its inherent strength and borrow from public opinion Reading summary Tocqueville’s Democracy in America explores the role and power of religion in shaping democratic societies, particularly in the United States. He highlights how Americans rely on individual judgment and self-reliance, breaking away from traditional hierarchies and inherited systems. However, this independence fosters a mistrust of authority while paradoxically creating a strong trust in public opinion, which can act as a new form of dogma. Tocqueville argues that religion in America, distinct from politics, plays a vital role in moral guidance by countering egoism, inspiring collective responsibility, and lifting the soul beyond materialism. Unlike revolutionary France, where attacks on religion led to instability, America’s balanced approach respects boundaries between religion and state, integrating faith with national customs and public sentiment. Tocqueville emphasizes the necessity of fixed religious ideas to address humanity’s intellectual and moral limitations, offering clear answers to life’s greatest questions. He warns that the loss of religion could lead to despair, excessive materialism, and societal fragmentation, while its continued presence purifies desires and sustains moral obligations. Religion’s enduring strength, he asserts, lies in its ability to adapt to democratic values while maintaining its moral authority. 2. These on Feuerbach (Marx) - These I: The chief defect of materialism - Reality, the sensible world are conceived only in the form of object (not as human sense activity/ practical activity / subjectivity) - Critique on F: He want to separate sensible object from the object of thoughts, BUT does not understand human activity itself as objective activity + Not understand the significant of “revolutionary” and “practical-critical” activity - These II:Man must prove the truth from his thinking in practice - These III: Critique on materialism - They forget that circumstances are changed by men and that the educator must himself be educated - These changes can only be rationally understand as revolutionary practice - These IV: Feuerbach’s work consists in resolving the religious world into its secular basis. Secular basis: is a independent realm that can explain only the inner strife and intrinsic contradictoriness of this secular basis > Only practice can clear the - These V: Feuerbach’s think conceive sensuousness as practical, human-sensuous activity. He think abstract thinking is not enough, therefore only contemplation can fill the gap - These VI: Feuerbach think that Religious essence = human essence, but human essence is not in every individual> however it is the ensemble of the social relations. Marx think essence can only be understand as ‘genus’ > internal, dumb generality which naturally unites the many individuals - These VII: All social life is essentially practical - These IX: Contemplative materialism contemplation of single individuals and of civil society but didn’t see sensuousness as practical activity - These X: Standpoint of materialism> Old: civil society, New: human society (social humanity) - These XI: The duty and responsibility of philosopher is to change the world 3. Anomie and Social Integration (Emilie Durkheim) - Men picture themselves and the world were of religious origin - There is no religion that is not cosmology - Religion is used to enrich human intellect with number of ideas and contribute to forming intellect itself - Limitation of human: We cannot think of object that are not in time and space - Religious representation = collective representation which express collective realities - Rites: manner or acting that happened when people gather as group> aim to maintain or recreate certain mental states in these group - Common characteristic of religion: they presuppose a classification of all things, real and ideal, into two classes or opposed groups> Sacred & Profane - The beliefs, myths, dogmans and legends express the nature of Sacred things (they have virtue and power attribution) - The real characteristic of religious phenomenon is that they always suppose a bipartite division of the whole universe into two classes which embrace all that exist, but radically exclude each other - Religious beliefs are the representations which express the nature of sacred things and the relations which they sustain, either with each other or with profane things - Rites: the rules of conduct with prescribe how a man should comport himself in the presence of these sacred objects - What is Church: Member are unified by the fact that they think in the same way regard to the sacred world and its relations with the profane world> translate these common ideas into practices - Church has different dynamics: strictly nations/embraces an entire people or only part of them/ directed by corps of priests/ entirely devoid of any official directing body - Definition of Religion: Is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, things set apart and forbidden-beliefs and practices, which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those adhere to them - Society has all the necessary element to arouse the sensation of the divine in minds - God: A being whom men think of as superior to themselves and can dependent on  - Society can perform the same as God: Provide the sensation of a perpetual dependence, since it has a nature that is difference from our individual nature > But social life can only fulfill through our intermediacy(we have to forget our own interest, make ourselves its