• Shuffle
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Alphabetize
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Front First
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Both Sides
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Read
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
Reading...
Front

Card Range To Study

through

image

Play button

image

Play button

image

Progress

1/99

Click to flip

Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;

Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;

H to show hint;

A reads text to speech;

99 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
  • 3rd side (hint)
What is Hegel's theory of history?
-Ideas move history. Hegel believes that history has a goal, a point, a teleology (wholeness, completeness: telos – goal or point). The goal of Hegelian history is perfect being, getting out of alienation. It’s progressive, linear, from less perfect to more perfect. At the end of history you will have the complete de-alienation of spirit.
-Thesis + antithesis = synthesis: positive encounters a negative, and that is what moves history on a level of ideas
None
What is the difference between materialist and idealist philosophy?
-Materialism – science based, even religion. What’s natural and can be proven. (Marx was a historic materialist).
-Idealism – idealist – god, spirits, supernatural. (Hegel was more of a idealist)
-Material drives the ideas that drive change. The material world changes as a result of those needs, wants. etc. vs. The changes in the world are driven by the ideas of man that come from something outside of man (spirit etc.)
None
Marx talks about the natural division of labor in the family. What does this mean? Division of labor is an important Marx concept. Give some examples of what he means.
The woman and children are the first level of private property for the man. Latent slavery is the first property of the capitalist man. Man owns his family as laborers. Marx considers this natural. The contradiction in his analysis is that he does not consider the mode of production to be natural but thinks the family structure unchangeable. This is discussed in the German ideology.
-Division of labor and private property are similar in that the family produces labor and the latter produces a product.
-Definition: Marx was talking about the division of labor WITHIN the family – ie, men always gather wood, woman always raise children. Women and children are latent slaves of the man.
-Capitalists don’t just buy the man’s labor, they buy the work of the woman at home too.
Divisions of Labor - Family is the first natural division of labor. Later in a higher developed capitalist system, the division of labor is seen in specialization of tasks in a factory. The way different labor is distributed in a society. example is the assembly line.
-Marx's Division of Labor: A social construction that arises with a separation of the industrial and commercial from agricultural labor and results when a division of material and mental labor appears. The division of labor determines also the relation of individuals to one another, their social interactions or separations. Although he speaks of the contrast between those who own and control the means of production, and those who work for them, he does not discuss it in the context of "dominion" as does Weber. Weber makes a distinction between "economic power" and "social honor"-not all those who are wealthy have social honor, according to Weber (p. 180). For Marx, social honor is not as important because those who control production control society. Weber's definition of class is helpful and is on p. 181. Also Weber talks about his idea of the division of labor in public and private enterprises on p. 197.
-Three stages of the development of the division of labor: Tribal societies, Ancient communal and state ownership, Feudal or estate, Capitalism
-What he calls the first natural division of labor takes place in the family. The wife and children are slaves to the man and his first property. Then it moves up the way that different tasks are given to different people in society. (assembly line)
None
What social valuations determine the price of the labor commodity?
-Population, size of IRA, demand for commodity, cost of labor, unemployment, market crash, your education, your dependents.
-What’s going on in society that has the power to cause wages to change - such as unemployment, race and gender rights, immigration laws, etc
None
What is the function of the superstructure according to Marx?
-Used to legitimize the base. Religious, cultural and political institutions or anything socially constructed derived from the base is the superstructure. The base generates the superstructure and then the superstructure returns to validate the institutions of the base.
-Anything socially constructed/derived from the base. The superstructure is education, family, mall media, politics, religions, etc. It is the culture of the economy the stories, myths, values, rationalizations, etc. It is manipulated by those in power to maintain the institution’s values – ie, women work for cheap, the rich dictating the values of the whole culture.
None
What aspects of society operate in the base?
-The mode of production i.e. Feudalism, Capitalism, Socialism, Communism. Mode of Production includes political system/ideology and who owns and controls to the means of production. Division of labor operates within the base. Anything that perpetuates the economy operates in the base. Banks, stockmarket, international trade organizations. Businesses in general
-The economic system that is the foundation of the rest of society.
-The division of labor operates within the base – the interaction of people producing the economic system – capital owners and laborers
None
What do feudalism, capitalism and socialism have in common?
-They are all modes of production. According to Marx, they are all comprise the base (as opposed to the superstructure). Give examples of how each functions
None
What is the difference between use value and exchange value?
-Exchange value is the cost of reproducing one worker in a 24 hour period and use value is based on the need/want of the commodity as determined by its the usefullness of its functions in society.
None
What is the difference between money and capital?
capital – The labor and its product – money is a symbolic means of exchange whereas capital is everything of value within an economic system – Money is a means of exchanging capital – money is a measure of the labor contained in commodities.
-Capital is the labor and its product. Anything that has value within the economy is capital.
-Money is currency – symbolic means of exchange. Money is only a measure of the labor contained in commodities.
-Money is a symbolic means of exchange whereas capital is everything of value within an economic system
None
How are the social relations of the production of commodities mystified under capitalism?
a commodity is therefore a mysterious thing, simply because in it the social character of men’s labour appears to them as an objective character stamped upon the product of labour. PG. 321- the sum total of all these private individuals forms the aggregate labour of society. Since the producers do not come into social contact with each other until they exchange their products, the specific social character of each producer’s labour does not show itself except in the act of exchange. The social relations are mystified by the fact that all the laborers in the process do not interact or minimally interact because of the compartmentalization of the process itself.
