SOC 1101 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Thomas Theorem, False Consciousness, Verstehen

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 1101
• Professor: Sam Alvaro

Document Summary

Social imagination: the ability to perceive how dynamic social forces influence individual lives. Personal troubles: personal challenges that require individual solutions. Social issues: challenges caused by larger social factors that require collective solutions. Theory: a statement that tries to explain how certain facts ot variables are related in order to predict future events. People are responsible for creating the social world around them and that society could thus be changed through conscious reflection. One of the first theorists to view people as responsible and accountable for the society they created. Natural state: the human condition before the emergence of formal society. People are motivated by self interest and the pursuit of power. Hobbes suggested that because the leviathan is the result of collective will, the collective has the right to revolt against it should it fail to fulfill its obligations. Argued that god was responsible for the emergence of society and government. There can be no knowledge independent from experience.