servitors, submit to inconvenience, privation and sacrifice - Every instant we are obligate to submit ourselves to rule of conduct and of thought which we have neither made nor desired, sometime even contrary to our fundamental inclination and instincts - Social pressure is practice in spiritual way (with moral authority) - Our strength also relies on God: when we believe god is with is, we approach the world with confidence and increase energy - The power of society: People may do something that is unexpected with a group of people(conform to pressure/ increase social cohesion) - Society will consecrates things, especially ideas (not allowing judgement or critique) - Society set itself as a God or for creating God> e.g. French Revolution, it transform profane things: Fatherland,Liberty and Reason into sacred - Religious force is only the sentiment inspired by the group in its members, but projected outside of the consciousness that experience them and objectified - The fundamental categories of thought, consequently of science are of religion origin> Nearly all the great social institution have been born in religion - Definition of Sacred: Something added to and above the real - The collective ideal which religion expresses happens at the school of collective life that the individual had learned to idealise - Once we recognised that above the individual there is society, as an system of active forces> a new manner of explaining men become possible 4. The Spirit of Capitalism (Max Weber) - Weber discover religion from a economic perspective (using capitalism) - Capitalist: An ascetic, a rational mister, who was devoted to the task of making money, not in the order to enjoy its fruit but t reinvest it to make more money - Weber think Franklin’s moral attitudes are coloured with utilitarianism> those virtue are virtues only if they are useful to the individual - The highest place that this ethic can achieve: earning more and more money and strict avoidance of all spontaneous enjoyment of life> is above all completely devoid of any eudaemonistic, not to say hedonistic - The earning within the modern economic order is, so long as it is done legally, the result and the expression of virtue and proficiency in a calling - Social ethic and fundamental basis of capitalistic culture: One’s duty in a calling - Human are forced to live in a capitalistic economy world> involved in the system of market relationships to conform to capitalistic rules of action - Asceticism: live without materialistic desire Concepts 1. An enchanted world: animism among the Huron-Wendt - Anima: Soul/spirit - Animism religion: See soul/spirit all over the place - Enchanted world in real life: Everything(rock,river etc.) all have soul/is a spirit >There are no place for religion (no moss/church) 2. Modernity and its effect - seeks to secularize and rationalize the world, moving away from enchantment e.g. French revolution - Secular: Synonym of “non-religious” - Modern society is characterized by individualism, urbanization, and exposure to diverse beliefs. - View on religion: - Aggregation and passion were compare and contrast - Accommodation on modernisation by adjusting e.g. religion ceremony use modern musician to perform > *Drawback: religion losses its distinctiveness - Entrenchment: Being stubborn and not changing, stick to the old ways *Drawback: promote the irrelevant 3. Secularization is not a linear process; it varies across different contexts 4. On the sociology of religion - Sacred / Profane are use interchangeably - Things that we approach beliefs and practices with reverence are sacred> we distinguish these things from everyday effect e.g. We see a rock as a spirit, we treat it as distinguished from everyday object 5. How do we measure religiosity - Participation of public rituals - Private rites - Believe in doctrine - Knowledge of religious doctrine - Does religion matter? And to what extent will it affect non-religious members? - To what extent does religion drive friendship/marriage? 6. Sociological standpoint in religion - A neutral approach to studying religion, recognizing personal beliefs while maintaining professional objectivity. - Personal believe vs do a good job/ have good understanding in certain religion - Not disparaging people having own beliefs vs having a professional attitude towards religion - Set aside validity of religious text, keep it neutrality - The power of old institution is weaken> economic cooperation( new substitute institution) or see religion as illusion  - Science as opposition of religion (effusion of religion in science)> being rational is a way get closer to God - Comte invented “Positivism” > taking the method of natural science into social science (emerge of science and religion), created a church where Comte is the high priest (a cult) 7. Assay檢驗: evaluate own sense of what is right and wrong, disagree with the proposition but accept the lens, or the opposite (the global rejection/agreeable in thinkers are not valid) 8. Assent同意: give assent is to accept, the unphilosophical person give their assent too easily, we should suspend and withhold assent Tocqueviile - His main study is to discover the compatibility between religion and politics in America - History background: - French revolution (absence of moderation in the pursuit of equality) causes anarchy(disorder) / Tyranny - French revolution attacking religion is a way to defence liberty (Trend of anti-catholic) - In America, religion respect certain limit (look internal rather than external) - His critique: Religious tolerance