What is the Purpose of Sociology?

What are issues?

Issues have to do with matters that transcend these local environments of the individual and the range of his inner life

What are troubles?

Troubles occur within the character of the individual and within the range of his immediate relations with others

What are issues and troubles formulated by?

Values are cherished yet threatened or values are cherished yet supported

What does the sociological imagination connect?

history and our biography

what is apathy?

if it seems to involve all their values

What does sociological imagination enable its possessor to understand?

the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and he external career of a variety of individuals

what is panic?

the threat felt when all values seem involved

what is Uneasiness (of anxiety)?

they are unaware of any cherished values, but still are very much aware of threat

In the problem of marriage, what are the troubles and issues?

trouble: arguments between a man and a woman structural: institution of marriage, high divorce rate among early years of marriage

In the problem of war, what are the troubles and issues?

trouble: how to survive structural: causes of war

what is well-being?

when people cherish some set of values and don't feel any threat to them

what is crisis?

when they cherish values but do feel them to be threatened

What does the sociological imagination work between?What is the purpose?

works between 'personal troubles of milieu' and 'the public issues of social structure'

What are societies?

"a large group of people who live in the same area and participate in a common culture" and a set of relationships

What 3 questions have social analysts asked who are sociologically imaginatively aware of the promise ask?

1) what is structure of 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?

What is sociology?

The study of societies and the social worlds that individuals inhabit with them

Rather than studying individuals, what do sociologists study?

They study "how we live together.. not the study of human beings but of what it means to be human"

How can the individual use sociological imagination to understand his own experience and gauge his own fate?

only by locating himself within his period, that he can know his own chances in life only by becoming aware of those of all individuals in his circumstances

what is indifference?

people are neither aware of any cherished values nor experience any threat

Is a trouble a private or public matter?

private matter - values cherished by individual are felt by him to be threatened

Is an issue a private or public matter?

public matter - some value cherished by public is felt to be threatened

In "The Promise" by Millsis, what is the promise that Millsis is referring to?

the "sociological imagination" - or our ability to "grasp history and biography, and the relations between the two