SOCI-1015EL Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Lewis H. Morgan, Noam Chomsky, Auguste Comte
16 Jun 2018
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March 29, 2018!
SOCI1015!
Social Change and the Future!
ā¢Society is continually changing !
ā¢Social change is deļ¬ned as the adjustments or adaptations made by a group of people in
response to a dramatic change experiences in at least one part of their lives!
ā¢Today we see rapid social change, particularly in the area of technology !
ā¢Five interpretations of Social change!
ā¢Modernism!
ā¢Views society as advancing along a straight path !
ā¢Holds that change equals progress, and that what is modern or new will automatically
be better than what it is replacing !
ā¢Auguste comte saw positivism as an aspect of modernism !
ā¢Social darwinism posits that societies naturally proceed from simple complex and
only the strongest triumph !
ā¢Herbert Spencer coined the phrase āsurvival of the ļ¬ttestā in his application of
darwinism to societies !
ā¢Lewis Henry Morgan argued societies progress through three distinct stages:
savagery, barbarism, civilization !
ā¢Up the the mid-20th century, modernism entailed the belief that science and
technology would created a better world !
ā¢Firm belief unpolitical progress!
ā¢however, Noam Chomsky has argued that modernism has a narrow vision stating
āwhatever innovation beneļ¬ts the dominant class is justiļ¬able on the ground of
progressā !
ā¢Critics of modernism note that science and technology have created as many
problems as they have solved (eg) pollution, work, stress)!
ā¢Conservatism !
ā¢Views social change as potentially more destructive than constructive, especially in
emotionally charged areas of life such as family, gender roles, sexuality, and the
environment !
ā¢Belief that change is not always for the best, and that in fact it is more important to
make sure something (values) stay the same !
ā¢Belief that societies change in predictable cycles, also called the cycle of civilization
(greek and roman empires)!
ā¢Critics of conservatism note that conservatives are apt to use the slippery slow
argument !