should looks at the society including non-believers, attitudes/behaviours of believers and non-believers towards each other (BUT he lacks the external lens) - The constitutional issue: - Should religion and state(politics) intermingle/separate? - Who should have more power in society, religion leaders/ State government - Does the ruler rule by divine right(god) or other things (the people) - Should members of the church (clergy) be paid by the State? - Should churches have tax extensions? - Protecting religion from outside forces - Religion and politics coexist the harmony - The religious people feel compatible in the science sphere - America Example - In America, they define it own limits> by respecting the boundary between religion and politics - Religion provide guidance, encounters egoism - Religion a variable or a constant? - Variable element in the society: More/less alienation/ education/ depression - Constant: Depression in communist society(depends on the mode of production) - It serves as a lens for understanding specific, enduring societal issues - Religion an independent or a dependent variable?  - French and America both persisting : how religion co-exist with the rest of society - Religion is not variable, is constant but vary within the ambiance society (Tocqueville treat as constants instead of a variable) - Dependent variable: Religion is constant - Independent variable: Social elements - Modernity and religion - Modernity has various faces (arise of scientific belief, Secularisation: the erosion of religion belief) - Religion belief is capable for scientific thinking and democracy - Religion to organise human> otherwise we will feel lost - He notes cultural differences in generalization, with the English being less inclined toward it than Americans or the French. - Tocqueville adopts an idealist, culturalist approach, focusing on why people act as they do, contrasting with Marx's materialist view that fulfilling basic needs like food and shelter is a prerequisite for politics, art, and religion. - "There is almost no human action, however particular one supposes it, that does not arise from a very general idea that men have conceived of God, of his relations with the human race, of the nature of their souls, and of their duties toward those like them. One cannot keep these ideas from being the common source from which all the rest flow. [...] > How does this fit the conception of decision making? We use stereotype to misconception of infinity, our duties to people who are similar to us, - “That, therefore, is the matter about which it is most important that each of us have fixed ideas; and unfortunately it is also the one in which it is most difficult for each person, left to himself, to come to fix his ideas solely by the effort of his reason." (p. 442 > Our relation to others is so complex> everyone came to a different view point, do we need to come to an agreement? He claims: Religion is complementary with science - "When religion is destroyed in a people, doubt takes hold of the highest portions of the intellect and half paralyzes all the others. Each becomes accustomed to having only confused and changing notions about matters that most interest those like him and himself; one defends one's opinions badly or abandons them, and as one despairs of being able to resolve by oneself the greatest problems that human destiny presents, one is reduced, like a coward, to not thinking about them at all. [...] > Lack of social cohesion, shared beliefs> like a coward, just give up on seeking answers - When authority in the matter of religion no longer exists, nor in the matter of politics, men are soon frightened at the aspect of this limitless independence. This perpetual agitation of all things makes them restive and fatigues them. As everything is moving in the world of the intellect, they want at least that all be firm and stable in the material order; and as they are no longer able to recapture their former beliefs, they give themselves a master. - “As for me, I doubt that man can ever support a complete religious independence and an entire political freedom at once; and I am brought to think that if he has no faith, he  must serve, and if he is free, he must believe.”> Cannot have complete religious freedom, have to have a secular separation of political and religious role - I do not know, however, whether this great utility of religions is not still more visible among peoples where conditions are equal than among all others. One must recognize that equality, which introduces great goods into the world, nevertheless suggests to men very dangerous instincts, as will be shown hereafter; it tends to isolate them from one another and to bring each of them to be occupied with himself alone." (p. 444) > Most dangerous temptation of democracy is well-being(focus on yourself, selfcare)> have to be balance out with religion Notes Summary Tocqueville analyzed the compatibility of religion with politics, particularly in America, contrasting it with France’s revolutionary history. He observed that the French Revolution’s attack on religion led to extremes of anarchy and tyranny, while in America, religion respected boundaries and provided moral guidance without overstepping into political power. Tocqueville noted religion’s potential to counter egoism and maintain harmony with politics and science. He questioned whether religion should be intertwined with the state, examining issues like clergy payment, tax exemptions, and the separation of powers. While he critiqued the lack of external