SOSC 1000 Reading Sagoff: Excerpt from Social Conflict and ...
SOSC 1000 Reading
Sagoff: Excerpt from Social Conflict and Environmental Law: Ethics, Economics, and equity -We act as consumers to get what we want for ourselves. - We act as citizen to achieve what we think is right or best for the community. -Are the goals we set for ourselves as consumers the same as we set for ourselves as citizens?. -No they are not, we vote for the good of society but act as consumers for US -role as consumer and citizen should be independent and distinct Shusky: Social Science: Between Natural Science and the Humanities -Anthropology is the study of human societies, cultures, and their development -Karl Marx argued that the value of goods was determined by the amount of labour required to produce them, other economists argued that the value of something was determined by the consumer -Psychologists perceive behaviour on the basis of personality -Processes of perception include rationalization (providing a reason for failure in order to obtain a desire), projection (adjusting by attributing aspects of your own personality to others), and identification - A status is a complex set of norms directing behaviour and beliefs within a society Shusky: The History of Social Science -A paradigm is a general theoretical framework that guides research in science -Adam Smith claimed that the value/price of goods was determined by a combination of wages, rent, ad profit, with profit determined by supply and demand. This implied that a social order grew out of the decisions of a large number of people, each person trying to maximize their self interest. He laid the foundation of Economics, and ended with Karl Marx. Thomas Hobbes (Human behaviour) - Hobbes thought humans must act in a state of nature, and all humans would compete strongly against each other. Humans would be continually at war with themselves until they could agree to subject themselves to a common power.”Lets each limit our personal freedom in order to have some social stability”. This is called a social contract.
John Locke- learning is important in human perception, attacked divine right of kings. Political power is only justified by the public good. Any government that violates rights, freedoms, trust is invalid, Personal rights, (i.e right to own property) takes priority over rights of government. Mercantilism- governmental regulation of all sectors of the economy in order to increase a nation’s wealth. Jean Jacques Rousseau- saw humans as good, transformed into evil beings by their social environment. Moral/Psychological condition of an individual closely tied to structure of society. People would never be truly free unless you live in a society of equals. August Comte – He laid the foundation of sociology, and even for psychology and anthropology. Wilhelm Wundt - Built an evolutionary paradigm for human thought, but it was marginal to his work in experimental psychology and his focus on mental activity. Machok: Ideologies An ideology is shared ideas, perceptions, values, and beliefs through which members of society interpret history and contemporary social events and which shape their expectations and wishes for the future. A dominant ideology is a particular set of ideas, values, ect which is most widely shared and has the greatest impact on social action at any particular time in any particular society. A counter ideology is defined as a set of ideas, ext which is help by a substantial minority and which has a noticeable impact on social action. Classical Liberalism- securing freedom of individual by limiting power of the government Social Democratic- accept the basic values of liberalism but place more emphasis on equality. Recognize the existence of classes, class barriers, and of govt’s acting in the interests of the dominant/ruling class. Socialist- socialist perceive capitalism s a system where a ruling class extracts wealth from a subordinate (lower) class(es), sells products made by labour, and uses the profits to invest in more properties and technologies which further enslave labour. Conservatism- natural classes in society, needed because society requires leadership. There is a natural hierarchy. Corporatism- Natural hierarchy, corporations should make decisions about the conduct of economic life. Non-conservatism- minimal government, establishment of a completely free market, extreme individualism, controlled markets McNeil: Mythistory, or Truth, Myth, History, and Historians
➢ Myth and history: both explain how things got to be the way they are by telling some sort of story ➢ Myth aspires to be false, history true ➢ One historian’s truth becomes another’s myth ➢ Conscientious and careful historian arrange facts into readable narrative to produce genuinely scientific history ➢ To become history facts must be put together in a pattern that is understandable and credible ➢ Natural science is historical and evolutionary not eternal or universal ➢ Scientists will only accept a new theory if it embraces a wider range of phenomena or achieves a more elegant explanation of facts than predecessor ➢ Any theory about human life (if widely believed) will alter actual behaviour, act if theory was true ➢ Our historic record consists of human groups united by its own beliefs, ideals, and traditions ➢ From ancient Sumer and Pharaonic Egypt to modern times, have based their cohesion upon shared truths ➢ Important questions settled long ago by prophets and sages ➢ Law, theology, and philosophy (pervade field of knowledge) important as other social sciences ➢ Truth can dissolve into myth before even written down – depends on mentality ➢ Iranian Muslims, Russian communists, and American sectarians (religious and otherwise) distress in regards to moral uncertainties, generated by exposure to competing truths ➢ Past can be considered a myth: simplified between good guys and bad guys, us and them – that is most of history ➢ The past and their perspectives and ideologies affect how people think about groups currently – past people control what future people think of others ➢ Historians play a large part in focusing love and hate ➢ The assumption that world history is too vague and too general to be true (accurate to sources not the rest of the world) ➢ Author believes all truths are general
➢ Cannot just use documents for history need people input as well ➢ Mythistory: the same words that are true to some and always will be myths for others, who inherit or embrace different assumptions and organizing concepts about the world ➢ Mythistory is what we actually have – useful instrument for piloting human groups in their encounters with one another and with the natural environment