None
What is surplus value?
PROFIT, or the B to C part of the equation. The difference between the labor commodity and what it actually takes for the worker to work enough to produce enough money to pay for his wage/bring in enough to cover the money he earns.
None
How does the capitalist increase profit through absolute surplus value?
-the capitalist increase profit through increasing productivity of labor, this is done by shortening the the time to produce necessary labor. Pg. 418- turns exclusively upon the length of the working day; the production of relative surplus-value, revolutionizes out and out the techincial processes of labor, and the composition of society. Exchange value- what they need to reproduce themselves. Maximum hours you can work beyond the full number hours workable in a day. To minimize exchange value and maximize surplus value. 248, 514.
-What you can make in a 24 hour day by manipulating A-B-C – increasing productivity and maintaining or reducing cost
None
How does absolute surplus value differ from relative surplus value?
-379- absolute surplus value is derived from the prolongation of the work hours while relative surplus value is derived from the corresponding alteration of the two components of the work day, which necessary labor and surplus labor. Pg. 405- the use of machinery produces relative surplus value. However, machinery only increases productivity of labor by diminishing the number of workmen employed by a given amount of capital. Therefore, converts formerly variable capital to constant capital, and does not produce surplus value. Relative surplus value is how to contract AB. Increase productivity.
-Relative surplus value is how to contract A-B (decrease cost increasing productivity, IE, technology increasing what you can produce in 24 hours)
-Absolute surplus value – extending work hours
None
Who owns the means of production under capitalism?
The capitalist. The bourgeoisie owns the machines, factories, land, raw materals etc, which compose the means of democracy
None
Who owns the means of knowledge production under capitalism?
-the capitalists- super-structure and base- economy determines - ideological institutions- make natural and normal inequality. Those that dictate the education system owns the means of knowledge production.
-anyone who pays for the educational system dictates what is taught, or stands to profit from what is taught.
None
In Marx, the worker is considered a commodity. What does that mean?
-Laborer sells work hours, his body, his labor as his means of barter. As a freeman, he is alienated from the product and labor is sold as a commodity.
-The worker’s objectified labor has a value, and as such, is something that can be bought and sold as wage labor.
None
What is Marx's ethical framework?
Marx says people are endowed with reason and should thus be given right to vote and be educated and control their own lives within a system because of their endowment with the ability to think and reason. How should we live together in a manner that promotes full human flourishing? Everyone deserves the "good life". Every person is intrinsically rational and therefore deserves to live out his potential.
-We have reason, we should live a good democratic life, that is every person’s right. We should change social structures to that not only a small part of the population has the good life.
None
What are the ethics of traditional political economy, according to Marx?
What is Marx's ethical framework? Hegel's philosophy of right and consciousness as the essence of his labor (not alienated) 95 para 2, 98 7 criteria framework authentic man. pg 144-45, The task of philosophy is not simply to interpret the world but to change it. Feurbach thesis #11
None
What is Marx's position on religion?
-It’s the opiates of the masses. Religion will just disappear of its own accord, in the evolution of man, once inequalities and poor systems are eliminated.
None
Why does Marx say that Hegel’s system is “alienated thought”?
Pg 110 – Marx thinks that in Hegel’s ideas, man is alienated from the thought itself because it comes from somewhere other than man and nature – the ideas are estranged from the world.
None
What does Marx like about Hegel?
-Marx likes the dialectic process that Hegel uses to analyze society and its development. He likes the thesis + antithesis = synthesis structure.
None
In what ways is Marx a humanist?
-He has a great deal of faith in human beings – believes that man deserves the good life and can bring about positive change in the world. Believes that it is in man’s hands to make the change he requires. Agrees with Kant in that we are all rational
None
What does Marx like about Kant? What does he critique?
-He agrees that we are all rational. Critiques in that Kant gives too much credit to man and does not take into consideration the material conditions.
None
What does Marx like about Feuerbach? What does he critique?
They both believe that religion is a creation of man – the opiate of the masses. They are both naturalistic and positivistic. Marx believes that Feuerbach views human beings as too static. Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life. Critiques F’s collapsing of subject-object relationship into one.
None
Both Marx and Hegel operate with the concept of dialectics. How do they differ?
-Marx is historical materialism, Hegel is dialectical materialism.
-Hegel’s on his head. Marx: "My dialectic method is not only different from the Hegelian, but is its direct opposite. To Hegel, the life-process of the human brain, i.e., the process of thinking, which, under the name of "the Idea," he even transforms into an independent subject, is the demiurgos of the real world, and the real world is only the external, phenomenal form of "the Idea." With me, on the contrary, the ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human mind, and translated into forms of thought.
-Hegel is saying: thoughts create us. Marx: we create thoughts.
None
What moves history according to Marx?
-Class struggle move history – and that which lead to class struggle, which is alienation and the division of labor.
None
What is the difference between historical and dialectical materialism?
-Historical materialism is Marx – the social production of their life, men enter into definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will, relations of production which correspond to a definite stage of development of their material productive forces. The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic structural society, the real foundation on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness."
-Dialectical Materialism is Hegel – history is the product of class struggle. Thesis + antithesis = synthesis:
Historical materialism looks for the causes of developments and changes in human societies in the way in which humans collectively make the means to live, thus giving an emphasis, through economic analysis, to everything that co-exists with the economic base of society (e.g. social classes, political structures, ideologies).

