SOCL 3101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Feudalism, Toleration, Puritans
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Sociology 3101 – Sociological Theory
Exam 1
Introduction to Classical Sociological Theory
The Classical Tradition – This was a set of ideas before modern times and Western societies mostly used this.
Its not empirical like social science of today, it looked at how God commands and runs society.
• It comes from the Torah and Christians had a direct influence on society
• Theories governed how others should behave in society
o Biblical thinking and church thinking from the beginning through feudalism – ancient Greek
thoughts viewed society as an organic whole
• Five main points:
o 1. Role of wisdom – idea that the truth exists (this was before the Reformation) and it is a
question of wisdom what the truth is
▪ Whoever the ruler is should act in accordance with the truth – society should be
governed by true things
▪ People are naturally unequal – especially in wisdom because some people had better
access to wisdom
• The ruler is the best interpreter of the truth
o 2. Language is for finding wisdom and truth – language gives us the ability to find the truth
o 3. After Christianity, the leading role of the Church was finding the truth
▪ You could look to the church and find the truth and it would take the leading role in
establishing what is true
o 4. The image of how society should work was known as the Great Chain of Being
▪ There was a hierarchy to existence: theological was God, the Trinity, Saints, the church,
the parishioners and secular was king, aristocracy, commoners
• Each level is mediated by the relations and owes obedience to those above and
protect to those below
• If this is violated then there is trouble
o 5. Society as a family or body (corporatism) is viewed as the great chain of being
▪ Corporatist theory – like a body, society is organized in different parties, some are
leading parts, some are following or dependent parts
• Head of the society is like a father (brain) and the other parts of the body
perform their function – keeps the corporate healthy
▪ When everything works together like they should then there’s harmony)
• They all do separate things to keep the whole in check
• )f there is no harmony then society is sick
▪ The parts are organized in corporate structures, not individuals
• The break and changes from the classical tradition start in the 16th and 17th centuries
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The Individualist/Utilitarian Tradition
• Started: Reformation or Italian Renaissance
• Hobbes and Social Contractarianism – this came out in Britain in the 17th Century, Which had the
English Civil War and the Puritans coming to the U.S. (1640-1660)
o He was the first modern social thinker and he looked at everything going on and said all fighting
is causing destruction (like the Inquisition) but neither side is saying why they are right
▪ English Civil War: not trying to take sides, Puritan or Anglo, he was defending the
traditional order with radical arguments. He begins to establish things
o He came up with the Social Contract Theory because you cant convert someone in their heart
and he had ideas of toleration: we have the right to persuade someone to be like you but you
cant force because that will reek havoc
▪ Social contract – society is composed of not by command but by social contract that
individuals came together (contract with each other to form a society)
• Human creation is the atomistic view of society
o Truth may exist but not everyone will agree on what truth is and it comes from a background of
over 100 years of warfare about truth and it does not make sense to fight about it (truth should
be a private matter to not make a point of conflict
▪ )t’s a prudential approach
▪ State of nature – very free but very dangerous. This is the core idea and it slowly denies
the classical tradition
• 1. Individuals as atoms – people are individuals
o Violation is will. They can want this and not want that
• 2. Individuals have complete sovereignty over themselves
o Nothing governs the state
o We have complete freedom and no one has the a right to rule them
• 3. People motivated by desire/pride and fear of death: maximizing their
utilities
o The greatest good is that there is no end to your desires except the
greatest bad is death denies the truth
o Get as much of what you want and avoid what you don’t want
• 4. People are equal: all have desires, all fear death, all are mortal (first concept
of equality)
o Everyone is mortal and everyone fears death especially at the hand of
another human being
o This is implicitly democratic – completely opposite of classical and got
Hobbes into trouble
• 5. War of every other person against every other person because nothing
governs the state
o Everyone is trying to get what they want
• 6. Condition of anarchy and strongest person winning, but the strongest person
must also fear the weaker ganging up on them and taking them down
o Anarchy – Greek for lack of rule, lack of government
o Natural condition of human is anarchy – civil war and the war of every
person against other people. The winner is not assured, some may
team up and no one is safe.
