Sociological Perspective Of False Consciousness

Sociological imagination is the way in which individuals realize the connection between their own experience of reality and the experiences of society as a whole. This realization allows people to make sense of the world around them. When one applies sociological imagination, they are stripping their own personal experiences from their thoughts to analyze the social world around them. It allows one to understand different perspectives of the world without the narrow lens of personal experience and bias. This is extremely important in modern society. For instance, in politics, it is very important to hold back personal beliefs when it comes to law-making. A politician who refrains from applying her own moral beliefs to her political agenda in attempt to create a better society is practicing the use of sociological imagination. She removes her own personal views of the world in order to see society’s views as a whole, and acts accordingly. In other words, sociological imagination is “taking the role of the other” to gain a wider understanding of a perspective other than one’s own.

In terms of the social system and structure, a main change that altered the social structure was commercialization, which created a new social class, the proletariats, who suffered from poverty. Other notable social changes include the emergence of a European-style family, which emphasized the nuclear family structure, and intensified links between family and individual property, and the decline of influence of the Catholic Church, which cause a separation of peoples’ religious and daily lives. However, women maintained their low statuses as inferiors to men, and have fewer alternatives when Protestants abolished convents. In addition, although the Catholic Church lost its influence, the elite remained powerful and limited cultural movements, mirroring that of the Dark Ages but to a lesser extent because of the Enlightenment.

As the tenth century rolled about, the power of the Roman Catholic Church grew steadily stronger, the church had an argument with the normal Kingdom over who should rule supreme out of the Pope or the King, the church believed that the Pope who is the voice of God on Earth should be the ruler of the world while the peasants thought that the King should, the power struggle eventually ended with the Church coming out as the dominant force in the West. The Church passed a law that stated that everyone (mostly peasants) is forced to pay 10% of their income to the Church. The church had the ability to stop any laws that they did not like or make some new laws that benefited them, they were a very powerful group that could manipulate the peasants and knights in any way they liked, in Church there were photos of people being tortured in hell, this intensified the peoples longing for heaven and therefore extended the power and influence of the church. All Christians were expected to attend the mass and, by the 13th century, were expected to take the Eucharist at least once a year.

Towards the end of the Middle Ages and into the duration of the Renaissance, the Medieval Church’s social and political power dwindled. Centuries prior the Catholic Church gained a surplus of control, largely due to the stability it maintained during the chaotic breakdown of the Western Roman Empire . Yet toward the end of the Middle Ages the Church set in motion factors that would ultimately lead to its downfall as the definitive figure of authority. However, despite political and social controversy surrounding the church, the institutions it established cleared a path for a new way of thinking, shaping society in an enduring way.

Document 1) A: The Feudalism provided protection and military services for their families. Nobles agreed to give their loyalty to the king. As the peasants worked the land for the knights and nobles and which they gave to them was protection and a portion of the harvest to feed their families. Document 2)

Before the start of the Renaissance, the Catholic Church influenced every aspect of society. The Renaissance and it’s ideals changed this. The Humanist movement opposed the Catholic Church’s involvement in the lives of the citizens. Humanists advocated for personal independence and individual expression, an idea that directly opposed the Catholic Church’s ideals. The Church believed that citizens should dedicate their lives to the service of God and by extension, the Church. The introduction of the idea that the Church does not control every aspect of society was revolutionary to Early Modern Western Civilization because it allowed people to pursue things that they had not been previously able to pursue because of the limitations the Catholic Church placed upon them. Although only the wealthy were able to dedicate all of their time to these pursuits, there were still significant advancements in art, literature, and science, all of which impacted Early Modern Western Civilization.

The church ultimately took a back seat to wealth and political

Why do we own the Catholic Church for built the Western Civilization? Thomas E. Woods, Jr. stated in How The Catholic Church Built Western Civilization; that “The church, in fact, built Western civilization”(1). Rather than presenting a story of the Church 's history, Woods chooses a topical approach, but he does so focusing on the history of the Church before the understanding and the writings of Gibbon. He covers the Church 's very important role in the conversion of the dangerous, wild people; the importance of related to monks as a preserver of western city or people; the Carolingian Renaissance; the development of the university; the coming into view of the Scientific Revolution; the beautiful art and related to the beautiful design and construction of buildings, and many more of the very old time in history period; the rise of international law in the Catholic argues against over the nature of the soul after meeting American Indians; pre-classical money flow or money-based studies; generous kindness and organization that helps people; and sense of right and wrong. The Catholic Church 's influence on the formation of labor unions in the eighteenth century was extremely significant because it was the church and science that help change the production of labor the Western civilization. Most people do not realize is that history experts of science have spent the past half-century extremely revising this set of things that most people believe now, arguing that the Church 's

Althusser recognised that religion also plays a crucial role in communicating ruling class ideology to the masses. Relating back to Marx’s (1844) description of religion as ‘the opium of the people’. Acknowledging that the teachings of the church are imposed by the ruling class to allow for false consciousness as the church teaches the working-classes to comply with capitalism and provides measures to cope with hardship. Nonetheless, (Giddens, 1971. P: 7) claimed ‘the abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness’. However, ideology is necessary for social life. Regardless if a society has a class system the function of ideology allows for social cohesion (Rancière, 2011).

How did people prior to the Reformation Period even believed in the Church, when the leaders (Pope, Archbishops) of the same religion they followed that idealized poverty in their preaching (pg. 167) lived humongous castles and lived a life of luxury? Why did it take so long for nations to separate themselves from the Church?

The Church creates woe for citizens by acknowledging and advertising that earthly suffering is permissible because heaven grants rewards to faithful followers who do not complain (2). Since the Church bears so much influence and power, citizens feel they have no other choice but to follow the advice given to them. Many are probably so miserable that their only hope of

The agents of social control has changed drastically from premodern to modern times. It goes from the extreme of being runed by the church to being runned by the state and government. And I have discovered even the punishments from premodern to modern times are completely different also. In premodern times social control was ruled by the catholic churches and god. The people would respect their religious views and there rules of the church because they would take cruel measures when someone crossed them and their religious beliefs. The church would hang there people or burn them on a stake for their punishments. But in the beginning of the 16th century the church began losing its authority. “The Church began losing its ideological and political

In Europe, the long nineteenth century, (1789-1914) was a tumultuous era of political, economic, and social revolution which created an increasingly secular culture. Europeans of all races and classes looked outside the church to solve societal and familial issues. Gifted intellectuals proposed new philosophies on human thought and behavior, while innovative communication allowed ideas to travel quicker and easier than ever before. By the early 1800’s, Europeans began to question the role and necessity of the church and religion in their lives. Revolutionaries developed political and social

As industry was booming, the mass immigration into the cities proved to be hurtful for some parishes that did not have the space to hold many parishioners. Money from the upper class, however, erected new churches and places of worship, large enough and accommodating for most, but now discriminatory against the lower class. Religious leaders thought that lucrative churches would solve the economic problems of the time, but all it really did is widen the gap between social classes even more.[4] Religion was no longer about faith, but rather it became a business, aiding to the rich, taking from the poor. Karl Marx saw a need for equality without religious interference, and he expressed it in the Communist Manifesto, stating, “Society could no longer live under this bourgeois.”[5]

Consciousness refers to the human ideas, views and conceptions. Therefore false consciousness means misunderstood or misinterpreted ideas, views or conceptions. In capitalism, both capitalists and workers have incorrect assessments of how the system works and of their role and interest in it; this in itself is false