Term
The sociologist Émile Durkheim stressed that interactions between people
can have "vivifying" effects. Asch would agree with Durkheim about this |
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Definition
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Term
Asch says that social psychology should remove the "veil of self-evidence"
from the interpretation of people's actions. |
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Definition
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Term
Asch says that "dependence" is a brute material fact, not a matter of
psychology or mutual understanding. |
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Definition
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Term
Asking and answering test questions would count as social action by Asch's
definition. |
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Definition
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Term
Asch says that psychological theory has always stressed the reciprocal
character of social action. |
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Definition
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Term
Asch says that the notions of "imitation and suggestion" once enjoyed a
near monopoly in the field of social psychology. |
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Definition
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Term
Sympathy, for Asch, consists of experiencing an emotion identical to one
we see someone else experience |
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Definition
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Term
For Asch, preoccupation with our OWN emotion is the first step in social
perception |
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Definition
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Term
Asch says that retaliating against an aggressor is no different than BEING
an aggressor |
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Definition
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Term
| Asch does not believe that people always imitate others. |
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Definition
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Term
| For Asch, there are great differences between individual and social effort |
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Definition
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Term
Asch would agree that, by working, people change the world around them;
but he would deny that, by working, people change themselves. |
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Definition
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Term
Asch disagrees with those who consider work to be the "formative principle"
of societies. |
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Definition
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Term
When two people carry a couch into a dormitory, their joint effort embodies
what Asch calls a "unity of action." |
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Definition
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Term
Cooperating on a common project is, for Asch, "strictly unlike" what each
participant would do singly. |
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Definition
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Term
Asch says that the accomplishment of a "bucket brigade" is ultimately
"more than and different from" the sum of individual efforts by brigade
members. |
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Definition
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Term
| Asch calls hunting a classic example of purely solitary individual effort. |
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Definition
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Term
| Cooperation, for Asch, is when everyone does the same thing |
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Definition
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Term
Asch would regard the case of two boys carrying a log that neither could
carry alone as an example of the "simplest form" of cooperation. |
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Definition
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Term
Asch says that perfect knowledge of the members of a group, as private
individuals, would enable us to accurately predict the group's actions. |
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Definition
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Term
In a footnote, Asch says that cooperation involves mutual understanding,
but that competition does not. |
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Definition
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Term
Asch would regard basketball as a kind of competition within a wider
framework of cooperation, in which two teams cooperate to compete. |
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Definition
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Term
It would be mistaken, Asch holds, to claim that successive generations
"cooperate" with each other. |
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Definition
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Term
| Asch says that a dollar bill is a "social thing." |
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Definition
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Term
Objects have properties only in themselves, Asch says, NOT in their
"relation" to us, as well. |
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Definition
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Term
Facebook, iPhones, 120 Budig, and the Space Shuttle would all count, for
Asch, as objects designed for specifically social aims and uses. |
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Definition
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Term
Asch says that chemical analysis cannot tell us whether a gold bar is
OWNED. |
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Definition
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Term
Ownership, money, price, profit, contract, credit and debt are all examples
of what Asch calls economic facts, NOT social facts. |
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Definition
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Term
Asch says that only objects made by people can be social facts. This would
include houses and tenement buildings but not sunlight, airwaves or clouds. |
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Definition
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Term
Asch says that our status, in society, as husbands, wives, parents and
children, is NOT fully determined by biological differences or relations. |
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Definition
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Term
| Mauss says that many societies have flourished without a notion of money. |
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Definition
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Term
For Mauss, the key issue is when and how the idea of money originated in
the first place. |
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Definition
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Term
Mauss was inspired to analyze money by documents published by German
missionaries. |
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Definition
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Term
| The Ewe concept of Dzo means “magical thing” or “magical deed.” |
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Definition
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Term
| Mauss says the concept of dzo is NOT linked to pearls or cowry shells. |
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Definition
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Term
| In Melanesia, Mauss says, the word “mana” is directly linked to money. |
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Definition
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Term
Mauss says that “mana” and “Manitou” were originally mispronunciations of
the English word “money.” |
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Definition
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Term
| Mauss defines “potlatch” as a ceremonial meal served on a carved log |
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Definition
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Term
Mauss believes that the SYMBOLIC power of sacred talismans made them
suitable to represent BUYING power as well. |
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Definition
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Term
| Mana, according to Mauss, means magical power, NOT human authority. |
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Definition
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Term
Talismans have been used by tribal chieftains to compel underlings to serve
them. |
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Definition
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Term