focus in religious tolerance, he concluded that religion is a constant in society, adapting to its cultural and political context. For sociology, he suggested viewing religion as both a dependent and independent variable, reflecting how it shapes and is shaped by societal elements. Marx - Religion and anthropomorphism: - Anthropomorphism : attributing a human shape or human characteristics to a god, animal or thing - Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity (1941) - Religion preceded projection human attribute, God is a fantasy(highest capacity of human goodness) - Instead of celebrating human capacity projected on , should celebrate ourself (ourself has greatness quality in us) - Humanism: New religion will be realistic, not fantasy we project on God anymore - Marx critique on Feuerbach: 1. We believe something based on social bases and social action, embedded in social context (try to convince people to shake off religious belief and solely focus on philosophical perspective, instead he should consider social conditions). 2. He didn’t answer the WHY question (why people need religious belief) Some social conditions may be against religion. 3. Feuerbach materialist approach is incomplete - Marx and Durkheim: a hidden similarity:  - Marx-leftwing, Durkheim- rightwing - Marx looks at F think his writing to only use philosophical beliefs. Durkheim said suicide is wrong, but if you want to lessen suicide, we have to work on social condition that created it (both emphasise the important of social condition) - These on Feuerbach; - Marx: anti-Jewish - Marx think F need to take how people organised their needs and economic activity in account - Marx think that he did not include revolutionary practical activity (how to reorganise society > religion impulse decline) + Critical thinking: to attack the idealistic idea, provide plan for society, think for people who want to make a change in society (make practical change) - Thesis II: Utopian socialist- think in a dreamy way. Marx proposed that we should consider concrete social condition to make it possible to achieve the utopia - Thesis III: >Structure(opportunity society provided, how we should/shouldn’t think/act in certain way >Agency (act on structures to belief, how we respond to society that produce people who want to believe in religion, have to work on social condition that produce these attitude and agency towards religion ) (circular) - Religion arises from the contradictions of society(on a secular basis, self–intuited class) and serves as a projection of human ideals in response to alienation - Thesis V : When we project, we are project the best of human essence , but the reality of social condition are based on colourings and emotion on social condition - Thesis VIII: human have to organised to produce and reproduce necessity of life - Thesis X: Production need to be considerate in social relation (old: focus on civil society, now: human society/social humanity - Goal: Eliminate condition needed to end condition that make human being feel neglected, unimportant and imperfect by creating new realities on Earth (but keep the essence of the old religion, new religion: adoring humanity as centre), eliminate alienation , down on earth, go beyond capitalism, people become free from the illusion of God. - religious self-alienation: separate social phenomenon from theoretic idea - F: addressed the growth of secular world are separate people with religion - Cannot understand individual life unless we understand class differences and divisions in society - People attribute to social conditions, provide meanings (works to be accept to social condition) - Dissolve the thing of earthy/social relations  - We are unique sum of socialisation - Marx see the need of evaporate the society now and towards his ideal - He liquidate the secularisation Notes summary Marx critiques Feuerbach’s idealistic view of religion, arguing for a more practical and materialist approach. He emphasizes the need to address how societal structures and economic activities shape beliefs, proposing that religion arises from the contradictions of society and serves as a projection of human ideals in response to alienation. Marx rejects utopian socialism, advocating instead for concrete changes to social conditions to achieve a better society and diminish the need for religion. In his theses, Marx highlights the importance of understanding the relationship between structure (social conditions) and agency (individual responses) in fostering belief systems. He argues that religion reflects societal inequalities and proposes that true change requires reorganizing society to eliminate alienation, move beyond capitalism, and create a secular framework centered on humanity. Marx contrasts with Durkheim and Feuerbach, focusing on the material basis of social change rather than abstract ideas, and emphasizes the importance of addressing the underlying conditions that perpetuate religion. For Marx, progress involves replacing religion with systems that promote human empowerment and eliminate the illusions created by oppressive structures. Emilie Durkheim - How can we create social cohesion, solidarity? Durkheim : variation of power relation - Basic categories: sacred and profane - Disenchanted vs enchanted world - Practices (e.g. dietary choice) - Some religion don’t have a single God, but instead the spirit (profane) - Sacred: how people signal respects - Sacred key feature: special powers, treat it with law and respect(qualitative differences on our behaviour and attitudes) - Durkheim