The Sociological Imagination - The Promise.

(Charles
Wright Mills)
Wednesday, January 15, 2020 8:32 PM

People's lives are a series of traps

1. Who is the author?

2. What was the first assumption told by the text?

The seemingly impersonal changes in the very structure of continent-wide
societies
3. Explain the seemingly impersonal changes described in the book

People do not define the troubles they endure in terms of historical change
4. Expound on what the author meant by people not defining their troubles?
The Earthquakes of Change is too massive for the unprepared man
5. Say something more about the shaping of history paragraph other than
The very shaping of history outpaces the ability of people to orient themselves the header
in accordance with cherished values
6. How does information overwhelm a person's capacity to assimilate it?
Information overwhelms a person's capacity to assimilate it

What is needed is the clearness of the mind to assimilate the information and 7. How do you attain this clearness of mind?
develop reason to summate and interpret events

Sociological imagination allows the reader to understand the large historical 8. What more does sociological imagination allow the reader to do?
scene in terms of its role in inner life and the career of individuals
9. Why is it exactly dubbed "sociological imagination" - is it fictional?

The first fruit of imagination - is that the person can predict his/her fate by 10. Expound on this -
identifying the era one is living in.
11. Expound on this
Sociological Imagination allows us to understand history, biography, and their
interplay.
12. Apply this to the Philippine context of the drug war
Social studies are completed by solving the problems of biography, history, or
their interplay.
Guide questions:
1. What is the structure of this particular society as a whole?
2. Where does this society stand in human history?
3. What varieties of men and women prevail in this society and in this period?
Whether focus is either a great power state or a literary mood, these questions are
thematically used by the best sociological analysts.
13. Why?
Through this is what it means to grasp and understand what is going on in the world -
the sociological imagination is the most fruitful form of self-consciousness.

Perhaps the most fruitful distinction of the sociological imagination is between 14. Expound on this with the examples given in the book -
the "problems of the milieu" and the "public issues of social structure"
Troubles are with people (milieu)
Issues are with social structure

War, unemployment, marriage, and the metropolis are examples of concepts that
have trouble and issues

In so far, the problems of each of these concepts are unsolvable by a singular entity.

What we experience is caused by structural changes, and to understand the

15. Why is structure responsible? Expound.
changes of many personal milieux, we are required to look beyond them.
To be aware of social structure and to use it sensibly allows the tracing of linkages 16. What does it mean to possess sociological imagination -
among a great variety of milieux. To be able to do this is to possess sociological
imagination.
Sociological imagination, like how the cover of the 40th anniversary version depicted, is the ability to relate
how one's personal social environment relates with the overall structure of society.

Sociological imagination is one of the most profound forms of self-consciousness - it allows man to provide
adequate summations, cohesive assessments, and comprehensive orientations by linking what happens with
16. Does this simply mean look and blame society for every err one has in
oneself to the biographical and historical nuances of the society he/she is under. in response to the influx of
one's life? Why or why not? Expound.
information and the massive changes that have left most powerless and clueless. It is, in short, the awareness
of the linkage between personal experience and the wider society.

SUMMARY:
People often believe that their lives is a series of traps, but what is missing is the ability to identify what makes
things problematic; this is inhibited by the influx of information that overwhelms any ability for a clear mind to
assimilate knowledge and form a concrete solution. To combat this, one must be able to relate the intricacies of
social structure to explain the problems of the smallest units of society - this is sociological imagination.

17. What is the grand theory?

THE GRAND THEORY

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things problematic; this is inhibited by the influx of information that overwhelms any ability for a clear mind to
assimilate knowledge and form a concrete solution. To combat this, one must be able to relate the intricacies of
social structure to explain the problems of the smallest units of society - this is sociological imagination.

17. What is the grand theory?

THE GRAND THEORY
All values have a reference point

ABSTRACTED EMPIRICISM 18. What is abstracted empiricism?

Is the act of focusing one's mind on one specific nuance of an action - which is characteristically opposite of
the methodology of social science.

TYPES OF PRACTICALITY 19. What is practicality?

We cannot state a problem unless we know/recognize what the problem is - the ability to do this
depends on one's interest.

Men are often not interested to what interests them; men are not as rational as social scientists believe them
to be.

To determine the existence of a conflict, and after, sorting out facts from values is one 20. What are the types of practicality? Explain them.
of the main tasks of social scientists. Thus, values are involved in the selection of
problems we study.
Practicality - a way of assessing a problem

Liberal Practicality - events are caused by a plethora of causes - both big and small
Illiberal Practicality - there is a focus on one aspect - to make the workers intelligent, the
manage must be intelligent.

BUREAUCRATIC ETHOS 21. What is bureaucratic ethos

If we expect immediate results from studying social sciences, we corrupt its natural
cause. The empirical sciences took centuries, while social sciences is trying to keep up
with the rapid and ever-changing society
Bureaucratic ethos is a philosophy characteristic of using social science as an organized and collective study as
a way to improve the operations of organizational work to generate pleasing returns to the collective involved.

