SOCL 2001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Economic Determinism, Control Theory, Protestant Work Ethic
Document Summary
Comte (father of sociology): started mid-19th century france. Human society is built like a machine (some simple, some complex) society is stable for some time then begins to change- social statistics/dynamics. Spencer: theory of social revolution(simple-complex) survival of the fittest. Conflict- boug: have the money, land,etc. pro: the have nots. When we have a surplus value there is inequality. Monopoly: sole owner of a certain factory-deciding on how much you want to pay people that work for you. Get rid of the owner- the workers can share profit- evolution. People have to unite/share the understanding of society called class consciousness. Economic determinism: economy is the base, everything else (family, education) is the superstructure. Personal behavior is decided by how well society is. How people follow rules of society and don"t become disorganized. He found that unmarried, male, protestants were more likely to kill themselves than married female catholics. Being connected to society helps lower suicide rates.
