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2700:2025:1 [2025/02/23 15:40] – Ryan Schram (admin)2700:2025:1 [2025/02/23 16:13] (current) – [References and further reading] Ryan Schram (admin)
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 > [Man in the state of nature is] satisfying his hunger under an oak, quenching his thirst at the first stream, finding his bed at the foot of the same tree that furnished his meal; and therewith his needs are satisfied. (Rousseau [1755] 1964, 105) > [Man in the state of nature is] satisfying his hunger under an oak, quenching his thirst at the first stream, finding his bed at the foot of the same tree that furnished his meal; and therewith his needs are satisfied. (Rousseau [1755] 1964, 105)
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 > The first person who, having fenced off a plot of ground, took it into his head to say this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society. (Rousseau [1755] 1964, 141) > The first person who, having fenced off a plot of ground, took it into his head to say this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society. (Rousseau [1755] 1964, 141)
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 > [Ironically, uniting as a group to restrain individuals] was, or must have been, the origin of society and laws, which gave new fetters to the weak and new forces to the rich, destroyed natural freedom for all time, established forever the law of property and inequality, changed a clever usurpation into an irrevocable right, and for the profit of a few ambitious men henceforth subjected the whole human race to work, servitude, and misery. (Rousseau [1755] 1964, 160) > [Ironically, uniting as a group to restrain individuals] was, or must have been, the origin of society and laws, which gave new fetters to the weak and new forces to the rich, destroyed natural freedom for all time, established forever the law of property and inequality, changed a clever usurpation into an irrevocable right, and for the profit of a few ambitious men henceforth subjected the whole human race to work, servitude, and misery. (Rousseau [1755] 1964, 160)
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 ===== The idea of a social “science” is a break with normative inquiry into society and politics ===== ===== The idea of a social “science” is a break with normative inquiry into society and politics =====
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 ==== tl;dr Durkheim creates an empirical social science to replace normative theories of society ==== ==== tl;dr Durkheim creates an empirical social science to replace normative theories of society ====
  
-For Durkheim,+These are Durkheim's principles:  
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 +  * Society is a **thing //sui generis//**. It causes itself. 
 +  * A society is **a whole** which is greater than the sum of its parts, like a **big brain** that thinks for you. 
 +  * A society is like an **organism**. The parts of society work together to sustain the life of the whole. These parts are **functionally interconnected** (like the gears of a machine). 
 +  * A society’s own normative ideas about how to live (its social norms) are not deliberate choices or designs. They are constructs of a collective mind. 
 +    * Observers need to look for evidence of them in the data of people’s behavior; we aren’t here to debate the people we study. 
  
-  * society is a thing //sui generis//. It causes itself. 
-  * a society is a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts, like a big brain that thinks for you. 
-  * a society is like an organism. The parts of society work together to sustain the life of the whole. These parts are functionally interconnected (like the gears of a machine). 
  
 Although Rousseau and Durkheim have different purposes, I think Rousseau’s ideas have had an important influence on empirical theories of society. More on that later… Although Rousseau and Durkheim have different purposes, I think Rousseau’s ideas have had an important influence on empirical theories of society. More on that later…
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   * A society cannot in fact be based on an agreement between two or more people.   * A society cannot in fact be based on an agreement between two or more people.
   * To have a contract between two people (or among a group of people), the people have to already know the same things about a contract.   * To have a contract between two people (or among a group of people), the people have to already know the same things about a contract.
-  * There is a noncontractual basis for any contract, so there can be no truly social contract (É. Durkheim [1893] 1933, 206–7).+  * There is a noncontractual basis for any contract, so there can be no truly social contract (Durkheim [1893] 1933, 206–7).
  
 ===== Durkheim says that subjects are not autonomous individuals. We are all homo duplex. ===== ===== Durkheim says that subjects are not autonomous individuals. We are all homo duplex. =====
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 The default assumption that each of us is an autonomous, rational individual is only partly true. The default assumption that each of us is an autonomous, rational individual is only partly true.
  
-  * We each have a dual existence. We are two minds in one brain (E. Durkheim [1914] 2005, 36).+  * We each have a dual existence. We are two minds in one brain (Durkheim [1914] 2005, 36).
   * We experience the world as individuals, but there is another kind of subjectivity we have on the other side of a curtain in our brains.   * We experience the world as individuals, but there is another kind of subjectivity we have on the other side of a curtain in our brains.
   * We are never consciously aware of the thinking in the other mind. It is a thinking mind without an individual self.   * We are never consciously aware of the thinking in the other mind. It is a thinking mind without an individual self.
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 ===== Breaching experiments ===== ===== Breaching experiments =====
  
-Harold Garfinkel asked his students to conduct “[[:breaching_experiments|breaching experiments]]” as a way to “[make] commonplace scenes visible” (Garfinkel 1967, 36).+Harold Garfinkel asked his students to conduct “[[:breaching_experiment|breaching experiments]]” as a way to “[make] commonplace scenes visible” (Garfinkel 1967, 36).
  
   * Students went home on the holidays and pretended that they were staying at a bed and breakfast as a paying guest.   * Students went home on the holidays and pretended that they were staying at a bed and breakfast as a paying guest.
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 ===== References and further reading ===== ===== References and further reading =====
  
-Durkheim, Emile. (1914) 2005. “The Dualism of Human Nature and Its Social Conditions.” //Durkheimian Studies / Études Durkheimiennes// 11: 35–45. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23866721.+“Chocolate Is the Most Popular Ice Cream Flavor.” 2018. YouGov. July 11, 2018. https://today.yougov.com/consumer/articles/21153-most-popular-ice-creams. 
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 +Durkheim, Emile. (1893) 1933. //The division of labor in society//. Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press. http://archive.org/details/divisionoflabori0000unse.
  
  
-Durkheim, Émile. (1893) 1933. //The division of labor in society//. Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press. http://archive.org/details/divisionoflabori0000unse.+———. (1914) 2005. “The Dualism of Human Nature and Its Social Conditions.” //Durkheimian Studies / Études Durkheimiennes// 11: 35–45. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23866721.
  
  
2700/2025/1.1740354040.txt.gz · Last modified: 2025/02/23 15:40 by Ryan Schram (admin)