Sociology 2239 Chapter Notes -Berlin Wall, Executive Council Of British Columbia, Christian Fundamentalism
25 Jun 2012
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Social reality is always viewed through filters called ideologies and represent the accumulated baggage of knowledge and experience everyone brings to a social encounter. Ideologies mediate between the observer and the thing being observed- nobody is free of or above ideology. Ideologies are of many types and contain both psychological and sociological elements. Loyalty relates to the psychological need for belonging that all humans feel as well as to the social demands and constraints of group membership and identification. First of these is the cognitive dimension- which is the most important to an understanding of what ideologies are and how they function. The cognitive dimension refers to the complex mix of knowledge and belief in all ideologies. It is complex because while knowledge is verifiable using logic and the scientific method, beliefs are not. Similarly, to understand the separation of knowledge and belief we can look at the political ideology of patriotism during war.