Dialectical materialism is essentially characterized by the belief that history is the product of class struggle and obeys to the general Hegelian principle of philosophy of history, that is the development of the thesis into its antithesis
None
What are the productive forces of a mode of production and how do they determine historical possibility?
-Productive forces (forces that drive and dictate production): labor, land, resources (natural or manufactured), systems of co-operation/division of labor/fragmentation of work, population, competition, technology (machines), size of industrial reserve army, demand for commodity Production depends on every one of these factors, economy is shaped by the outcome of these factors put together and therefore the times historical possibility, its latency.
None
What are the four types of alienation that Marx describes?
-Four fold alienation:
--Product – you are alienated from the fruits of your labor
--Labor - no craftwork is left, only monkeys that operate a machine. The capitalist owns the means of production.
--Self - under conditions of one and two, whatever is essential of being human gets taken away from them. Industrial capitalism has mind-numbing psychic effects.
--Other people - become alienated from other human being due to competition. State of scarcity, clawing your way to gather a little of the limited resources. Dog eat dog world. Fear the IRA.
None
What is the relation between Marx's concept of alienation and his ethics?
-Marx says people are endowed with reason and should thus be given right to vote and be educated and control their own lives within a system because of their endowment with the ability to think and reason
-All people deserve the “good life” – ethical perspective o According to Marx, alienation under a capitalism system runs contrary to his ethical perspective.
None
How does Marx’s concept of alienation differ from Hegel’s and Feuerbach’s?
-Marx: we are alienated from what is important because of the mode of production.
-Hegel: alienation is inevitable, as men cease to recognize the object world as having been brought into existence by their own human activity and creation. We
-Feuerbach: contends that the idea of God is really just an idea of the human essence (the essence of religion is man’s estrangement from himself)…for when human beings create and put above themselves an imagined higher being, they are alienated from themselves.
None
How do Marx and Weber differ in terms of the original capital accumulation?
-Marx: Capital starts with monocausal commodities (congealed labor), gotten through greed and exploitation (war, plundering, etc)
-Weber: Capital starts with Protestant work ethic and overall multiple causality (piety, work ethic, frugality)
None
What aspects of Marx's project can be calculated formulaically?
-Workday: A – B – C (A-B is exchange value, B-C is surplus value)
-Exchange value: 365A + 52B + 4C / 365
-Barter: C – M – C
-Profit: M – C – M
-Profit: M-C-P-C-M
None
According to the Communist Manifesto, in what was the bourgeoisie a revolutionary class?
-Before Capitalism, in a Feudal system, the bourgeoisie was the revolutionary class clamoring for change, due to the fact that they were beholden to their lord for security, etc. They were oppressed by the aristocracy.
None
How do human beings transcend alienation in Marx?
-Eliminate alienation by:
--Eliminating capitalism
--Centralization
--Eliminating social classes and private property
--Suffering leads to a leap of consciousness leads to revolution
None
Why is commodity fetishism such a problem to Marx?
-It’s contrary to his ethics.
-Leads to alienation from the product. “If then the product of labor is alienation, production itself must be active alienation, the alienation of activity, the activity of alienation.” As a result, alienation causes unhappiness, stunted mental and physical energy, and “ruins [the worker’s] mind.” (page 74)
None
What does the worker have the owner of the means of production lacks? What does the owner have?
-The worker has his labor and knowledge of the production process
-The owner owns the capital as well as means of production
None
How does the original emmiseration of the worker occur in the transition from feudalism to capitalism?
-Alienation from the product and your labor as people become less artisans and more assembly line workers – you are less using your skill and more becoming a cog in the machine.
None
How important is agency in Marxist theory?
-Alienation from the product and your labor as people become less artisans and more assembly line workers – you are less using your skill and more becoming a cog in the machine.
None
What is the relation between ideas and modes of production, according to Marx?
Modes of production create ideas. The mode of production generates the socially generated institutions such as religion, politics, education, that then influence ideas that then turn around and cyclically influence history. It’s the historical conditions reflected in humans minds. The mode of production dictates the needs and wants in society, and it is the desire to fulfill those needs and wants that influence idea formation that move history.
None
How does Marx characterize democracy?
Democracy intrinsic to capitalism? According to Adam Smith, 3 things are important to make capitalism work. Those are 1) pirvate property, 2) free trade, 3) laize-faire government. These three concepts were not available in feudalism, and would not be the case in communism. However, you can have a "democracy" that doesn't have these three requirements.
It’s the political form of government that arose from capitalism, and it gave the necessary conditions to facilitate capitalism where people have complete control over their bodies, you have the ability to sell your labor (yourself). Democracy arose from capitalism, and then generates it. Given a capitalist mode of production, people will always struggle for democracy, because people want to feel that they have agency, and democracy is the form of government that allows them to have that, totalitarianism, monarchy, anything else, you don’t have that freedom, you are controlled without representation, you don’t have the autonomy, or the illusion of autonomy that you have in a democracy, because you have an opinion, and that opinion counts for something in democracy, people will always be struggling for it, in order to strive for an authentic life.
None
Why does the worker need to be “free” under capitalism?
Only a free man can objectify his own labor and sell it as a commodity because his objectified labor is his own private property to sell or trade or do whatever he wants with it.
So that he can sell his labor. Only a free man can objectify his own labor and sell it as a commodity because his objectified labor is his own private property to sell or trade, or do whatever he wants with. If you don’t own yourself, you can’t make profit off yourself. You can’t congeal your labor into a commodity unless you own the labor. Once you are owned your labor is owned.
None
How has the focus in Marxism changed due to world historical events (ie: Russian Revolution? European Facism
