
Individuals • In order to coordinate and cooperate, people need to understand each other • This requires communication
Communication • Ants communicate via pheromones • E. O. Wilson • Bees communicate via elaborate dances • Von Frisch • Humans communicate principally through language
The importance of common language • Communication facilitated by common language • The Tower of Babel
Genesis 11 (King James Version): 11:1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 11:2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 11:3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. 11:4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 11:5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 11:6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. 11:9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
Insufficiency of common language • Shared language is essential • But it is not enough
Insufficiency of common language • Language offers a means of describing objects and feelings • Without common knowledge, no understanding • Cricket vs. baseball • But the meaning given to objects is variable
For example • Weights and measures • Currency • Time (the calendar)
For example • What is the meaning of a coke bottle to you? • What is the meaning of a coke bottle to the people in the movie “The Gods Must Be Crazy?”
Meaning, cont’d • What is the meaning of an apple to you? • What is the meaning of an apple to • Snow White? • A teacher? • A Kazakh? • An American?
Meaning, cont’d • Meaning affects how people behave • Lack of shared meaning may create conflicts
Explaining meaning • If shared meanings matter so much, then we need to explain them
Marx • What is Marx trying to explain? • Shared meaning: consciousness/ideology
Marx: Cause • Men differ from animals in that they produce their means of life • What individuals are corresponds with what they produce and how they produce it • The production of ideas and concepts flows from man’s material activity and commerce
Marx: Cause • Cause: The mode of production • What we produce and how we produce it
Marx: Causal Relation • Mode of Production Ideology
Marx: Mechanisms/Assumptions • People are malleable • Not innately “good” or “evil” • Rather, we change depending on our material world
Marx: Draw the theory Mode of Production Ideology
Marx: How do we know if the theory has merit? • Look at the empirical world
Empirical implications • Ideals of sharing should be more pronounced in societies dominated by big game hunters than in those dominated by gatherers of salmon and berries • Groups that participate in the global economy ought to see things differently than those that engage primarily in subsistence agriculture (see work by the Norms and Preferences Network)
Durkheim • What is Durkheim trying to explain? • Religion/Beliefs • Why some objects/actors/ideas are viewed as sacred • So, Outcome = Beliefs
Durkheim, cont’d • Religion involves sacred things • Sacred versus profane • Sacred things • Set apart by a peculiar attitude of respect toward them • Totem • Profane things • Defined by their intrinsic properties
Durkheim on ritual • Rites are the actions that are performed in relation to sacred things • Without knowing its beliefs, the ritual of religion is incomprehensible • You cannot understand rituals by invoking instrumental logic • Rituals are symbolic • Rituals are indicative of the existence of common values in a society
Where do notions of sacredness come from? • Society • The intensity of social interactions So, Cause = Intensity of Interaction
Durkheim: Mechanism/Assumption • Social interaction produces emotion • Sense of obligation • General efferverscence • People have the desire and capacity to attribute cause • They attribute their strong emotions to the divine
Durkheim • Thus strong emotions generate religious beliefs and sentiments
Durkheim • In turn, beliefs affect behavior • Individuals living in moral harmony have a sense of confidence • Individuals act in accordance with their beliefs • Contradictory beliefs are held at bay
Durkheim: Draw the theory Intensity of social interaction Belief Individual action consistent with belief
Durkheim • How do we know whether the theory has merit? • Look at the empirical world
Fleck on scientific facts • Durkheim: religious and political concepts have social roots, but scientific concepts are universal • Fleck: scientific concepts are also social constructions
Fleck, cont’d • Research findings only become scientific facts via extended social negotiation • ‘thought styles’ • Cf. T. S. Kuhn: ‘paradigms’ in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1970)
The case of syphillis • 15th c: syphillis first described. Cause: the product of a particular astrological configuration on 11/25/1484 • 21st c: syphillis caused by the bacterium Spirochaeta pallida
One-sex vs. two sex model • From ancient Greece to the 18th c, men and women were regarded as having the same type -- a male type -- of body • Females thought to have the same reproductive organs as men, only turned inside out (Laqueur 1990) • 18th c. onward: prominence of the ‘two-sex’ model
Fleck: Cause • Networks of interaction
Fleck: Outcome • ‘thought collective’ • ‘thought style’
Fleck: Mechanisms • Communication, misinterpretation • Because we can’t see inside each others’ heads, communication is imperfect • Furthermore, people have ideas when interacting with each other that they wouldn’t have had otherwise
Fleck: Draw the theory Networks of interaction Thought style
Fleck • How do we know if the theory has merit? • Look at the empirical world
Mead • Not only are ideologies, beliefs, and scientific facts socially constructed, so is the individual • We know who we are only by understanding how others see us • We take on their attitudes towards us
Mead • The unity of the ‘self’ comes from membership in social groups • We can only be ourselves if we are members of a group
Mead: The generalized other • We not only take on the attitudes of others towards us. We also take on their attitudes towards activities. • Only when people take on the same attitudes towards social activities is it possible to organize social life
Mead • For Mead, the problem of social order is like a game • The problem is making sure that everyone knows the rules of the game
Mead • Example: The game of baseball
The game • Once everyone knows the rules of the game, they behave accordingly • When people take on the attitudes of the community, then in some way their behavior is dictated by the group • Note that individuals direct their own behavior because they have internalized the attitudes of the group
Mead • In summary • Cause = social roles
Mead: Mechanisms • People put themselves in the shoes of the other and imagine what the other’s expectations are • People generalize those expectations • People internalize those expectations
Mead • Outcome • Internalized attitudes