Falgui, Lexi Dei G.

September 13, 2014

1 Legal Management 1
Sociology
The Sociological Imagination was a book written by C. Wright Mills published in 1959.
C. Wright Mills was an American sociologist and a professor in Columbia University. His
idea of the sociological imagination has not been recognized during its birth; but most
people recognize it today. Until now, it is one of the most read books in Sociology.
The focus of this study is going to be on Mills Chapter 1: The Promise in The
Sociological Imagination.
Charles Wright Mills Sociological imagination deals with the relationship of individual,
biography, society, and history.
The Sociological Imagination deals with how people would and should respond to certain
problems and struggles. The author mentioned that people take in problems as personal
and individual shortcomings. They tend to feel that they are the only ones experiencing
this and that. They dont look into the external and extended situations on what might
have caused their struggle.
If faced with difficulty in their everyday lives, it becomes a habit for people to only
collect and gather information; and merely report it and let the authority do its jobto
choose whether the complication should be paid attention to, because it would harness a
big impact in the society or just let it take place in the society because it will not lead into
negative footprints. In order for us to avoid this kind of accumulating problems, we have
to stop identifying problems as individuals. We can start this by viewing at a social
standpoint.
First of all, we have to avoid furthering the bureaucratization of reason and discourse.
Bureaucracy, according to Max Weber, is a system of organization; which appoints
people based on required qualifications and not on ascriptive criteria. In other words, it is
a system of organization that relies on impersonal rules. In addition, bureaucratic
organizations are also superior in terms of technical and handmade productions.
Therefore, if Bureaucracy is applied to society, there will be an economic increase that
might lead to the reduction of financial problems. The exceptional effect of bureaucracy
is that there has to be authority and power to create rules and implement it in an
organization. This authority and power is what we call as the top position of hierarchy
the hierarchy in structural functionalism by Emile Durkheim.
According to Emile Durkheim, a society must consist of a hierarchy of workers in order
to utilize a much effective and efficient vast production of goods and services. The
hierarchy of workers is also called an assembly line. It is wherein work is properly
allocated to the laborers. For example, a factory of clothes divides and simplifies its
workers responsibilities. The various process of making clothes measuring, cutting,

threading, attaching buttons, laundering, and packing clothesare subdivided into each
of the workers roles. With this, you will be able to produce more clothes compared to the
number of clothes a single tailor can produce.
In contrast to bureaucracys positive effect in the economy, it also has negative effects on
labor and on the workers. Those who are skilled and trained tailors will have less
significance in the society since their work can already be done by more people and even
of faster production and more quantity of products produced
In the latter part of the Sociological Imagination, discussed were the ignorance of the ordinary
people associated to the following terms in sociological theories:
Feudalism. This is the form of dominant social system that the Communism by Karl Marx
contradicts. In the Sociological Imagination, it was discussed that the society and history was
involved in this kind of social system because of the peoples heedlessness to the
interconnectedness of self, history and society.
Totalitarian societies. Totalitarian societies, as defined in the dictionary as a centralized
system of government that requires its citizens to be in obedience with all the policies without
the manner of questioning, is in contrast to Auguste Comtes Law of Three Stages. The Law
of Three Stages states that one makes use of his knowledge to question things as they are. The
most violated stage in this theory is the Metaphysical phase wherein people are required to
question authority and religion. Just by the manner of following the rules and regulations of a
totalitarian society, the Metaphysical phase is being violated. However, the Sociological
Imagination did not suggest its readers to implement Totalitarian societies. Instead, it just
mentioned that Totalitarian societies rose and fell at some points, still by the cause of the
individuals ignorance.
Two centuries after ascendancy. This statement in the Sociological Imagination inferred
the theory of Karl Marx- Proximity Breeds Contempt. The best example to this theory is the
political dynasty in a corrupt government. As more and more of a family is engaged in the
political business; and as more and more years are these politicians in their position, the larger
the possibility that they will corrupt or perform deviance in during their times. Not only is the
possibility that unethical behaviors will increase, but also the value and amount of money and
resources being stolen.
Capitalism. People believed that it is the only way to make the society an industrial
apparatus. The truth is, communism by Karl Marx can also be the way. A society of
equalitarian system will prevent people from practicing capitalism that exploit the workers. If
a society is also equalitarian, everyone will have no other options but to work for their
survival. By implementing a communism kind of government, the society will not only be
leading in industries but also in carrying out a fair equality among men.
Authority and violence become bureaucratic in form. Bureaucracy as we all know is the
exercise of control through knowledge, experience and expertise; and that authority is related
to bureaucracy but not violence. When we say authority and violence become bureaucratic in

