SOCI-1015EL Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Lewis H. Morgan, Noam Chomsky, Auguste Comte
16 Jun 2018
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March 29, 2018!
SOCI1015!
Social Change and the Future!
•Society is continually changing !
•Social change is defined as the adjustments or adaptations made by a group of people in
response to a dramatic change experiences in at least one part of their lives!
•Today we see rapid social change, particularly in the area of technology !
•Five interpretations of Social change!
•Modernism!
•Views society as advancing along a straight path !
•Holds that change equals progress, and that what is modern or new will automatically
be better than what it is replacing !
•Auguste comte saw positivism as an aspect of modernism !
•Social darwinism posits that societies naturally proceed from simple complex and
only the strongest triumph !
•Herbert Spencer coined the phrase “survival of the fittest” in his application of
darwinism to societies !
•Lewis Henry Morgan argued societies progress through three distinct stages:
savagery, barbarism, civilization !
•Up the the mid-20th century, modernism entailed the belief that science and
technology would created a better world !
•Firm belief unpolitical progress!
•however, Noam Chomsky has argued that modernism has a narrow vision stating
“whatever innovation benefits the dominant class is justifiable on the ground of
progress” !
•Critics of modernism note that science and technology have created as many
problems as they have solved (eg) pollution, work, stress)!
•Conservatism !
•Views social change as potentially more destructive than constructive, especially in
emotionally charged areas of life such as family, gender roles, sexuality, and the
environment !
•Belief that change is not always for the best, and that in fact it is more important to
make sure something (values) stay the same !
•Belief that societies change in predictable cycles, also called the cycle of civilization
(greek and roman empires)!
•Critics of conservatism note that conservatives are apt to use the slippery slow
argument !
