SOCIOL 1 Study Guide - Spring 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Sociology, Variety Show, Social Fact
SOCIOL 1
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
4.2.18
Introduction Quote Analysis
- “Let us return once more to the image of the puppet theater...we see the puppets dancing
on their miniature stage, moving up and down as the strings pull them around, following
the prescribed course of their various little parts. “
- Metaphor: everyone has a role to play
- “We learn to understand the logic of this theater…”
- We begin to understand why people do what they do, why people act as they do
- “...and we find ourselves in its motions...for a moment we see ourselves as puppets
indeed.”
- We can relate, and take on the role of the other
- We can get lost/ believe that our lives are like those puppets
- May feel this way in daily life
- Pushed, pulled in one direction as we go through our daily existence by forces we
cannot control
- “But then we grasp a decisive difference between the puppet theater and our own drama.
Unlike the puppets, we have the possibility of stopping our movements, looking up and
perceiving the machinery by which we have been moved. In this act lies the first step
towards freedom. And in this same act we find the conclusive justification of sociology.”
- Distinct difference between our lives and the puppets
- We are human beings, for good or bad
- We can sense, perceive, think
- As humans, we can see those forces by which we have been moved
- We can see how the world that exists outside of us get into us
- We can see how forces out of ur control end up controlling us
- Seeing that machinery by which we are pushed and pulled in our daily life
(identifying those forces), we can then take action
- Puppets cannot, they are slaves to their puppet master
- Act of looking around and perceiving
- Peter Berger, Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective
What is Sociology?
- Sociology
- Invented by French guy Auguste Comte
- Coined in the 1830’s
- In intellectual terms, much older than that
- Old as ancient times, as far as our minds can think back into historical
times
- When humans first started questioning our collective existence
- Early modern interest and modern force that can ban people together as
distinctive families, communities, peoples, and nation-states
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- Sociology as academic field of study
- Much newer
- Trace formation as an academic disciple to the late 19th century (1800s)
- First US institutional base at University of Chicago (1892)
- (1893) Sociology instituted at Columbia University
- Sociology happens in ALL places across the globe
- In some form or another has been happening for generations
- Draws on inquiry, questioning about the nature of human relationships, of groups,
of communities, of publics, of politics
- Naturally linked to issues studied in other disciplines
- Political science
- Economics
- Philosophy
- Religion
- Anthropology
- Psychology
- Marked by an engagement with projects of social reform (improvement)
- Always understood itself as a science
- Society as an object under investigation
- New inequalities have arisen
- Fear of immigrants, crime
- Challenges made through idealized version of family life and morality
- NOTION OF SOCIAL ORDER
- Enduring issue in sociology
- Sociology took shape in times of war, and economic booms/ recessions,
migrations, expansion of empire
- Sociologists interested in how these people were organized/ causes and
consequences of these large-scale changes in society
- Sociologist advocated for social science as a means of social improvement
- Could improve relations between people
- ideas could positively influence laws and public policy
- Positive contribution to our civil society
- Sociology as a whole continued to be shaped by the dual objective
- Scientific enterprise
- Committed to social reform/ betterment
- Class will expose us to the fundamentals of sociology and how sociologists think
about society
- Central debates that organize sociological thought, key concepts that
sociologists use to think about society
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Let us return once more to the image of the puppet theaterwe see the puppets dancing on their miniature stage, moving up and down as the strings pull them around, following the prescribed course of their various little parts. Metaphor: everyone has a role to play. We learn to understand the logic of this theater . We begin to understand why people do what they do, why people act as they do. And we find ourselves in its motionsfor a moment we see ourselves as puppets indeed. We can relate, and take on the role of the other. We can get lost/ believe that our lives are like those puppets. May feel this way in daily life. Pushed, pulled in one direction as we go through our daily existence by forces we cannot control. But then we grasp a decisive difference between the puppet theater and our own drama.