form, it means that people in a particular society improperly use bureaucracy (organizing
large groups by implementing laws that everyone must follow) to exercise authority and
violence. For example, a companys newly-positioned CEO imposes a law that abuses the
workers rights, unallowable absences and day-offs. In order for the CEO to coercively let the
employees follow the law, he declares that whoever performs the violation of the said law will
be inflicted with a punishment of unemployment. Every employee will then prefer to obey the
laws, may they be unjust or just. Making use of the bureaucratic system, the employees will
fear violating the law. Therefore, employees will not fight for their rights because of the fear
of the punishment imposed.
Morally insensible, they try to live altogether as private individuals. This shows a
Gesellschaft kind of community. People live together as private individuals; therefore, they
dont have any relationship with each other that is concerned with feelings and established
moral connections. A Gesellschaft kind of community may result into capitalism since it is
only bonded by an ultimate goal, to earn and survive physically.
Going back to Sociological Imagination, the concept of Mills encourages us to:

Formulate problems as a science. The Sociological Imagination persuades us

to take problems us a science; wherein we must undergo systematic investigation
(Auguste Comte) in order to resolve our problems. First, we must determine and
address ourselves to issues and trouble surfacing the community. Be aware of the
objective of this investigation. Formulate alternatives upon which may be suitable
as a resolution. Create decision criteria that will be based on the social reality of
others and not on individual (personal) situations. Look carefully into the decision
criteria and decide which alternative suits the solution best. In other words, use
the scientific method in real-life patterns.

Make reason democratically relevant to human society(social science). All

the courses of action brought out by human reason must be of relative
significance to the society. The significant effects of acquiring human reason in
relation to society are:
a) Social sciencethe study of human societyhelps us imagine and think of
alternatives to shape our future, to improve our society(Auguste Comte);
b) Social sciences leads us to the awareness of economic and political trends and
events. It contributes to our knowledge about economic systems:
*Capitalism. All aspects of society are now economically conditioned and
controlled by capitalism. Karl Marx)
*Communismthe exploitation of the labor force and the solution to
capitalism according to Karl Marx. Karl Marx, together with Mark Engels,
proposed Communism. Communism came up with the idea of organizing the
society in a manner where all properties are owned by the community- each
person contributes for the satisfaction of the communitys need. Therefore, in
this kind of society, no capitalists will exploit and no one is exploited.

Also with the idea of communism, a Gemeinshaft community will be created

because of their Geisselschaft idea. How does this happen?
Gemeinshaft is kind of community comprising of people with good behavioral
relationships while Geisselschaft is a community of people with the same goal. To
clear this, a communism kind of organization is of a Geisselschaft community since
it is directed towards the same goal, the impartial allocation of goods and services
to the society and its individuals. Now upon reaching that goal, a Gemeinshaft
community will be created because the ultimate goal shows the concern of the
people for each other. In other words, communism starts with a Gemeinshaft
community(bonded by one common goal) and ends with a Geisselchaft
community(bonded by the mutual relationship for each others benefits).
c) Social science helps us comprehend human behavior.
*To comprehend behavior, one must learn the subjective meanings people
attach to actions. Max Weber.
*Behavior must be understood within larger social context. Society, according
to Emile Durkheim, creates individuals. In other words, individuals are created by
society. What happens to society will always affect the individuals behavior and
values. Personal circumstances cannot be understood without conforming to the
society, for everything that happens to an individual is associated to his society.