Mauss says the prestige of talismans allows their owners to exert authority
over others. |
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Definition
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Term
Mauss regards the value of gold as inherent in gold, not in people’s ideas or
attitudes. |
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Definition
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Term
| Delafosse disagrees with Mauss about the meaning of dzo. |
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Definition
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Term
Seashells have been valued highly in many places, including Ecuador,
Australia, and Africa. |
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Definition
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Term
| Mauss regards expectations as a major form of collective social thought. |
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Definition
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Term
| Mauss disagrees with economists who say expectations can be quantified |
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Definition
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Term
Mauss says that, in tough economic times, people tend to save rather than
spend. |
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Definition
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Term
| Oualid disagrees that herds of animals have ever been used as money. |
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Definition
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Term
| Oualid argues that belief is an individual rather than a social phenomenon. |
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Definition
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Term
Picard says gold may have prevailed as the leading form of money partly
due to its actual physical properties, not just its alleged magical properties. |
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Definition
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Term
Pirou says that a “realistic” theory of money must focus exclusively on
material forms of money. |
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Definition
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Term
Pirou says that (except for economists) most people continue to believe
that gold coins are intrinsically valuable in themselves. |
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Definition
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Term
| Pirou agrees with Keynes that gold is an outdated fetish. |
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Definition
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Term
Mauss says that most salt in Africa is produced by cooperative labor under
benign conditions in easily worked, easily accessible salt marshes. |
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Definition
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Term
Cohen says that, like gold or silver, salt rods can be divided into many
small units of value. |
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Definition
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Term
| Even rifle shells and cartridges have sometimes served as money. |
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Definition
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Term
| Simiand stresses that social realities are more than just collective. |
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Definition
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Term
| Simiand dismisses the significance of psychological factors altogether |
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Definition
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Term
For Simiand, the value of money would be better understood if we reduced
it to something material, like wheat. |
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Definition
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Term
La Boétie says that the “great misfortune” of being ruled by a single master
is that he can be arbitrary and cruel rather than kind. |
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Definition
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Term
La Boétie says that we should not be “amazed” when a people, defeated in
war, surrender submissively to an oppressive elite; that is simply a hard
necessity. |
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Definition
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Term
Only a “great personage” of rare foresight, solicitude, and boldness would
be someone whom the public could prudently and habitually obey, La
Boétie says. |
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Definition
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Term
La Boétie calls cowardice the “monstrous vice” which leads “a million men,
a thousand cities” to accept serfdom, slavery, and worse from a tyrant. |
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Definition
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Term
La Boétie says that tyrants fall when people simply refuse to obey them any
longer. |
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Definition
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Term
Children naturally obey their parents, La Boétie says, but adults naturally
obey reason. |
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Definition
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Term
People are intended by nature, La Boétie says, to attack each other like
armed robbers. |
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Definition
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Term
La Boétie says that elected rulers who become tyrants are no better, and
often worse, than tyrants who are born to power or conquer it by force. |
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Definition
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Term
People “born under the yoke,” La Boétie says, know nothing else, and
accept their subjection as natural -- when in fact it is not natural. |
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Definition
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Term
La Boétie cites the Venetians as an example of a people who lost their early
love of liberty and became utterly devoted to serving the Grand Doge. |
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Definition
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Term
| La Boétie says that variations in climate render people either fit or unfit for subjection. |
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Definition
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Term
| Custom is, La Boétie says, “the first reason for servitude.” |
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Definition
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Term
Even when multitudes dislike a tyrant, La Boétie says, they may refrain
from rebellion because they don’t realize that others share their feelings. |
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Definition
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Term
La Boétie sympathizes with anyone who plots against emperors, even if
they are motivated only by the wish to become emperors themselves. |
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Definition
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Term
| La Boétie sees no point in overthrowing a tyrant if tyranny is retained. |
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Definition
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Term
La Boétie says that people who accept subjection to a ruler fight with great
courage, if not for themselves, at least for their rulers. |
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Definition
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Term
La Boétie does not say that submission is literally an “instinct,” but he does
say that tyrants seeks to make a submissive attitude “instinctive” among
their subjects |
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Definition
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Term
Dictators are seldom secure until they have eliminated those “of any worth”
who could challenge them |
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Definition
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Term
“Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown,” as Shakespeare wrote. La
Boétie would disagree, arguing that even tyrants have little to fear from
their people. |
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Definition
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Term
La Boétie laments how readily the public accepts dishonorable bribes and
insults. |
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Definition
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Term
La Boétie says that even unjust rulers often give their people more they
ever take from them. |
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Definition
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Term
