Summary of William Graham Sumn
Folkways, an essay compiled by William Graham Sumner, is a closely examined analysis of the inner-workings of society and why it works the way that it does. This particular essay has influenced many other philosophers/sociologists by the way we view the process of understanding rules and regulations set by society. Not just specific individual cultures around the world over the span of the era that humans have inhabited the Earth, but how we all act together to form what we call a "society." And that, even though most ethnocentric individuals in their own societies deny, we all work remarkably similarly when it comes to forming our own respective groups and intertwine them into the massive web of individual relations with each other to form the societies that we live in everyday. This essay is basically a description of how these rituals in human nature first developed and evolved into the complex ways that we all (as contributors to our respective cultures) work together to keep these same basic rules true to all have the same basic powers to collectively and equally work together to form the hierarchy of rules or "morals" and all follow the same ones to keep peace among ourselves to keep everyone in order so that the essent
So with the mystery of folkways unveiled, then the system of what Sumner calls "mores" can be seen and analyzed as well. "The mores are the folkways, including the philosophical and ethical generalizations as to the societal welfare which are suggested by them, and inherent in them, as they grow." "So the mores which have been developed to suit the system...have become the norm for the whole body of usages...Therefore the scientific discussion of a usage, custom, or institution consists in tracing its relation to the mores." And the understanding of these types of rules on society brings that if one follows their life under these restrictions, then everyone can work together to hold up their respective society. And what can be seen as the restrictions are simply: "'Good' mores are those which are well adapted to the situation. 'Bad' mores are those which are no so adapted." With all of these types of societal rules made, then it can easily be seen that the way it works is simply in order to make every possible act as efficient and logical to the specific situations, instead of all individually going towards everyone's own goals. This has been shown to be the most effective method of treating a large group of freethinking people and in that has been seen as the best way to treat each individual's "right" to act as they need to be. And when al of these points are set in order, then everything else falls together to the way it is working today in society, and thanks to William Graham Sumner, it is known exact
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Approximate Word count = 1028
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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