Realize classic values that underlie the promise of our studies. To achieve the
promise of social science is to determine the relation of individuals to society,
history to society, and individuals to history. By achieving this, we will be able to
identify what affects the behavior, values, and ethics of individuals.

The Sociological Imagination also promotes these questions:

Whats going on in the structure that is contributing to this problem? In
answering this question, we must set aside our personal standpoint and situate
ourselves in the view of others. It is wherein we take much time to determine the
roots of the problems we are encountering instead of letting our individual
shortcomings swallow us and keep us stagnant.
What can a society do differently to an individual even if the individual is doing
everything right? This implies that the individuals are not creators but products of
society (Emile Durkheim). In this case, we will again try to look at the perception
of other people. We will try to understand and discover why an individual is so
much affected by the society.
Moreover, Mills wrote the Sociological Imagination in order to associate the links of
biography and history to society. He also said that sociological imagination is a state of
mind has no limits and is bound to a realistic application in society. It must therefore be
tried and tested by all people.
The Sociological Imagination promotes administrative organizations instead of
intellectual ones. It also was presented that sociological imagination is addressing ones

self to issues and troubles. Before addressing to these, one must first know how it is to be
an intellectual man. Mills set forth some guidelines on how to become intellectual; for
example, an intellectual man: must have a playful attitude with twisting words to get
meanings and deeper contexts, must be able to express his thoughts and ideas without
hesitation, and does not separate his life from work.
Mills also focused on the social problems in America, most especially alienation. Like
Marx, C. Wright Mills considered alienation as a part of the modern society, which is in
the confines of work. However, in contradiction to Marx, he does not refer alienation to
capitalism alone. He believes that alienation is more on the division of labor (Emile
Durkheim). Actions and behavior in response to these social mass problems depend on
the accepted principle of the society (Collective Consciousness by Emile Durkheim).
In order for a person to resolve his/her problems, he/she must have a larger view of
everything. He must consider his society. The wider the view, the more options and
alternatives are to be sought. The problem in this case is that people only become
eyewitnesses, but not attestors. The difference between an eyewitness and an attestor is that:
an eyewitness observes his environment but doesnt do anything about it while an attestor is a
witness who observes his environment and takes an action about what are to be improved and
what are not to be. The conflict perspective by Karl Marx is mirrored in an attestors point of
view because attestors try to look for something deeper and different about the society that he
has been used to.
Because of all the problems that the society is experiencing day by day, people tend to
lose their trust and belief in their political leaders capability to revise and rebuild the
government and its rotten system; resulting in people becoming apathetic. As people get
disinterested, their views towards morality also depreciates; therefore causing the people
to let their leaders perform unethical behavior because the citizens wont complain
anyway, and the worse, It becomes a society of spectators who are human witnesses to
nothing.
According to Max Weber, one(especially the ordinary people) must make use of verstehen to
look into the deeper meanings of actions. Only understanding and having insights will help us
become aware of everything around us. However, the more we become aware of our
environment, the more trapped we may seem to feel. This is in contradiction to the saying
The truth will set you free. Why would we feel trapped if we become aware of what is true
that sets us free? We feel more trapped upon digging the contents of truth because we realize
that were exposed to the obnoxious sides of reality, that there is a positive and a negative in
all aspects of life and of wonder. Why should we still look forward to awareness if it will
make us feel more trapped anyway? Well, we must still be in search of becoming aware of our
society because we are looking for ways on how to change this unpleasant reality into a
beautiful one.
Sociological imagination therefore encourages individual persons to take personal problems
with the consideration of society, history, biography and all the other fields that can affect a
society; to grasp the real cause on why difficulties are experienced, if these difficulties are

either issues or troubles and if these need attention in the society. Mills suggests that people
be avoiding apathy and start practicing rationalization process. It is not also preferred that
personal problems will be resolved through personal points of view but of a broader sense of
contemplation.
Therefore, Sociological Imagination is concerned mainly on impersonal and bureaucratic
kinds of administration so that conclusions and solutions to societal problems will be
easily taken forth without tolerating the individual perspective that has not enough basis.
It is the life-changing that Sociological Imagination bears if we try to use it in our
everyday lives.