Sagoff: Excerpt from Social Conflict and Environmental Law: Ethics, Economics, and equity -We act as consumers to get what we want for ourselves. - We act as citizen to achieve what we think is right or best for the community. -Are the goals we set for ourselves as consumers the same as we set for ourselves as citizens?. -No they are not, we vote for the good of society but act as consumers for US -role as consumer and citizen should be independent and distinct Shusky: Social Science: Between Natural Science and the Humanities -Anthropology is the study of human societies, cultures, and their development -Karl Marx argued that the value of goods was determined by the amount of labour required to produce them, other economists argued that the value of something was determined by the consumer -Psychologists perceive behaviour on the basis of personality -Processes of perception include rationalization (providing a reason for failure in order to obtain a desire), projection (adjusting by attributing aspects of your own personality to others), and identification - A status is a complex set of norms directing behaviour and beliefs within a society Shusky: The History of Social Science -A paradigm is a general theoretical framework that guides research in science -Adam Smith claimed that the value/price of goods was determined by a combination of wages, rent, ad profit, with profit determined by supply and demand. This implied that a social order grew out of the decisions of a large number of people, each person trying to maximize their self interest. He laid the foundation of Economics, and ended with Karl Marx. Thomas Hobbes (Human behaviour) - Hobbes thought humans must act in a state of nature, and all humans would compete strongly against each other. Humans would be continually at war with themselves until they could agree to subject themselves to a common power.”Lets each limit our personal freedom in order to have some social stability”. This is called a social contract.
John Locke- learning is important in human perception, attacked divine right of kings. Political power is only justified by the public good. Any government that violates rights, freedoms, trust is invalid, Personal rights, (i.e right to own property) takes priority over rights of government. Mercantilism- governmental regulation of all sectors of the economy in order to increase a nation’s wealth. Jean Jacques Rousseau- saw humans as good, transformed into evil beings by their social environment. Moral/Psychological condition of an individual closely tied to structure of society. People would never be truly free unless you live in a society of equals. August Comte – He laid the foundation of sociology, and even for psychology and anthropology. Wilhelm Wundt - Built an evolutionary paradigm for human thought, but it was marginal to his work in experimental psychology and his focus on mental activity. Machok: Ideologies An ideology is shared ideas, perceptions, values, and beliefs through which members of society interpret history and contemporary social events and which shape their expectations and wishes for the future. A dominant ideology is a particular set of ideas, values, ect which is most widely shared and has the greatest impact on social action at any particular time in any particular society. A counter ideology is defined as a set of ideas, ext which is help by a substantial minority and which has a noticeable impact on social action. Classical Liberalism- securing freedom of individual by limiting power of the government Social Democratic- accept the basic values of liberalism but place more emphasis on equality. Recognize the existence of classes, class barriers, and of govt’s acting in the interests of the dominant/ruling class. Socialist- socialist perceive capitalism s a system where a ruling class extracts wealth from a subordinate (lower) class(es), sells products made by labour, and uses the profits to invest in more properties and technologies which further enslave labour. Conservatism- natural classes in society, needed because society requires leadership. There is a natural hierarchy. Corporatism- Natural hierarchy, corporations should make decisions about the conduct of economic life. Non-conservatism- minimal government, establishment of a completely free market, extreme individualism, controlled markets McNeil: Mythistory, or Truth, Myth, History, and Historians
➢ Myth and history: both explain how things got to be the way they are by telling some sort of story ➢ Myth aspires to be false, history true ➢ One historian’s truth becomes another’s myth ➢ Conscientious and careful historian arrange facts into readable narrative to produce genuinely scientific history ➢ To become history facts must be put together in a pattern that is understandable and credible ➢ Natural science is historical and evolutionary not eternal or universal ➢ Scientists will only accept a new theory if it embraces a wider range of phenomena or achieves a more elegant explanation of facts than predecessor ➢ Any theory about human life (if widely believed) will alter actual behaviour, act if theory was true ➢ Our historic record consists of human groups united by its own beliefs, ideals, and traditions ➢ From ancient Sumer and Pharaonic Egypt to modern times, have based their cohesion upon shared truths ➢ Important questions settled long ago by prophets and sages ➢ Law, theology, and philosophy (pervade field of knowledge) important as other social sciences ➢ Truth can dissolve into myth before even written down – depends on mentality ➢ Iranian Muslims, Russian communists, and American sectarians (religious and otherwise) distress in regards to moral uncertainties, generated by exposure to competing truths ➢ Past can be considered a myth: simplified between good guys and bad guys, us and them – that is most of history ➢ The past and their perspectives and ideologies affect how people think about groups currently – past people control what future people think of others ➢ Historians play a large part in focusing love and hate ➢ The assumption that world history is too vague and too general to be true (accurate to sources not the rest of the world) ➢ Author believes all truths are general
➢ Cannot just use documents for history need people input as well ➢ Mythistory: the same words that are true to some and always will be myths for others, who inherit or embrace different assumptions and organizing concepts about the world ➢ Mythistory is what we actually have – useful instrument for piloting human groups in their encounters with one another and with the natural environment
