Analyse and evaluate the relationship between religion and social change
Analyse and evaluate the relationship between religion and social change A hot sociological debate is the relationship between religion and social change. Sociologists have long been divided on the issue. Sociologists such as Weber and Parsons believe religion is a force for social change whereas others like Marx and the postmodernist Bauman believe religion is not a cause for social change. Sociologist Weber argues that religion encourages social change. Weber wrote the protestant ethic about Calvinism. Calvinism were a group of people who valued working for money and any money they earned they put back into their own business. The Calvinists also believed that they were the chosen and elect ones who believed they were the only ones going to heaven. Weber called this the spirit of capitalism. However Karl Marx argues against Weber and instead says that religion is a conservative ideology that prevents social change. Weber says that religion disguises inequality and creates a false sense consciousness for the working class. Religion also maintains the status quo and the interests of the ruling class rather than for everyone. This is very much the opinion of every Marxist due to the fact that Marxists believe that religion is beneficial to the ruling class and no-one else. Marxists argue the fact that religion can just be used to dull the pain of oppression and is the
Empiricism Vs Rationalism
Empiricism vs. Rationalism Epistemology is the study of knowledge, what knowledge is, what we can know and how we can know it. The two main parts of Epistemology are Empiricism and Rationalism. The disagreement between rationalism and empiricism is the way in which we gain knowledge. Rationalism is a theory that reason is the basis of all certainty of knowledge whereas empiricism is based on the principles that all knowledge comes from experience especially that from our senses and that the knowledge we acquire is the basis of our understanding. Rational knowledge occurs in any situation where we are taught something. Impersonal or propositional knowledge are examples of rational knowledge for the reason that through both logic is used to acquire knowledge. Rational knowledge requires the mind to be active in gaining knowledge whereas experience is downplayed. Decartes is a key rationalist thinker. Empiricists share the view that there is no such thing as innate knowledge, and that instead knowledge is derived from experience either sensed via the five senses or reasoned via the brain or mind. A key Empiricist is John Locke. Each theory, however, has a problem of knowledge because you can never solely have empirical or rational knowledge. This essay will explore the arguments for each theory in turn. The fundamental idea of Empiricism is that we can only be sure of
To what extent does voting by ethnic minorities reflect the voting behaviour of the whole electorate?
To what extent does voting by ethnic minorities reflect the voting behaviour of the whole electorate? In present day there are currently 12 ethnic minority MP's in parliament, all of who belong to the Labour party. Ethnic minority groups tend to be part of the immigrant population and so are more likely to belong to the working class and so have a stronger party identification with labour. This can be shown in the 1997 general election in which 70% of Asian voters and 86% of Black voters voted for labour. The difference in the two could be to do with the fact that Asian people in particular have been very successful in Britain with setting up businesses so in the 1997 elections the 25% of Asian voters that voted for conservative didn't feel the effect of Black Wednesday as significantly as the rest of the electorate. In the opinion poll of the above source after labours first term in government 84% of black voters & 80% of Asian voters said that they preferred the labour government. This could be to do with the fact that one of the conservative policies in 2001 election was immigration, which led to a stronger party identification between ethnic minorities and the labour party. However although ethnic minorities tend to have a strong partisan alignment with labour they have a low voter turnout. However in the 2001 election Britain saw the lowest voter turnout since 1918 with
What is sociology?
Samantha Clarke What is sociology? Sociology is the study of how society is organised and how we experience life. Sociology examines how our behavior individually and in groups is influenced by social processes and what that means. Sociology studies people in their everyday environments at every level. Sociologists study a variety of things including human interaction which means people’s behavior with others in any situation for example, a teacher with their students. These interactions and roles lead to social institutions such as family or mass media. These institutions all form the social structure which is linked to the way in which a whole society is organised. Sociologists have advanced theories about how society works, this is due to the fact that it is a controversial issue where sociologists have different opinions and so different perspectives about how society works. Sociology involves looking at social trends and patterns of behavior e.g. different behavior’s in a classroom and different explanations for things. Within sociology, there are many different theories created by sociologists such as Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and Karl Marx, who all worked in the 19th / early 20th centuries. Emile Durkheim believed that sociology was a separate science from other subjects and should concern itself with the scientific study of social facts. Max Weber was
