Enlightenment Philosophy

Question 1

What was sociology born out of?

Answer 1

The turmoil caused by the French Revolution. They sought to find a new basis for social order.

Question 2

The Enlightenment

Answer 2

Was a philosophy of NEW ideas of justice and truth.

Question 3

Rationality vs Reason

Answer 3

Rationality: logic of understanding means of actions and its relationship to goals.

Reason: rationality plus an estimate as to whether or not the goal should be pursued.

Question 4

Progress

Answer 4

The realization of human potential

Question 5

Individualism

Answer 5

This period stressed the efficacy of the individual and their ability to comprehend and control the universe through the use of reason and empirical research

Question 6

Liberation of the mind

Answer 6

Enlightenment philosophers fought to liberate the mind from superstition, fear of the unknown and religious ways of knowing and explaining social phenomena

Question 7

Newtonian Science

Answer 7

Newton was interested in facts. The goals of his investigations rested upon experience and observation. It had an EMPIRICAL basis. Facts fall into patterns and demonstrate forms regularities, and relationships. Therefore, order is imminent in the universe and discoverable through observation and the compilation of data. The new thought was that of SCIENCE and RATIONALITY. A law is operable throughout the entire universe.

Question 8

Newton’s Law

Answer 8

The triumph of reason + observation as a faculty to obtain the truth.

Question 9

Natural Laws

Answer 9

Enlightenment thinkers argued that there are natural laws of the universe that were intelligible, and because they were not ordained from god, could be discovered and manipulated by humans for their own benefit.

Question 10

Universal Laws

Answer 10

Once they understood how the social world worked, or uncovered these social laws, the enlightenment theorists had a practical goal- the creation of a better, more rational and orderly world. Apply laws to create order.

Question 11

John Locke

Answer 11

Locke believed that ideas were not innate. He thought that the mind at birth was a TABULA RASA, a blank and empty slate. Only through experience do ideas enter the mind. Thus, the role of the mind is passive, it has little organizing or creative function.

Question 12

Charles Montesquieu

Answer 12

French philosopher. Forerunner of sociology. The first thinker to try to develop a scientifically based understanding of society.

Question 13

3 Assumptions of Montesquieu’s Work

Answer 13

1) it is foolish to look for ultimate causes
2) If we are going to study society scientifically, there must be something about social life that is relatively simple, constant, and universal
3) Awareness of an intellectual problem- egocentricirty and ethnocenticity

Question 14

Persian Letters (1721)

Answer 14

A book written by Montesquieu that passed of fiction about other cultures as real legitimate research. Tried to get people to challenge European dogmatism and intolerance of other countries. Forced people to contemplate the fact that other races were intelligent.

Question 15

2 Ideas stemmed from Persian Letters

Answer 15

1) idea of knowledge: being variable both in and across cultures. Value differences exist within and across cultures.
2) With this variation how is it possible to have a science of society? Main goal was to discover order within such variability.

Question 16

Spirit of Laws (1748)

Answer 16

Montesquieu sought the LAWS of social and historical development. Is an analysis based on political and sociological types.

1) Nature of Government- the number of people that have power and how power is exercised in a society
2) Principle of Government- the sentiment, emotion, or attitude that motivates individuals in a particular society.

Main goal was not only to describe the laws, customs and practices among people, but to uncover the origins and consequences of specific institutions.

Question 17

Montesquieu’s 4 Types of Societies

Answer 17

1) REPUBLIC- democracy & aristocracy
2) MONARCHY
3) DESPOTISM
4) HUNTING

Question 18

Republic/Democracy

Answer 18

All people are alike, there is a social homogeneity. There are restrictions on excessive accumulations of wealth and power which might undermine this solidarity and the very existence of a republic. Small, equal, homogenous community. VIRTUE is the key basis for participation within the larger social structure.

Question 19

Monarchy

Answer 19

In a monarchy social classes have emerged as well as an increased division of labour that leads to a system of stratification that is absent in a democratic republic. The monarchy is composed of classes that vary in wealth, power, prestige. HONOUR is the key basis for participation in the larger social structure.

Question 20

Despotism

Answer 20

Either all orders of society have become so weakened that they can offer no organization to the ‘despot’ or the regime becomes a pseudo-democracy in which all but the ruler are equal in their conditions of servitude. FEAR is the basis for submission in the larger social structural arena.

Question 21

Hunting and Gathering

Answer 21

Small population who hold land in common. Conduct is regulated by CUSTOM and tradition.

Question 22

Laws

Answer 22

The necessary relations arising from the nature of things. Laws apply not only to nature, but also to human societies.

Question 23

Customs vs Laws

Answer 23

Customs: emerge spontaneously from social existence
Laws: established by the lawgiver in a formal and explicit fashion.

Question 24

Ambiguity

Answer 24

Montesquieu recognizes that humans have certain degrees of freedom and that we act upon the conditions of the environment and change them. Humans are subject to ignorance and error. Therefore, sometimes laws in societies are and sometimes are not the laws of human nature (e.g. slavery).

Question 25

2 Kinds of Laws

Answer 25

1) Natural laws of the physical world: laws that work naturally and automatically
2) Natural laws of the social world: the laws that ought to regulate the affairs of men and women.

Question 26

Jean Jacque Rousseau

Answer 26

Best known for 2 things:

1) conceptualization of the state of nature
2) social contract

Goal is to find or construct a social order whose laws are in harmony with nature. BUT he sees the world around him as a system based on the oppression of people.

Question 27

3 Themes underlying Rousseau’s work

Answer 27

1) Human perfectibility
2) Lawful process
3) degrees of freedom

Question 28

State of Nature

Answer 28

Humans without social influence. How can anyone know what ‘natural man’ is when no one has ever lived outside of society? The goal was to yield or develop a concept of natural man that could serve as a yardstick by which to measure the degree of oppression inflicted by society. Refers to an environment devoid of any socialization.

Question 29

Rousseau’s 4 Conditions of Life in a State of Nature

Answer 29

1) Perfect Balance- there is a perfect balance between the needs of every individual and the available resources to satisfy those needs
2) Primary Needs/Desires- the needs and desires that people have would be primary (hunger, rest, mate)
3) Low Population Density- he imagined a society that had very low population density
4) No Language/No knowledge- in the state of nature, there would be no language as we know it and therefore no way of having or transmitting knowledge

Question 30

Thomas Hobbes

Answer 30

Argued the natural condition of humanity is one of equality, but this fundamental condition of equality gives rise to hop of equality of attainment- therefore men are in competition with each other for the same things. Thus, the natural state is one in which men are aggressive and engage in war. War is natural and peace is learned.

Question 31

Rousseau in contrast to Hobbes

Answer 31

People are isolated and therefore indifferent to one another. There would be no reason for war because there is no reason for contact. Aggression needs to be learned.

Question 32

How did society evolve?

Answer 32

1) People initially started to associate because of a need to cooperate.
2) families emerged
3) farming

Question 33

Humans made 2 main mistakes

Answer 33

1) Not Natural: we have made mistakes in constructing a society that is not natural and we have created laws and policies to protect those mistakes
2) Private property: the institution of private property that resulted from the acquisition of language, knowledge, and then family connections was a mistake.