Before these famous historical events Marx characterized communism as the outcome of a revolutionary class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. He believed that communism or socialism were to come about once the means of production were nationalized and class division was done with. After the famous Russian revolution the focus on communism shifted. Lenin developed a political program called “Leninism” which called for a revolution organized and led by a centrally organized “communist party.” European Fascism shifted the focus in Marxism, because it universally dismissed the Marxist concept of class struggle, replacing it instead with class collaboration.
None
What other changes in capitalism have forced Marxists to retool their theories?
Fall of the soviet union. Capitalist bureaucracy maintains even under what was supposed to be communist failed because it allowed the rise of the bourgeois elite, other than the way he planned it to be. Forgot- the capitalist failure to manipulate the media. The Russian revolution- bourgeoisie and bureaucracy- a bureaucracy of their development
Allene - The fact that communism arose in an agrarian society rather than an idustrial society totally contradicted Marx's theory.
None
According to the Communist Manifesto, how does the bourgeoisie dig its own grave?
In the Communist Manifesto, Marx speaks about the bourgeoisie digging their own graves. In order to lay the groundwork for revolution, Marx argues that the bourgeoisies must chase the surface of the entire globe in order to find new markets. He believes that by establishing more and more connections, new markets and cheaper goods are found. So by “digging their own graves,” Marx is referring to the bourgeoisie looking for constant expansion.
None
According to Marx, how do capitalists get their original capital to invest?
-According to Marx, capitalists see workers as commodities or capital goods, equivalent to machinery or anything else that produces value. As such, workers are dehumanized and made as efficient as possible, through techniques like Fordism and mechanization. Capitalists only produce use-values because they are the material substratum, the depositories of exchange-value. Capitalists have two objects in view: first, the want to produce a use-value that has a value in exchange, that is to say, an article destined to be sold, a commodity, and secondly, he desires to produce a commodity whose value shall be greater than the sum of the values of the commodities used in its production. His aim is to produce not only a use-value, but a commodity also; not use-value, but value, not only value, but at the same time surplus-value. This is in regards to the production of a commodity
None
What is “leap in consciousness” according to Marx?
What causes a leap in consciousness is class struggle and suffering. People will not be able to see the system for what it is until driven by suffering to the leap of consciousness, when they will realize that they are completely alienated and unable to rise individually above the system, and that will lead to revolution. That realization is the leap of consciousness, and it will lead to revolution. It’s the point when people realize that they are being fucked over.
None
How does Christianity change to accommodate capitalism, according to Marx?
x
None
What laws change to allow for the functioning of capitalism?
Private property and civil law.
None
What is the essence of a commodity according to Marx?
“is a thing that satisfies human wants of some sort or another” (302). It has use value attached to its foundation and also exchange value, that it must be a substance of value. 304. it is the product of labor which is derived from the abstraction and materialization of labor.
None
How is consciousness determined for Marx?
the way in which consciousness is, and in which something is for it, is knowing. Knowing is its sole act. It then, knows the nullity of the object because it knows the object as self-alienation, that is, it knows itself—knows knowing as the object, because the object is only the semblance of an object” (117)
None
What kind of definition of ideology does Marx work with?
Historical materialism. Class struggle.
None
Who are the lumpen-proletariat?
The lowest, most degraded stratum of the proletariat. Used originally in Marxist theory to describe those members of the proletariat, especially criminals, vagrants, and the unemployed, who lacked class consciousness and is the underclass of a human population. It pertains to the "dangerous class" or the social scum. Among the members of this group are "ruined and adventurous offshoots of the bourgeoisie, vagabonds, discharged soldiers, discharged jailbirds .. pickpockets, brothel keepers, rag-pickers, beggars" etc. Marx does not consider this group to be of any importance in terms of potential for creating socialism, if anything they may be considered to have a conservative influence. steph:
Crack moms, welfare recipients, drugs dealers, thieves, prostitutes… the dregs of society. Part of the IRA.
None
What is the IRA (gives some modern day examples)?
Industrial Reserve Army – all of these people who could take your job, so you won’t complain, because you might end up with less. And you’re too busy trying to keep your job, so you don’t revolt. You don’t realize that others are feeling the same way you are, and you won’t gather together to fight.
Includes women, lumpen proletariat, foreigners
None
How does machinery affect the worker under capitalism?
It removes/alienated him from the craft of his work, makes him into a button pusher/switch puller. He becomes an appendage of the machine.
(T,A,N) By raising the productive powers of labour with the continual improvement and usage of machinery, it incrases division of labour which “enables the worker to do the work of five, ten or twenty” and the workers do not only compete by one selling himself cheaper than the other, they compete amongst themselves. (214) the result is that the more he works the less wages he receives … and in the last resort he competes with himself, with himself as a member of the working class.
None
Why does Black Elk criticize dialectical materialism?
e thinks that Marx’s DM is very ethnocentrically wrapped up in his European context – Marx’s concept of the dialectic is false because he’s not acknowledging connection to EVERYTHING, such as the people and world around you. one cannot be alienated if one is connected to the world, and application of a true dialectic vision is [part of] a potential solution to the problem of alienation.
-Black Elk assumes that by dialectical, Marxists mean the relational approach in interacting with each other. 1. first it is hypocrisy- the “amen”= all men relationship, too much influenced by the Christian church. Ignorant of other cultures such as the Lakota. Page. 148-9. one sided intercultural ignorance is the term used by Black Elk. Also the fact that they believe that religion is the “opiate of the masses.” Full of contradictions. “it does work thorugh the same logical systems as the bourgeois theorists it says it opposes by taking a cause and effect understanding to a problem rather than a truly relational approach” materialism is thus European religion.
None
What is Black Elk’s position on religion?
-Religion is oppressive, and a way for the ruling class to control the people.
None
What is Weber's methodological approach?
