SOC 3118 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Canada, Social Class, Time
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
SOC 3118
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
09/12/17
1
(1) The Time of the Life Course
The Rise of Modernity: The Enlightenment
• The 1600s had a different ideology – one steeped in supernatural politics. God
became the explanation for anything and everything.
o Alchemy, angelology, demonology; the Great Chain of Being; Divine
Right of Kings.
• Every aspect of human life, natural and social, was centered around a supernatural
power (in this case God).
o Absolute monarchies – the Church supported absolute monarchs (‘divine
right of kings’); dominance of the Christianity; people were supposed to
not ask questions, accept things based on faith in God, and not challenge
governmental authority.
• The Renaissance saw the beginning of the questioning of the hegemony of
Christianity that was standing for over 1300 years.
o Galileo; protestantism (question of the ruling at the time).
• The questioning led to the Church trying to protect its monopoly.
o War; inquisition (individuals were tortured until they accepted the word of
God); Auto de fe/witch burning; heresy trials.
Ausa Sapere – Dare to Think
• Worn out by 200 years of this bickering, warfare, dissension, and fanaticism,
Europe was ready for a chance by the late 1600s and early 1700s.
• These changes take place between the 15th (around 1620-1650) and 18th century
(1789- the French Revolution) with a rejection of dogma, of superstition, of
traditional religion, and of (in some cases) monarchy.
• The world was ready to gain knowledge and wisdom: to be freed from prejudice,
ignorance, or superstition.
• It is an epistemological revolution, a transition to new ideas in philosophy, art,
economics, government, science, and technology.
• This was an era in which people used reason to try to understand more about
human behaviour and solve the problems of society.
• Reason, liberty, equality, fraternity, and progress.
• It is the founding of contemporary knowledge.
Thinkers of the Enlightenment
• Rene Descartes: The father of modern rationalism – ‘I think, therefore I am.’
• Francis Bacon: Scientific method – systematic observations and careful
experiments would lead to correct principles.
• Isaac Newton: Natural laws can be discovered.
• Diderot’s encyclopedia: Collected Enlightenment articles in an encyclopedia that
helped to spread ideas throughout Europe and the Americas.
• John Locke: Thought people were moral at heart and were entitled to certain
natural rights, which governments were obliged to protect.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
09/12/17
2
• Baron de Monstesquieu: Despotism could be avoided if political powers were
divided. Believed in enjoying three branches of government that could balance
each other’s powers.
• Voltaire: Men are equal; it is not birth, but virtue that makes the difference.
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau : Rather than liberation, rationalism and civilization
destroys the individual
• Hume: Reason cannot decipher anything about the origins of the universe or the
existence of God.
What is the Enlightenment?
• A desire of rationality, logical, consistency: the universe could be understood
through reason.
• Everything in nature could be explained by natural laws – universal truths found
through observation.
• A rejection of emotionalism.
• A preference for evidence, not faith.
• Increased interest in science, mathematics, geometry.
• A preference for the artificial over the natural, technology over wilderness.
• A disdain of ‘messiness’ and ‘chaos’ as being unharmonious.
• The belief in progress – the world can be improved upon and perfected.
• People have natural rights – personal freedoms that allow people to enjoy liberty
(no restrictions on speech, religion, or the economy).
• A preference for democracy.
• A preference for civilized, polite discussion of ideas. Conclusions reached by
intelligent debate – not force.
• A desire to create social standards based on reason – not tradition.
The Birth of Modernity
• The ‘great transformation’.
• Three interrelated processes:
o The Enlightenment: Distance from the rule of the King. Use of reason to
explain things.
o Industrialization: Producing in mass for everyone which changed the way
we experienced the world.
o Capitalism: Shaped the way we are as people.
What is Modernity?
• Modernity is fundamentally about order: about rationality and rationalization,
creating order out of chaos.
• The assumption is that creating more rationality is conducive to creating more
order, and that the more ordered a society is, the better it will function (the more
rationally it will function).
• Thus modern societies rely on continually establishing a binary opposition
between ‘order’ and ‘disorder’, so that they can assert of superiority of ‘order’.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
09/12/17 (1) the time of the life course. The rise of modernity: the enlightenment: the 1600s had a different ideology one steeped in supernatural politics. God became the explanation for anything and everything: alchemy, angelology, demonology; the great chain of being; divine. Ausa sapere dare to think: worn out by 200 years of this bickering, warfare, dissension, and fanaticism, Thinkers of the enlightenment: rene descartes: the father of modern rationalism i think, therefore i am. ", francis bacon: scientific method systematic observations and careful experiments would lead to correct principles. 09/12/17: baron de monstesquieu: despotism could be avoided if political powers were divided. What is the enlightenment: a desire of rationality, logical, consistency: the universe could be understood through reason, everything in nature could be explained by natural laws universal truths found through observation. Conclusions reached by intelligent debate not force. A desire to create social standards based on reason not tradition.
