Unit 1 - Intro to Social Theory

Question 1

social theory vs. common sense

Answer 1

• common sense misleads us - what looks to the untrained eye isn’t necessarily isn’t so
• social theory looks at networks, groups, collectives
• not about individuals, but individuals connected to others
• we are always dependent on others
• example: cohabitation and divorce rates - short-term, lower divorce rates - long-term (5+ years), higher divorce rates
• if someone suffers, why? - in terms of the network - did it happen?
• systemic reasons for why x or y happens
• common sense can lead us astray

Question 2

sociological imagination

Answer 2

C. Wright Mills (1916-1962)
- raises interesting/disturbing questions about individual freedom within social structures
- how much freedom does an individual have if they are surrounded by social structures/forces over which they have little or no control?
- ability to connect personal challenges to larger social issues: suicide, bullying, etc.
- deep understanding of how biography is a result of historical process and occurs within a larger social context
- how you understand things in terms of social systems, not individual problems
- takes things to the macro scale

Question 3

Naturwissenschaft vs. Geisteswissenschaft

Answer 3

N:
- explanation
- a natural science, like chemistry
- depends on “explanation”, clarifying casual connections in terms of natural law (Eklären)
- all has to do with causal chains
- progress by experimentation and observation

G:
- interpretation
- the humanities, a study of the human spirit
- depends on interpretation (Verstehen), trying to find the meaning of things, the meaningful connection of things
- is it a narrative or physics science?

the line between explanation and interpretation is unclear