Multi-causality (as opposed to Marx where the economy is the base, period.). Different social factors that seem to be correlated to certain social phenomena. b. Weber’s method is value-free, objective, scientific c. The basis of the comparison is only text-based; he doesn’t actually do any fieldwork. He sits in his house and has panic attacks and writes about Western Capitalism.
None
How does Weber correct Marx?
Against Marx’s conception of religion as the “Opium of the Masses,” and the other superstructure areas. Religion changed capitalism, not the other way around (capitalism creating religion)
b. Weber says that Marx is wrong for saying that the base creates the superstructure and that the institutions are generated by the mode of production. Weber proposes that an institution was one of the main causes of a mode of production – capitalism. Protestantism is an institution, and it is one of the root causes of capitalism, which is a mode of production, therefore Marx got it wrong.
None
What is Weber's primary project?
o understand why capitalism emerged in the west instead of other parts of the world.
Sharon: Critique or the study of (analysis) of The Protestant Ethic. He basically became really enthralled with the sociology of religion, and spent most of his energy in this area. The Protestant Ethic in particular in the way that it supports the development of capitalism.
None
How does the Protestant Ethic support capitalism?
o understand why capitalism emerged in the west instead of other parts of the world.
Sharon: Critique or the study of (analysis) of The Protestant Ethic. He basically became really enthralled with the sociology of religion, and spent most of his energy in this area. The Protestant Ethic in particular in the way that it supports the development of capitalism.
None
How did the concept of calling/vocation link to Berufspflict?
This is the initial concept for the argument of the Protestant Ethic. He says that the idea of having vocation is a purely modern, and began when Luther translated the Latin Bible into German, at around the same time of the printing press increasing access of it to more people. He translated the Latin word vocatio (“call”) into the concept of a calling, and now it is a new concept that isn’t based on Latin or Greek. It’s the difference between “calling” and a “career” or “job.” In the Greek there was no such translation. It comes to mean more of “occupation” as opposed to calling to Christ. Now according to Luther, everyone has a calling, we’re all calling in whatever field we are in, as opposed to only certain people being “called” to god, everyone has a faith-based relationship with god, it’s very individualistic
None
Weber develops a theory of power. What does it consist of?
Three types of authority – charismatic, traditional, legal
-Biological materialism, real politik, and the role of intellectual
*Three types of authority:
*Charismatic – people conferring power onto a powerful, charismatic leader. Tends towards hero-worship, superhero status. An irrational, unstable form of authority -> what happened when the leader dies? The only way to sustain charisma is the routinization of charisma. Then it becomes less about the personal qualities of the leader, and more about certain set rules.
*Traditional – adherence to the ways of the past, traditions. “This is the way my ancestors did it, and I do it the same way.” Irrational, however it can be rationalized if it can be systemized.
*Legal – a stable, rational system. This is the future of capitalism, leading to more systemization and mechanization. Will eventually cause capitalism to self destruct because you need specialists to run it, and then you don’t have a democracy anymore.
None
What do Machiavelli, Hobbes, Nietzsche and Weber have in common?
-Biological materialists – believe in a will to power, a human need to control and dominate. It’s biological because it’s inherent to human beings to control. This need is biologically based. “Man is wolf to man.”
-Real Politik – the political system that goes along with biological materialism, the need to be in charge.
-Sharon: It’s a naturally competitive/aggressive world, and people are naturally (innately) aggressive and violent. It’s Dog Eat Dog World. The Ontology of Biological Materialism, as opposed to Marx who was a Historical Materialist.
None
What is the difference between class and status group?
-In class, weber is trying to disprove marx. Class is stupid and a lot more complicated than Marx gives it credit for. People are more than their toys and their bank balance. There are other determinants of status, such as education. People who are high status not because of their class, but because of their education. Status is more about conferred honor. People give prestige to certain groups because of their lineage, or their education, etc.
-Class versus strata
-Class is based on money, status is not necessarily.
-Sharon: A status group is “a group of people (part of a society) that can be differentiated on the basis of non-economical qualities like honour, prestige and religion. Weber says bureaucracy is the most powerful of all status groups” (Wikipedia). By contrast, Social class is determined based on an economically determined relationship to the market (owner, renter, employee etc.).
None
What is social or cultural capital?
-Nouveau riche-ness, your level of cultural eliteness. Factors that contribute to your social capital are the schools you went to, your social circle, the language you speak, manners.
Sharon: a. These are the definitions from wikipedia: i. Social capital: resources based on group membership, relationships, networks of influence and support. Bourdieu defines social capital as "the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition." ii. Cultural capital: forms of knowledge; skill; education; any advantages a person has which give them a higher status in society, including high expectations. Parents provide children with cultural capital, the attitudes and knowledge that makes the educational system a comfortable familiar place in which they can succeed easily. b. This is from my notes more or less: This is a concept articulated by sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Cultural capital is about more than just money. This is another mechanism of social reproduction, and its not just economic, its cultural. Cultural capital is a privilege that some people enjoy for having the right mannerisms, getting the right education, moving in the right social circle, speaking the right language, having the right religion, and being the right “race.” Although this is conceptually separate from economic capital, one could argue that the two are virtually impossible to separate. Generally the people who enjoy this privilege also happen to be those who have the highest socio-economic status in society, and they set the standards for what is “right” and what isn’t.
None
What is at issue in Weber's sociology of religion?
-To understand why capitalism emerged in the west instead. Is capitalism unique the west went or could it be recreated under other conditions?
None
Social cohesion is a major concept in Durkheim’s sociology of religion. How does it explain different rates of suicide?
One factor that Durkheim believes is behind different rates of suicide is the difference in social cohesion between groups. People need to be united with people. When social order is lost, they get depressed. They need a sense of community, of belonging. Relating to people in a unified way.
