Sociology 2240E Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Reality Principle, New Left, Great Depression

• School: Western University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: Sociology 2240E
• Professor: Scott Schaffer

Document Summary

First step- figure out the epistemological perspective needed to study this. In the social world is only in this realm of ideas, we are limited to asking where the ideas come from (posits existence, rather than explaining the existence of these ideas) Materialist perspective: grounds knowledge in the material world; knowledge comes first and foremost from physical matter in the existent world, about which we use our physical (grey) natter to develop ideas, we have to start with physical. Ideas are products, they are not given: religion, laws-are all part and parcel, how we produce and interact determines how we think about the world, not the other way around. Marx and historical materialism: marx says we change the world in accordance with how we think it should run, marx (and engels) break from young hegelians (add) in realizing that economy, not religion,************