Sociology
Chapter 1
* Sociology helps people gain insight into themselves and into society, so they can live more satisfying, self-determined, and responsible lives * Paying attention to and making sense of the social world in a sociological way = being sociologically mindful * To be mindful of a thing is to see and appreciate its unique qualities. Ex: mindful of a person = beyond stereotypes and prejudices * People have to be understood in terms of ideas, feelings, desires, bodies, and habits * Sociological mindfulness = practice of seeing how the social world works * Mindfulness helps us see how our lives are intertwined and how our words and deeds help or harm others in nonobvious ways. Ex. racism * Failing to be mindful = diminish or own and others’ chances of living good lives * Mindfulness can help decrease the amount of hatred and conflict in the world * American individualism inhibits sociological mindfulness because it prevents us from seeing our interdependence with others
Chapter 2
* Shared belief is enormously consequential along side shared ideas * The social world is made of: patterns of activity; without ideas we would have no society * The social world depends on ideas invented by human beings * Reasons why the social world is durable: 1. People refuse to doubt the ideas that hold it together 2. People hold tightly b/c these ideas tell them right from wrong 3. Ideas allow people to feel good about themselves * Most ideas exist only in people’s heads, or are embodied in habit; the invisibility of the ideas that hold the social world together is part of what makes it seem so real. * Invisible b/c they are built into habit. Ex: brushing teeth. Guiding ideas are still there, but only visible as habits * Someone finds a solution to a problem, other people see that it works and adopt it, and eventually the solution becomes “what everyone does” * Every society is built on a set of
* Sociology helps people gain insight into themselves and into society, so they can live more satisfying, self-determined, and responsible lives * Paying attention to and making sense of the social world in a sociological way = being sociologically mindful * To be mindful of a thing is to see and appreciate its unique qualities. Ex: mindful of a person = beyond stereotypes and prejudices * People have to be understood in terms of ideas, feelings, desires, bodies, and habits * Sociological mindfulness = practice of seeing how the social world works * Mindfulness helps us see how our lives are intertwined and how our words and deeds help or harm others in nonobvious ways. Ex. racism * Failing to be mindful = diminish or own and others’ chances of living good lives * Mindfulness can help decrease the amount of hatred and conflict in the world * American individualism inhibits sociological mindfulness because it prevents us from seeing our interdependence with others
Chapter 2
* Shared belief is enormously consequential along side shared ideas * The social world is made of: patterns of activity; without ideas we would have no society * The social world depends on ideas invented by human beings * Reasons why the social world is durable: 1. People refuse to doubt the ideas that hold it together 2. People hold tightly b/c these ideas tell them right from wrong 3. Ideas allow people to feel good about themselves * Most ideas exist only in people’s heads, or are embodied in habit; the invisibility of the ideas that hold the social world together is part of what makes it seem so real. * Invisible b/c they are built into habit. Ex: brushing teeth. Guiding ideas are still there, but only visible as habits * Someone finds a solution to a problem, other people see that it works and adopt it, and eventually the solution becomes “what everyone does” * Every society is built on a set of