-Social cohesion is the “social” glue that keeps people together. Thinks we will always need social cohesion, and we will always have some sort of system in place to ensure this.
-Sharon: The stronger the social cohesion in a religious group, the lower the rates of suicide will be among that group of people. Low levels of social cohesion (or social integration – how attached you are to your group, which is what I keep finding it referred to as in different articles and such) result in a disorganized society, people feel lost and alone, and they have nowhere to turn.
None
Why does Weber study the city?
Weber studies cities because he thinks cities are the seeds of democracies. Certain cities, though, not all cities.
-He studies European cities and little towns/bergs where artisans go to own shops and become the petty bourgeoisie.
-Tara: Weber studies cities very closely because they have concentrations of social classes (ie. artisans) and can study the elements that contribute to the evolution of Capitalism. But he studies only certain types of cities (because he's ethnocentric) thus only studies European cities.
None
Which social group is crucial for the evolution of capitalism according to Weber?
Protestant Merchants and artisans – who became the petty bourgeoisie and then attained more control over gov’t and gained more rights. The Protestant work ethic encourages hard work, stoicism, and a deferred gratification which makes for an army of hard workers that complain little.
-Creates an ideology that God is making you successful, so you deserve the wealth you receive. If you’re poor, you must not be in God’s good graces.
None
Which group in China and India is comparable?
Buddhist and Hindus - Their religions are otherworldly – they eschew worldly government.
-Tara: Chinese Literati and Indian Brahmans.
-China: The Chinese Literati.
-India: The Brahmins in India.
-Both are responsible for their own cultures meaning production and respective social stratum. In Hinduism, you can be in any social strata, because its a religion. The Chinese Literati are Confusious and they carry the dogma of Confusionism - they are the bearers of the knowledge production in Confusionism, just like the Brahmins are the carriers of the dogma and the knowledge production, they are the intellectuals. THey maintain the class seperations. Class, strata, or caste seperations.
None
Why did capitalism not emerge in India accordin to Weber?
Major religion (Hinduism) eschew worldly government
-Caste system did not allow for class struggle or clashes of the class
-Tara: According to Weber, capitalism did not emerge in India because the controlling class and the bearers of knowledge production, the brahmans, were governed by an rigid caste system did not allow for growth outside of your born class. Also, cities in India were strictly divided so the social groups never intermingled thus the western idea of rights never emerged because the rigid structure of the cast system did not allow for class struggle or clashes of the classes.
As well as the primary religion, Hinduism, didnt believe in worldly possestions. Their priorities were not here in this world.
None
Why did capitalism not emerge in China according to Weber?
The carriers are the literati, men who are learned and do not work.
-Major religions (Buddhism, Confucianism) eschew worldly government
-Filial piety, ancestor worship. Ancestral lands make it difficult to alienate land.
None
Why is inheritance a major feature in the evolution of capitalism according to Weber?
You need to be able to pass on money, property, and status to your children to keep your family in your class. Important in maintaining both cultural and actual capital.
None
Weber distinguishes between three forms of legitimation of authority. What are they?
Three types of authority:
--Charismatic – people conferring power onto a powerful, charismatic leader. Tends towards hero-worship, superhero status. An irrational, unstable form of authority -> what happened when the leader dies? The only way to sustain charisma is the routinization of charisma. Then it becomes less about the personal qualities of the leader, and more about certain set rules.
--Traditional – adherence to the ways of the past, traditions. “This is the way my ancestors did it, and I do it the same way.” Irrational, however it can be rationalized if it can be systemized.
--Legal – a stable, rational system. This is the future of capitalism, leading to more systemization and mechanization. Will eventually cause capitalism to self destruct because you need specialists to run it, and then you don’t have a democracy anymore.
None
What effect does Weber’s typology of ideal types have upon a theory of history?
-(the act of theorizing when you create ideal types)
-it becomes a “filter” of history – limiting what you see in history to these types that you create.
-Example: history is less radically open ended as a result. More close-minded way of viewing history.
None
Weber is a pessimist. Why?
-He believes that only a select few will ever be happy.
-Bureaucratic systemization will increase, we’re all cogs in the machine.
-Believes we are destined for “The Iron Cage” – the future of capitalism, the bureaucratic mess.
None
In what way is Weber ethnocentric?
-He’s studying these other cultures and religions in order to better understand his own culture. He doesn’t really care about China, India, etc.
He still gives his own culture inherent superiority over the others he’s studying. Believed that rationality came from the west.
None
What does bureaucracy do to a democracy according to Weber?
-It will cause democracy to self destruct, because it cannot be maintained without specialists running the show, therefore becoming not a democracy anymore.
-See last page of Protestant Ethic
-Allene: pg 149-159, He believed rationality only came from the West and existed nowhere else. He goes further to claim that art, music, application of mathematics, architecture, and organization of the free labour all were rationalized in the West. He acknowledges these things existed in some form in other societies but his argument rationalizes the rise of capitalism is due to the rational thought that only existed in the West.
None
What is the essence of die entzauberung der welt or disenchantment?
The world’s secularization and systemization – the elimination of magic from the world’s occurrences. The system becomes so complex that alienation is inevitable.
-nan:“the elimination of magic from the world’s occurrences-, with the doctrine of predestination its final stage. Rejected all magical means to the quest for salvation as superstition and sacrilege” which results “spiritual isolation of believers, when combined with the harsh teaching that he body was separated absolutely negative position toward all aspects of culture and religion oriented to the sensuous and to feelings; they wer useless for salvation and they promoted sentimental illusions and idolatrous supersition” (60)
None
What is the difference between civil society and political society for Gramsci?
-Civil:
--Discipline of the mind
--Employs an Ideological State Apparatus (ISA) – the ones that really get into your mind – operate by persuasion:
---Religion
---Education
---Family
---Social adherence to laws