PHILOSOPHIES OF SCIENCE

THE HUMAN VARIETY

Social science is about human variety - the collection of different social worlds men 22. What is human variety?
have lived and to understand them in an orderly way

USE OF HISTORY
The perils of a historian's interpretation makes the field of history the most theoretical 23. What is the use of history?
of social sciences. Knowledge of history is indispensable. Social scientists understand
the current epoch and find its place within the grand history of societies.

ON REASON AND FREEDOM

24. Explain this chapter.
The understand nature of human nature
To understand human thinking and their freedom (the ability to formulate choices, choose, and act on them)

On Politics
25. Explain this chapter.
Social scientists always have the prerogative not to be biased by events or
others' opinion; they can interpret sociological phenomenon with their own
meanings.
Final questions for social scientists:
a.) Morally autonomous?
b.) morally dependent on other men?
c.) Morally adrift

Three overriding moral ideas in social science

a.) The value of truth (in a world of widely communicated nonsense)

To practice social science is to practice the politics of truth

Facts are of political and moral significance; social scientists must be wise in
choosing between enlightenment and obscurantism
b.) The value of human reason (are these truths applicable/relevant to human affairs)

c.) The value of human freedom

Reason and freedom are proclaimed values from the Western world, but they often are debated
upon in policy making. It is the job of the social scientist to clarify both of these ideals.

If human reason became THE central value - then social scientists have a gigantic role
for they epitomize this value with understanding society.

So conceived, fate is not a universal fact, but a product of a historically - specific social
structure.

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 structure.

The post-modern climax of three agencies: in economics, politics, and violence, are
centralized in the USSR and the US. Thus, it is imperative to question whether the fate
of most (by their ability to make history) is under their control such that these
agencies are becoming more and more centralized.

It is ironic that the values of reason promulgated by Western societies that have
promised to give all men the ability to shape history (and thus society as studying it
requires an imperative criticism of the interlace of history and biography), is now
inaccessible and is collapsing towards Western societies.

It is also ironic that the foreseen intellegentsia ideal supposed to be realized by

continually using reason is almost non-recognizable today. Decisions of power are
often held away from freedom of information and freedom of intellect.

The indifference of the modern intellectuals towards officialdom catalyzes politics to

remain empty - without much provision of alternatives nor contention of policies by
those of power. HAVING ACCEPTED THE VALUE OF FREEDOM AND REASON, it is the
prime responsibility of social scientists to elucidate the limits of human freedom and
human reason.

No one is outside society - just outside of the power to be shaping history.

The social scientist's role is to transcend his milieux - his own social reality - to offer
solutions, and this is done by being aware of the occurring social structures

Problems of the role of reason in history:

1. The ability to transcend their everyday milieux by their reason and experience
2. The ability to act in consequence to prevailing themes, through their power.

Most social scientists have the awareness - but have to accept the fact that they don't
have the power. But they do have one fragile "means of power"
To the powerful, he informs them of their responsibility and accountability on such policies through
educating them on the decisions he did and did not make.
To the who are powerful, yet not aware, he educates them on the consequences of his actions and
keeps them responsible and accountable through the same methodology.
To the both powerless and unaware, he reveals how social structure relates to his life

Social scientists cannot really fully effectively communicate with those in power and
those in power only see them as tools

It is the job of the social scientists to be able to meld together what interests men and
what is in men's best interests.
The upholding of a collective structure is a hard avenue when trying to uphold integrity.
As social scientists, we locate ourselves - it is the political task of social scientists to translate personal issues to
public issues.

On being human:
What does it mean to be human?
Being human may mean being able to assimilate information and respond with respect to integrated or encultured
values or beliefs. This notion explains the latent effect of human societies coming together to form belief systems.
However, human nature, in my opinion, is distinct from being human. Human nature is the human tendency to
interpret and act on differences either through reconciliation or retaliation. This is evident in all scales: from simple
clashing of philosophies between friends to the formation of massive allegiances forming countries. ed by differing
value systems. The interpretation of brain-dead beings being human is a stipulation of a formed principle of human
nature: that those who are biologically human should still be treated with dignity.
n - to be human Ability to organize belief systems
Ability to argue
Men are divided, given this fragmentation the human nature tends to the reconciliation of these fractures.

Human beings are beings that are able to affect the development of their psyche through their consciousness. Thus,
being human means having possessed a consciousness overpowering natural selection in controlling one's fate. With
this, humans beings have enjoyed definitions beyond what is biological

Humans are beings that are able to augment or halt their personality development on top of the natural
development processes biologically occurring within them. With conscious development taking reigns over the
natural evolutionary process, humans enjoy definitions beyond what is biologically human - with a complex
phenomenon known as human nature. The species capable of exhibiting this nature has the ability to recognize the
fragmentations in societal structures, belief systems, and physical reality and reconcile them to piece together o
model of subjective benefit; morality, perseverance, and wit have been key models that propel the augmentation of
the human character, and thus, human nature dictates values or actions that are good to the human as human.

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