argues that the sacred is not an intrinsic quality of objects, actions, or symbols but rather a result of extrinsic social construction. The power of the sacred comes from how society collectively assigns meaning and significance to certain things through rituals and shared beliefs. For example, a candle has no inherent sacredness, but in the context of a religious ceremony, it can acquire sacred meaning. This distinction emphasizes that sacredness is not a natural property but something created and sustained by social processes and collective consciousness. - Power of sacred is measure by rituals: entering a holy place, married in a church, death, burial  - Social construction of profane: Weber boundaries is slowly changing through time(reduction of enchanted> disenchanted) Durkheim: projection: victorious invention, drive certain sensation in society(sustain us) but not everything of the society that are project on God but certain qualities that intertwined with survival - Source of religion power: God = society - In a simple society(aboriginal): divided into different groups: clans, use totem to represent different clans(symbolism)> Totem is usually an animal: symbol is treated with reverence - Projection theory of religion: power of society> embedded in the symbol is everything in the society (gratitude, hopelessness in the society) - The God is the symbol of society - Why is society so powerful? Without society, we are nothing, depends on society to survival, give us consciousness, identity, sense of self-worth (P.76) - Power of sacred: comes from experience form outside of yourself , which is greater than the world - Flawless thinking: Inconsistency in argument when we adore society, e.g. not necessarily believe in God(one, multiple or no God), no common restrictions(Buddhist: vegetarian, Muslim: no pork) - Feels small in the phase of society> makes the believe is actually a strengths, share common/collective feelings /emotions with others> collective energy > if we gather together in a church, provide collective energy that is powerful and can do things we did not expected - What about the non-social aspects of religion? - Isolation and Withdrawal: These figures' transformative religious experiences often occurred in solitude, indicating that profound faith can arise from distancing oneself from societal influences. - - Social Seclusion of Believers: Practices such as those of hermits, monks, and nuns exemplify this withdrawal, where believers intentionally isolate themselves to deepen their connection with God. - Limitations of Sociological Explanation: The focus on social interactions in sociology may overlook these vital non-social dimensions of faith, which are essential for understanding the full scope of religious experience. - Society give us a sense of perpetual dependency, religious adoration Max Weber - The disenchantment of the world (By Weber) - Disenchantment: the world is no longer viewed as magical - This happened with the rise of rationalization> more science, less mystery - We live in a more scientific rational world but we know less compare to our ancestors (e.g. they need to know how a tool is make/work in order to survive) - Religion: Incalulable forces  - His study focus on the capability of religion and economic action - Religious belief give strong impulse in money making - History of Christian Europe: - Divided in to different source of belief (believers with different ideas on how to worship God) - Formation of Schism: a separation/break off of groups >betrayal to original faith, believes - Belief penetrated everyday life (churches fix ties in the day, marks the calendar for religious events, phase of life- birth, marriage, death) Socially unthinkable that we life in religion - Met with alternative religion - Calvinism & double predestination (heaven or hell) - God is all knowing, independent of our will (God decide who is elect vs damned) - Weber on the Protestant ethnic: - Calvinist: Double predestination also creates heavy phycological burden (sin: feel torture/ anxious thinking about it, God assign who can get a good/bad afterlife, we have to look out for signs that God will choose to enter heaven) - Vocation: beruf (dedication to fulfil the rules from God e.g. Be focus, committed, not wasting time, work hard) - Ethnic problem: asceticism vs hedonism> Avoid alstenation, against ambitious consumption, spontaneous pursue of pleasure/enjoyment - *TEST Weber is not saying that people follow the vocation is not working because nothing we can do if God already assigned can go into heaven, but if i act in a certain way, I can try to confirm if there is a place for me in the heaven (still can’t really do anything) - Freedom to cultivate individual gift> is difficult in modern capitalist society> highly regulated - Science as Vocation: increasing intellectualisation + rationalisation(Iron cage)> bureaucracy: best tool of domination over people, is the power of intellectual over people What Happened to the Protestant Ethic: Answers from Two American Scholars 1. Daniel Bell, The Culture Contradictions of Capitalism - Political: Liberal, Economic: socialist,Cultural conservative (his values, preferences) - Character: e.g. Person of integrity (dominant vs recessive / good vs bad character) - Freud: Id(instinct, impulsiveness, spontaneous to elements for survive and feelings/ Ego (society tells you what is appropriate/ norms/ order, the strictness can vary based on /Superego (the balance between id and ego) - America in the 1950s, society provide a sense of intellectual