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 Outline on  Social Laws
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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
 
The concept of the spirit as used by early social thinkers,
       embodies Monte’s understanding of
       the distinctive character of a system of laws
Montesquieu proposed FIVE Qualities of Social Laws  
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  
  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  
The End