Berger and Luckmann

Berger and Luckmann's research is centered on the social creation of reality. They argue that commonsense beliefs, rather than specialist or scientific knowledge, should be the emphasis of belief sociology. Human beings create and preserve reality on both an individual and societal level. Internalization, in which man functions as a social product, externalization, in which society is a social product, and objectivation, in which society is an objective fact, are all processes in reality construction. According to Collins, there is a dialectical relationship between oppression and activism. She provides practical methods for Black feminism's empowerment, as well as other social justice projects. Collins believes that knowledge is essential for for the empowerment. She further insists that change is necessary and possible. Gorski claims that the civil religious traditions of America was as a result of the synthesis of the prophetic religion along with civic republicanism or prophetic republicanism. He claims that the vital center of the human life is the prophetic republicanism.

Response to question 2

Pateman presents a critical historical juncture in the development of the modern thoughts of feminism from which many feminists have emerged. The juncture involves an ultimate and critical evaluation of the contemporary universalism along with the visions of equality, freedom and emancipation generated by the universalism. However, she rejects the universalism arguing that it is false since it excludes the women. Pateman addresses the version of modern universalism is identified with the contemporary contractualism and its founding myth of the social contract. The difference in sex appears irrelevant to the capacities required to enter the contractual relations within the liberal version. Arendt argues that the fundamental condition for the existence of humanity is the active life or vita activita. The essential categories of active are action, labor and work. Labor includes the activities that sustain the human life while work refers to all things done by the human beings to transform their world into an artificial realm. Action refers to activities between the humanity such as political activities. Herbamas describes the public sphere as a combination of the spheres of private people and allows the civil society to articulate their interests. Refeudalization of the society occurred when the boundaries between the society and state blurred. When the state and the society becomes involved in with each other’s sphere, the private sphere buckled to itself. Leisure replaced the rational-critical debate and the private people cease to exist as a public of property owners. Herbamas claims that the public opinion is manipulate and rarely critical.

Response to Question 3

Foucault claims that people do not have a real identity within themselves but it is a way of expressing the self which he called the discourse. The identity is a temporary construction that is ever shifting and is communicated to other people through interactions. Foucault further claims that the humanity do not have power implicitly but rather, it is a technique and action in which they can engage. Power is not possessed but exercised and resistance is always present where there is power. Goffman claims that the best way to understand the human actions is to view them as actors on a social stage who create an impression of themselves for the benefits of the audience and themselves. Form his interactionist perspective, human interactions are complex and the correct way to study them is to observe them and focus on their attempts to maintain their identities in public and how the social identities differ from their character while in the back-stage. Garfinkel focuses on the construction of social world that is stable by human beings though their actions and utterance. The study of common sense knowledge and activities involves treating the actual methods in which the human beings make their daily activities as a social structure observable as problematic phenomena.

Response to Question 4

Bonilla-Silva and Butler challenge the normal science approach to gender and race. Bonilla-Silva explores the four frames that are used interchangeably and with an incoherence that is significant. They include cultural racism that the whites use to justify the racial social reality. Minimization used by dominant racial groups to explain away racism. The white privilege is a disproportionate wealth and a privilege of not having to acknowledge where they came from. Judith Butler undermines the differentiation between sex as a category that is given naturally and gender a cultural-social category that is acquired. She claims that sex is socially constructed and emerges out of the social and cultural practices and in the context of a discourse whose history lies in the social-political dynamics. Gender is a product of actions along with behaviors or performance. Judith genders the notions of Foucault that claims that gender is the predominant cultural agent that operates on the body and constitutes the concepts of masculinity and femininity along with the identities of heterosexuality or homosexuality. Kuhn explores the psychology of beliefs which govern the scientific innovations and the acceptance of new concepts. He describes the history of science as a vision in which noon-rational and non-empirical factors come into play.



Response to Question 5

Collins claims that Black women activism will continue as long as there is racial prejudice and oppression. A dialectical relationship exists between oppression and activism. The Black feminists seek justice for their oppressed race. Frantz believed that racism believed the fight against racism was more succor in the U.S than in the rest of the world. He describes racism as an insidious obstacle in the realization of man’s capacity and the completion of the historical dialect. The utopian interracial schema is a consequence of America’s peculiarity as a nation of nations where racism acutely raises the dilemma of freedom. Bonilla- Silva explores the colorblind racism, a new form of racism. The white people make racists jokes yet claim they are not racists and is acceptable socially. Many races especially the whites navigate social life without an inclusive understanding of both history and causality.

Response to Question 6

Gayatri explores the ethical problems of investigating different the base of different cultures on concepts and frameworks that are universal. The westerners produce their academic thinking to protect their and support their economic interests. She claims that the discursive institutions that govern writing about the other are shut-off to the scrutiny of feminists. Hill Collins focuses on Black feminism aimed at seeking justice for the oppressed African-American women. The black feminist though incorporates the knowledge, politics of empowerment and consciousness. She believes that knowledge is fundamental for the empowerment of Black feminism along with other social justice projects. Pateman presents an important juncture that is important in the development of the modern feminist thoughts. Through her version of universalism, an abstract theory of personhood develops since the differences between human beings are irrelevant to the claims of personhood.

Response to Question 7

Pateman would criticize John Rawls efforts to seek a picture of an original position that will confirm the intuitions we have regarding the existing institutions which comprise of patriarchal relations of subordination. She would blame Rawls because of remaining silent about the sexual identities of the persons in the original position. Besides, the parties in the original position would reason and choose if they knew their sexes. Rawls silence about the sexual contract in the theory presented by Rawls denies the conjugal relationship between a woman and a man as well as the women rights against patriarchal domination. On the other hand, Pateman would insist on the interconnection of economic activities and domestic life contrary to Habermas argument. she could explain that the separate liberal world of private and public life are actually connected by the patriarchal structure.