justification to do based on their impulsive> being selfishness and isolation when disregarded the social restriction - Believe Corrosion of character (as a cultural conservative): product of ethic(moral limit of argument from Weber: small time of period provide a boost in capitalism, them weaken again) describe by Weber remains alive, but need to rebuilt - Elite(certain intellectuals, artists, members from the wealthy class) change in the early 20th century (Character change: from valuing Asceticism to value hedonism) - 4 big reason of this change: 1. Technological innovations (radio, vacuum cleaner, new consumer items arise) 2. Mass production: Advance division of labour> make people have these goods 3. Mass marketing: turns wants into needs (have this product> have this kind of status) 4. Instalment (going into debt: sign of bad character, fail to delay gratification) - Asceticism(pronouncing desires/ impulsive, self denial, working hard: a sign of good character, bad character: getting debt) vs hedonism(explore subjectivity, give permission to people follow their impulsive, celebrate the free expression of the id, pursuit of pleasure) - A dwindling of morality: nothing is scared, America is losing its bearings - 1st concern: Paradox( good worker implies self discipline (old product of ethics) vs now American values more on enjoyment) (individual want vs - 2nd concern: Life is about suffering(sick, aging, lost)> religion can solve these before > but cannot deal with inevitable hardships/limits/restrings now - Social respectability: (Freud: superego takes up the most part) Consistent with Weber: work hard , be sober, sexual restrings, punishing people who do wrong, self denial> Shift rebellion on the restriction of instinct, pure self control is the enemy 2. Benjamin Barber, Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilise Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole(2007) - Conservative cultural critique differs with Bell: American used to be Asceticism> move to hedonism < he disagree and believe that products of ethnic still remain in the society e.g. still see how important working hard is a good character, resist pornography… - Protestant Ethic still alive in America: to work hard is to be good(work hard and work smart) - But now also a new gospel(greed is good) of consumption: spending is holy (show off status) - This gospel robs children of their childhood and adults of their adulthood (the way advertising children has changed overtime, money invested reaching these young market, childhood are less tainted with ads in the past) (contemporary social phenomenon by advertisement): Targeted children as potential customers & premise of most advertisement infantilize the adults from media, social values> have fun, elaborated) - Infantilize : encouragement and legitimateness of childish in adulthood > goal: in a world of huge consumption nurturing a culture if impulsive consumption - Problem in America : Americans is not well equips themselves for healthy democracy - Politics suffers because citizens think about themselves today(egoistic) instead of their community tomorrow  - He is more alert than Bell , by proposing the dysfunction of society can still process in new ideas/way Marx Questions Short-Answer Questions 1. What is the primary flaw Marx identifies in Feuerbach's materialism? - Lack of consideration of social condition, objective activity and practice 2. How does Marx distinguish his approach to materialism from that of Feuerbach in relation to "sensuousness"? - Marx emphasizes "sensuousness" as practical, human-sensuous activity. He critiques Feuerbach for viewing sensuousness solely as contemplation, neglecting the active element of human interaction with the material world. 3. According to Marx, how is truth determined, and what is the significance of practice in this determination? - Truth is not a theoretical abstraction but is proven through practice. The "this-sidedness" of thinking, its real-world impact and effectiveness, validates its truthfulness. 4. What criticism does Marx level against the materialist doctrine concerning the changing of circumstances and upbringing? - Society is constantly changing and if we only rely on contemplation, is not efficient to answer what actually happened in reality. We have the need for self-transformation. It creates a false division between those who change circumstances and those who are subject to change. 5. Explain Marx's statement that "the secular basis detaches itself from itself and establishes itself as an independent realm in the clouds." - This statement refers to the emergence of religion as a separate realm seemingly divorced from its material basis. Marx argues that this separation is a product of contradictions and cleavages within the secular basis itself. 6. What does Marx mean when he states that "the human essence is no abstraction inherent in each single individual"? - He stated human essence is also the essence of religion were we projected, therefore is also inherited in us 7. According to Marx, what is the origin of "religious sentiment," and why does Feuerbach fail to grasp this? - 8. What is the central role of practice in understanding social life and resolving theoretical mysteries? - 9. What distinguishes the "old materialism" from the "new materialism" in terms of their respective standpoints?  - Old: concern on civil society - New: concern on human society/ social humanism 10. Explain the significance of Marx's concluding thesis: "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it." -