Unit 3

Question 1

identify and explain elements of the sociological thought of key founding figures

Answer 1

1. IBN Khaldun > a non-european precursor to modern sociology
2. Auguste Comte > the call for a positive science of society
3. Emile durkheim > restoring social solidarity when society modernises
4. Karl marx > class struggle drives social change
5. Max weber > rationalisation characterises modern society
6. Harriet Martineau > a pioneering woman sociologist
7. Web du bois > race: the driving line of modern society

Question 2

explain the contribution of key founding figures

Answer 2

1. IBN Khaldun >
2. Auguste Comte >
3. Emile durkheim >
4. Karl marx >
5. Max weber >
6. Harriet Martineau >
7. Web du bois > race:

Question 3

explain foundational views about sociology as a scientific and methodical way of generating reliable knowledge about human society

Question 4

explain the notion of “canon” of the discipline

Question 5

define canon

Answer 5

a general law, rule, principle, or criterion by which something is judged.

Question 6

define canonical text

Answer 6

a text that is regarded as foundational and representative of the discipline of sociology.

Question 7

define founding figures

Question 8

define positivism

Question 9

what was the motto of positivism movement?

Answer 9

order and progress

Question 10

what did Comte believe about positivism orientation when combined with sociological knowledge about society would bring?

Answer 10

it will bring new understanding of ways to manage society, political changes, ending poverty and nurturing of a new moral order.

Question 11

define rationalisation

Question 12

define historical materialism

Question 13

define Maqaddimah

Answer 13

a study of tribal culture, nomadic life and cities and the settled life associated with the latter (recent)

Question 14

define Sabiyah

Answer 14

a force that is a premier determinant of the development of society.

> term is derived from a root word asab / asabiyah ( is about the nature of the group or “groupdom”), meaning “to bind”

Question 15

Asabiyah

Answer 15

translated to mean solidarity

D: a spiritual-psychological state of people.

> it is also the precondition for the formation of material social organisation or state called “ isabah”

Question 16

asabtun and isabtun

Answer 16

group ( Khaldun Ibn)

Question 17

what did Comte write in relations to how humans have generated knowledge about the world?

Answer 17

he wrote about two laws:
1. the law of three stages > which is a kind of knowledge; it is about how humans have tried to make sense of the world.
* First stage: the theological state > which corresponds with the domination of kings (kept political order), warrior classes and priest (provided intellectual order).
* Second stage: metaphysical stage > corresponds with the dominant role of both religious leaders and lawyers. It is characterised by the abstract (talks about essences of phenomena and forces and, rather than the conscious intervention of god(s), nature is brought in as the important factor) method of philosophy.
*Third stage: humans’ intellectual evolution > the scientific or positive stage > it corresponds with the scientists and engineers playing a leading role in the society; it is where humans come to understand the world through scientific methods of observation.

2. Encyclopaedic or epistemological law> where he argues that different science (mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology and sociology) develops in an evolutionary manner.

Question 18

how is the dominant intellectual system characterised?

Answer 18

by people relying on fictions about God(s) as a supreme force(s) causing events and giving some kind of directions to processes in the world.

Question 19

what are the features of sociology?

Answer 19

it rests on the view that human society undergoes some form of evolutionary development and seeks to uncover the law which one social state succeeds another. (Comte)

Question 20

define social facts

Answer 20

ways of acting, thinking and feeling and are external to the individual, they have a certain power over the individual, and they are coercive and exert a kind of control over the individual.

Question 21

anomie definition (Emile Durkheim)

Answer 21

causing people to be uprooted, and feeling of normlessness.

Question 22

define mechanical solidarity

Question 23

define organic solidarity

Question 24

what did Karl Marx and Frederich Engels call their unique approach to theorising?

Answer 24

the materialist concept of history

> the scope of the approach was about what is happening in the society, the social change forces which brought an end to the social orders of capitalist society, the organisation of large industrial enterprises, the loss of access to a means of living in rural areas and simultaneous large-scale urbanisation, and the reasons for tremendous gaps in the wealth owned and controlled by the bourgeoisie compared to the living conditions of the proletariat who lived off the wages they earned.

Question 25

what is the approach to theorising about human society called?

Answer 25

idealism

Question 26

what did Karl Marx's research explain about the materialistic drew from the three intellectual sources?

