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There is somewhat of an agreed upon hierarchy in methods
indicating the authority
& acceptability of ideas / knowledge
Social Laws
Paradigms
Theories
Concepts
Hypothesis |
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Social Laws are the most widely accepted knowledge
They are felt to be absolute & irreversible |
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Today, there are no social "Laws"
But for each of us, behavior, beliefs, & ideology becomes so fixed,
that we act as if there are laws |
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The concept of the spirit as used by early social thinkers,
embodies Monte’s understanding
of
the distinctive character of a
system of laws |
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Montesquieu proposed FIVE Qualities of Social Laws |
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a. Montesquieu defined Social Laws as the necessary relations
arising from nature of things |
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b. Laws apply to nature & to people |
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c. Laws underlie all things, human, natural, & divine |
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d. Philosophy's task was to discover these laws |
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e. Laws about human nature were extremely complex
Hence the need for the scientific method & ideal
types |
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f. Knowledge of the laws would ease ills of society |
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Monte believed Customs emerge spontaneously while laws are estb
in a formal & explicit fashion |
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The law is also spontaneous/natural, but formal |
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Monte’s conception of Laws is itself ambiguous
because Laws can be at variance w/ what a society needs because of
the limits of human knowledge,
errors, & chance events
But Law's are universal,
but on there are no truly universal laws in society |
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We can reconcile this by recalling that there can be laws,
and/or ideal types which are generally true
But it is difficult to generalize,
so each must be tailored to fit the particular situation |
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Monte believes that Intellectual Freedom is intact despite the apparent
Determinism
implied by Social Laws |
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People are not passive creatures, evolving or developing automatically
We are active players who attempt to understand & influence our
env & ourselves |
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Reflexive Social Theorists, Post-Modernists do
not accept the existence of Social Laws |
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Monte’s ideas on intelluctual freedom are similar to many contemporary
social theorists
They try to bridge gap btwn social determinism & individualism |
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Anthony Giddens concept of reflexive
sociology
Economics: Rational Man Theory
Psych: the 100th Monkey Syndrome
Karl Weick's organizational theories
Post-Modernists |
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What all of these theories have in common is that:
- some people discovery a new relationship, principle or law in a particular
field
- people learn this knowledge at different rates
due to exposure, intelligence, access to power & resources..
- and then people act in accordance w/ this new knowledge
- which often tends to negate the original law |
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Thus social laws are laws so long as people follow them
- out of ignorance
- out of agreement
- from being forced |
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Thomas Kuhn: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: normal
research; and new paradigm research when the old paradigm becomes transparently
inadequate |
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