-Political:
--Discipline of the body
--Employs a Repressive State Apparatus (RSA) – operate by the fist:
---Police
---Prisons
---Military
None
How is Gramsci’s concept of hegemony different from Marx’s concept of false consciousness?
Capitalism, Gramsci suggested, maintained control not just through violence and political and economic coercion, but also ideologically, through a hegemonic culture in which the values of the bourgeoisie became the 'common sense' values of all. Thus a consensus culture developed in which people in the working-class identified their own good with the good of the bourgeoisie, and helped to maintain the status quo rather than revolting. The working-class needed to develop a culture of its own, which would overthrow the notion that bourgeois values represented 'natural' or 'normal' values for society, and would attract the oppressed and intellectual classes to the cause of the proletariat. For Gramsci it was fundamental to the attainment of power that cultural hegemony was first achieved. False consciousness is a Marxist hypothesis that material and institutional processes in capitalist society mislead the proletariat — and perhaps the other classes — over the nature of capitalism. This is essentially ideological control, which the proletariat do not know they are under.
None
In Gramsci, how do ruling groups gain the consent of the masses?
The hegemony that evolves from civil society gains the consent of the masses through laws and ideals.
-The hegemony that evolves from political society uses direct domination (police, jail, army, etc) to legally enforce the laws that have been consented to by the masses.
None
What is the Southern Question?
-Wants to unites the poor southern agricultural class with the proletariats so that they can see that their interests are similar, and not two totally different cultures at work
-The North concretely was an "octopus" which enriched itself at the expense of the South, and that its economic-industrial increment was in direct proportion to the impoverishment of the South. The ordinary man from Northern Italy thought rather that, if the Mezzogiorno made no progress after having been liberated from the fetters which the Bourbon regime placed in the way of a modern development, this meant that the causes of the poverty were not external, to be sought in objective economic and political conditions, but internal, innate in the population of the South.
None
What is the difference between common sense and the “good sense” in Gramsci?
-The starting point for good sense, according to Gramsci, is common sense. Good sense is common sense made critical. The goal is to align theory and practice. Everyone has their own perception of the world and you have to examine all the roots of people’s common sense and then refine it making it more critical in order to create “good sense”. He wanted to respect people’s common sense but wanted to evaluate it from a perspective of finding those things that are culturally specific. Euro-centric because it was still European ideology being proposed as the “good sense”.
None
Why did the communist revolution occur in Russia, according to Gramsci?
Didn’t have a very developed civil society. (Page 238)
--The means of being the leading group/hegemony was through political society (force)
--How do you persuade large masses of society to stay under your heel? You use force and they won’t fight back due to lack of civil ideologies.
--Once the state/civil society fell, there was no glue holding the political together.
-Large peasant culture that didn’t share much with the elites – no educational system to connect them
None
Why didn’t the communist revolution occur in Europe, according to Gramsci?
Civil society was so well developed that it was harder for socialism to catch on because their minds were dominated and persuaded by old, firmly entrenched institutions like an educational system, which allowed them to have their own folk cultures and values.
-For example, Germany -
--Nazism/Fascism happened
--They still needed to overturn aristocracy in Germany – the bourgeoisie was doing well
--Civil society held things together when the political fell apart
--Germans were late comers to nationalism - didn’t have the time span for democratic institutions to develop. Needed time to organically develop.
None
What is a passive revolution?
Working for reform within the gov’t – becoming a political party and fighting within the system instead of a bloody revolution. The communist party in Italy avoided a bloody fight by becoming an official party with members in parliament.
None
What is Gramsci's position on Fordism?
Fordism = the basic assembly line, more productive division of labor.
-He doesn’t think it’s so bad - because it frees up the worker’s mind to think and hopefully think of revolt. A more rational division of labor.
-For Gramsci, Fordism gives the worker time to think. Because it is so autonomic he realizes that he is getting no fulfillment in his work and this leads to his understanding of the fact that he is being subjugated by the system, a “trained gorilla”.
None
How does Fanon’s concept of civil society different from Gramsci’s?