La Boétie says that tyrants often buy the loyalty of their people with acts of
seeming generosity -- but that this generosity is really just a matter of
returning to the people a fraction of what the tyrant had previously taken
from then. |
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Definition
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Term
La Boétie says that the Romans never forgave the tyrant Nero for his
crimes. |
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Definition
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Term
| Julius Caesar was a rarity, La Boétie says -- a praiseworthy tyrant. |
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Definition
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Term
It is often said that Nero bought public loyalty with “bread and circuses.” La
Boétie makes a very similar point, though in different language. |
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Definition
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Term
Abraham Lincoln famously said that you can’t fool all of the people all of the
time. La Boétie would have regarded this as naive and wrong. |
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Definition
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Term
Even superstitious peoples have seldom been gullible enough to imagine
that a king could have miracle-working power in his big toe |
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Definition
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Term
La Boétie praises the Spartans for rejecting Persian offers of power and
privilege. |
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Definition
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Term
Salmoneus, according to Vergil, found it both profitable and pleasurable to
impersonate Jupiter. |
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Definition
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Term
La Boétie says it would be “presumptuous” of him to accuse the French of
believing in myth and magic as the ancients did. |
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Definition
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Term
Tristan says that she was the very first writer to call attention to the
poverty and wretchedness of the working class. |
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Definition
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Term
Tristan estimates that 40-50 million working class members in France
are “exasperated” by suffering and despair. |
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Definition
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Term
Tristan advises the workers to wait patiently for the government to
consider and heed the justice of their demands. |
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Definition
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Term
Tristan says that workers are guaranteed neither employment nor
benefits. |
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Definition
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Term
The “general union” that Tristan proposes would not be limited to
workers of a single trade. |
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Definition
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Term
For Tristan, one key role of the Workers Union would be to provide
institutional care for the young, the old, and the disabled. |
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Definition
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Term
Tristan is pleased that the Irish, “the poorest people on earth,” paid a
salary of two million per year for a dozen years to “one man alone.” |
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Definition
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Term
The anarchist Peter Kropotkin later became famous as an advocate of
“mutual aid.” Tristan advocated something similar. |
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Definition
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Term
Tristan feels that the best way to reach workers is to improve their
literacy by increasing school funding. |
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Definition
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Term
Tristan regrets that French workers have failed to produce any literature
of their own. |
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Definition
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Term
For Tristan, poverty is the true and “only” cause of the evils afflicting the
workers. |
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Definition
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Term
Tristan agrees, in Note 2 at the end of Ch. 1, that the Saint-Simonian
phrase “the most populous and poorest class” is just as good a definition
of the working class as her own definition. |
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Definition
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Term
Small, face-to-face groups, Tristan says, are the only associations that
give workers a chance of escaping poverty and ignorance. |
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Definition
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Term
Tristan says that, realistically, we can only hope to address the workers
material problems, not their psychological or moral problems. |
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Definition
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Term
The full unity of the workers, Tristan says, is “too beautiful” to be
possible, and must be rejected with the “icy words” of realism. |
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Definition
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Term
| For Tristan, in society, “true power” is “the one money grants.” |
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Definition
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Term
Tristan sympathized with the Irish in their struggle with their colonial
conquerors, their British “lords and masters.” |
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Definition
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Term
The Charter of 1830 omits one essential right, Tristan says – the right to
work. |
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Definition
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Term
Tristan says that workers who demand jobs and the right to organize
will win a fair hearing even if they speak as private individuals. |
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Definition
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Term
Even the most perfect book, Tristan says, cannot produce positive
results all by itself. |
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Definition
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Term
Tristan says that the destructive power of the French revolution of 1789
was actually quite small and limited. |
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Definition
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Term
Tristan says that the French bourgeoisie was too timid to fight for its
rights against the privileges of the nobility. |
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Definition
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Term
| Tristan says that the capitalists use their power to regulate food prices. |
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Definition
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Term
| Tristan advocates what she calls a “humanitarian” point of view. |
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Definition
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Term
Tristan praises Louis Blanc for defending the working class and
upholding the “necessity” of labor organization. |
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Definition
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Term
Prosper Enfantin committed many errors, but Tristan credits him with
saving and re-energizing the Saint-Simonian school. |
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Definition
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Term
| The only fair wage policy, Tristan says, is to pay everyone equally. |
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Definition
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Term
In England, according to Note 1, charitable societies have virtually
eliminated poverty |
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Definition
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Term
Tristan says that absolute dominion over passively obedient followers is
no longer assured. |
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Definition
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Term
Tristan asks her “brother” workers to carefully consider how women’s
concerns affect their own material interests. |
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Definition
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