sociology

A detailed Summary of sociology


So if individual and cultural development are in opposition to each other and each has its own conscience, where does that leave us? As civilization becomes more complicated and absorbs more of our life and through Freud one can see that indeed it is the society whose conscience comes first over the individual. Sociologist Max Weber used the relationship between society and the individual to explain the evolution of capitalism in terms of social development. A value system that was originated in Christian ascetic idealism, gradually found itself becoming embedded into Western society (Gramsci's HEGEMONY). This system of values, or rationalism, was based on concept of a "peculiar ethic", which Weber identified as "an economic spirit, or the ethos of an economic system." (Weber, 27.) It is this spirit that has embodied society and it is thi


s spirit, rather than the will of the individual, that wields the weapon of capitalism. "Thus the capitalism of to-day, which has come to dominate economic life, educates and selects the economic subjects which it needs through a process of economic survival of the fittest." (Weber, 55.) Regardless of who accepts or rejects this economic system imposed by society, those who posess the instinct to survive will have no choice but to accept it. While this religiously-influenced economic system may have once been desirable, Weber now labels it an "iron cage." In essence, the conscience of society has superceded that of the individual. "The Puritan wanted to work in a calling; we are forced to do so. For when asceticism was carried out of monastic cells into everyday life, and began to dominate worldly morality, it did its part in building the tr

Some common words found in the essay are:
Gramsci's HEGEMONY, Protestant Ethic, Weber Freud, Max Weber, , economic system, Freud Weber, protestant ethic,

Approximate Word count = 569
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

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