anon’s concept of civil society is based on this process of colonization, of defiance against the settlers and the violence brought upon by the settlers for colonies, or capitalism. Gramsci, on the other hand, does not take into consideration of the third world countries since he focuses more on European countries and the development thereof. (Gramsci- 12, Fanon- never mentioned the concept of civil society, or even if does, portrays it in a rather negative light) Fanon explores the idea that civil society is as much a repressive part of the system as political society. It simply subjugates those outside of the norm, those colonized peoples, natives, who have been socialized as inferior by the social practices of the civil societal institutions.
None
How does this difference affect Fanon’s revolutionary strategy?
that force and violence cannot bring about the proper change that we want to see in the world, he argues that “this huge task wich consists of reintroducing mankind into the world, the whole of mankind, will be carried out with the indispensable help of the European peoples, who themselves must realize that in the past they have often joined the ranks of our common masters where colonial questions were concerned. To achieve this, the European people must firest decide to wake up and shake themselves, use their brains, and stop laying the stupid game of the sleeping beauty.
None
How is Gramsci’s method different from Marx and Weber’s?
-Different things can happen at different moments but it’s important to have preparation and organization. Marx says that it’s about class struggle and “the natural processes of history”.
None
How does Gramsci’s view of history differ from Marx’s?
That it essentially “results from the organic relations between State or political society and ‘civil society’”; whereas marx recognizes history as a constant struggle between the classes.
None
What is an organic intellectual?
Organic to class – organicity, overlapping experience between their own group and another. Mediate a world view, and bring it back to their group/apply to their group.
-Someone who comes form the subaltern class, organizes, and helps their own class. Someone who doesn’t forget where they come from – reaps the benefits of society but doesn’t assimilate to the bad side.
-A member of a social group who uses his “common sense” to critically mediate the worldview of his group.
-CREATES COUNTER-HEGEMONY.
None
Does an organic intellectual need to also be a subaltern?
-No! Organic intellectuals can be organic to any group.
-What counts is the organic connection to a group that makes them capable of mediating a worldview that makes sense to their group.
-nan: Page. 14-15- the distinction between organic intellectual and traditional intellectual. The traditional intellectual functions like a subaltern officer who has no autonomous initiative in elaborating plans for construction. Their job is to articulate the relationship between the entrepreneur and the instrumental mass and to carry out the immediate execution of the production plan decided by the industrial general staff, controlling the elementary stage of work. so basically, the answer is no.
None
Why is it important for Gramsci to not dismiss religion?
Religion is a part of the folk culture. It’s a powerful source of subaltern knowledge that can be made critical.
-Gramsci was very impressed by Catholicism’s ability to hold the masses. Gramsci said that Marxism, in order to supersede religion, would have to appeal to the masses the way religion does, transcending the theoretical only accessible to the educated few. For Gramsci, Marxism could supersede religion only if it met people's spiritual needs, and to do so people would have to recognize it as an expression of their own experience.
None
How does Gramsci's concept of an intellectual differ from Weber's concept of status group?
Gramsci was not a snob – you don’t have to be classically educated to be an intellectual
-Weber – elitist, a snob. All about power and status – only a learned few are intellectuals. Ie, Chinese literati.
-nan: Gramci's concept of an intellectual: Anybody is an intellectual, and you don't need to be classically educated. Weber's concept of status group: Only the elite few educated can be considered intellectuals and thus be of a higher status like the Chinese Literati
None
Who is Gramsci’s “modern prince” and how does this prince differ from Machiavelli’s?
-The modern prince is the communist party to Gramsci, as opposed to
-Communism is geared towards a democracy and not a totalitarian leader like Machiavelli’s prince.
-Drawing from Machiavelli, he argues that 'The Modern Prince' - the revolutionary party - is the force that will allow the working-class to develop organic intellectuals and an alternative hegemony within civil society. Machiavelli says that the prince is the single strong ruler who creates a successful society whereas Gramsci says the “modern prince” is the revolutionary party composed of the organic intellectuals that lead the revolt.
None
How does Gramsci's theory of hegemony differ from Weber's theory of power?
Weber, pessimistic - Dog eat dog world – real politik – there will always be a ruler and a ruled.
-Gramsci, optimistic – “sure that’s the way it’s been, but it doesn’t have to be that way. We can change it, create counter-hegemony.”
-Weber says we consent to the authority of those in power, being ruled, by the three methods: Charismatic, traditional, legal. Whereas Gramsci says we consent to being ruled because the ruling group uses its authority to influence the institutions of civil society to indoctrinate the ideology that legitimates those rulers.
None