Answer 26

1. an inversion of the notion of a dialectical method of analysis of society and social change processes, which George (GWF) Hegel had popularised. > he popularised a philosophy about history, which is about the directions in which human society is developing towards some type of final organisation of human society, as a product of the dialectical movement of ideas and thoughts. 2. historical materialism, which draws from the political economy analyses that were fairly well developed in the work of British scholars who were concerned about how the production of society's economic wealth. 3. they drew from French intellectuals and radical activists' ideas about socialism as an alternative to capitalism.

Question 27

what major text about Karl Marx's method, did he write about?

Answer 27

he write about " Empirical observation must in each separate instance bring out empirically, and without mystification and speculation, the connection of the social and political structure with production.

Question 28

what are the central categories in historical materialist analysis of society that are used in accounting for how dominate classes exploit subordinate classes in different stages of human history called " modes of production, contradiction, class conflict and class consciousness?

Answer 28

class, class struggle, private property, the concept called " surplus value"

Question 29

what is the era which Karl Marx refer to as the capitalist era of conflict between the bourgeoisie and proletariat, which Marx analyse in a major study called?

Answer 29

capital > which sets out his systematic scientific analysis of the origins of capitalist society, how exploitation occurs and how inequality and poverty result from capitalist social relations.

Question 30

what is part of "praxis"?

Answer 30

Karl Marx and French Engels systematic analysis of capitalist society and the possibility of transcending. > which has an ideological function to raise working classes consciousness to mobilise and create a new social order and new humanity.

Question 31

what did Max Webber do in 1910?

Answer 31

he assisted with the establishment of the German sociological society.

Question 32

which views of Weber's on conduction sociological research are set out in?

Answer 32

1. on the methodology of the social sciences (a collection of essays written between 1903 and 1917), with the protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism (1904 and 1905), and the economy and society: an outline of interpretive sociology (1922) being of his foremost systematic empirical sociological studies.

Question 33

what is Max Weber's contribution to the development of a systematic scientific methodology for sociology?

Answer 33

it includes the concept of rationalisation, verstehen ( this method is about studying social actions through understanding the motivations of people in particular context), ideal types and social action.

Question 34

sociology (max weber)

Answer 34

a science which attempts the interpretive understanding of the social action in order thereby to arrive at a causal explanation of its course and effects.

Question 35

what is social action about?

Answer 35

it is about the subjective meaning that people attach to their behaviour.

Question 36

what is the concept " ideal type"

Answer 36

it is the process of discerning the essential features of an empirical phenomenon.

Question 37

what is the element of an ideal type?

Answer 37

to be found in the real world, but the mental construct of that ideal type is an idealised conception of reality.

Question 38

what is the place where women attended the debating place and occasions?

Answer 38

salons > by the French. > it is a place where they could mingle with people and other social classes and engage in the enlightenment era debate.

Question 39

what did the women thinkers contribute to the enlightenment ideas about the need for a systematic science of human society?

Answer 39

their contributions were generally from a philosophical form of knowledge >they dealt with the problem of the subordination of women seizing upon the flourishing political philosophies about equality and advocated for their rights to education and political equality with men.

Question 40

define feminist sociology

Answer 40

a conflict theory and theoretical perspective which observes gender in relations to power.

Question 41

what are Harriet Martineau's writing collection about?

Answer 41

critiques of capitalism, the conflict between capitalists and labours, legislation about safety in the workplace, the stratification system in capitalist society, slavery, colonialism, poverty, the subordination of women, amongst several other areas of interest.

Question 42

what are the central factors in the shaping of South African society as well as several other parts of the world dominated by European colonial rules since the 16th century?

Answer 42

race, racial identity, racial domination and racial exploitation.

Question 43

what is the modern era, of European mercantile explorations to other continents and their colonial domination?

Answer 43

it is the period of the plunder of their wealth and its reinvestment in Europe. it is the period of social transformation Karl Marx called "Primitive accumulation of capital."

Question 44

where does pioneering sociological work on race relations come from?

Answer 44

it comes from William Edward Burghardt du Bois(1868-1963)

Question 45

how did WEB du Bois express the craft of sociologist?

Answer 45

in the following words: we must more and more school ourselves to the minute study of limited fields of action, where observation and accurate measurements are possible and where real illuminating knowledge can be had. > tis passionate defence of scientific rigour was inextricably linked to his political activism, particularly Black emancipation from racism, but also to class and gender domination and exploitation.