• 7. Denied religion is effective in reducing fear
o The religious believed that death wasn’t the greatest bad because of
the afterlife (the greatest bad to them was hell and the greatest good
was Heaven)
o Did not deny that truth exists, but we do not definitively know exists –
we don’t have to know if it exists, all we have to do is observe that no
one agrees and fighting will continue
o The real problem is prudence – in people’s hearts they will not believe.
Conquered people will act as though they believe but they don’t, which
will not help any kind of truth (make the problem of truth a private
concern)
o Separation of church and state…
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• 8. Problem of aristocratic pride – subduing other people is an honor (tells
people to never stop fighting)
o Pride also creates trouble and we have to channel pride so its not
leading to conflict
o The result is a social contract
▪ He proposes the Social Contract Theory to build state and society
• Rational people will give up sovereignty to the state
o Form a government, give up some freedom, trade for protection
o Assure my safety – by entering into a contract with everyone else, you
give up sovereignty and assign it to the government for the sake of
safety
• Note prisoner’s dilemma: rationality of social contract ineffective against
aristocratic pride and religious zeal
o Religious have no reason to stop fighting because they believe you
don’t have to succeed (continued fighting = going to Heaven)
• Locke’s moderation of this view: most of American political thinking is based off of Locke Life, liberty,
and the pursuit of property – was later changed to happiness to sound less harsh)
o Society can create a state – he said there was two stages to this: society is established, then that
society’s government is established
o Right of a revolution
o Toleration, includes religious toleration
• Adam Smith and the harmonization of individualism
o Locke did a softening of Hobbes’ theories, Smith did even more softening
o He said the barter and trade system was key. Everyone ahs their own self-interest, which leads
to specialties that you can trade for other people’s specialties
o Theory of Moral Sentiments
▪ Sympathy leads to comparison
▪ Comparison leads to striving
▪ Striving changes the whole face of the globe
o Wealth of Nations (published in 1776) – emergence of a capitalist economy in principle
▪ People are equal, but have different talents; have the tendency to truck, barter and
exchange one thing for another
• Following your own interests can lead to harmony – there are qualitative
differences – even though people are equal, they have different talents and it
will allow people to trade things
o Instead of fighting, they will trade
▪ This leads, not to war, but to peaceful complementarily
• Can lead to harmony and the division of labor
• One completes the other
• Result is a market society
▪ Market society as a social contract:
• Feudal society as anarchy, state-of-nature, warfare, mafia turf battle
o Feudal lords were more interested in the expanding power not money
and the seizure of power was what happened when people disagreed
o Free markets cannot take place in this setting
• Market society as a pacified society
o Order and good of the government – free market thinkers of today
think the government should stay out (not the case here)
▪ Stays peaceful and producing a better product
o An expanding pie displaces violent confrontation
• The Invisible Hand
o By nature you will have harmony within a society of individualism – as
long as no one breaks it (government needed to protect)
• The night-watchmen state
o To protect property (to keep the rich, rich)
o Government exists for the people and should serve the interest of all people
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Document Summary
Introduction to classical sociological theory: five main points: thoughts viewed society as an organic whole. It comes from the torah and christians had a direct influence on society. Its not empirical like social science of today, it looked at how god commands and runs society: theories governed how others should behave in society. The classical tradition this was a set of ideas before modern times and western societies mostly used this: biblical thinking and church thinking from the beginning through feudalism ancient greek, 1. Language is for finding wisdom and truth language gives us the ability to find the truth: 4. Society as a family or body (corporatism) is viewed as the great chain of being protect to those below. Started: reformation or italian renaissance: hobbes and social contractarianism this came out in britain in the 17th century, which had the. Social contract society is composed of not by command but by social contract that.
