Translate the text about Vilfredo Pareto into Russian.

READING AND SUMMARIZING

Read some extracts from Vilfredo Pareto’s work “Mind and Society” and do the tasks that follow.

Vilfredo Pareto

(1916)

Mind & Society

(1)Human society is the subject of many researches. Some of them constitute specialized disciplines: law, political economy, political history, the history of religions, and the like. Others have not yet been distinguished by special names. To the synthesis of them all, which aims at studying human society in general, we may give the name of sociology. That definition is very inadequate. It may perhaps be improved upon - but not much; for, after all, of none of the sciences, not even of the several mathematical sciences, have we strict definitions. Nor can we have. Only for purposes of convenience do we divide the subject-matter of our knowledge into various parts, and such divisions are artificial and change in course of time. Let us put names aside and consider things.

(2) In the same way, we have something better to do than to waste our time deciding whether sociology is or is not an independent science - whether it is anything but the "philosophy of history" under a different name; or to debate at any great length the methods to be followed in the study of sociology. Let us keep to our quest for the relationships between social facts, and people may then give to that inquiry any name they please. And let knowledge of such relationships be obtained by any method that will serve. We are interested in the end, and much less or not at all interested in the means by which we attain it.

(3) Faith by its very nature is exclusive. If one believes oneself possessed of the absolute truth, one cannot admit that there are any other truths in the world. So the enthusiastic Christian and the pugnacious free-thinker are, and have to be, equally intolerant. For the believer there is but one good course; all others are bad. The Mohammedan will not take oath upon the Gospels, nor the Christian upon the Koran. But those who have no faith whatever will take their oath upon either Koran or Gospels - or, as a favour to our humanitarians, on the Social Contract of Rousseau; nor even would they scruple to swear on the Decameron of Boccaccio, were it only to see the grimace Senator Berenger would make and the brethren of that gentleman's persuasion.' We are by no means asserting that sociologies derived from certain dogmatic principles are useless; just as we in no sense deny utility to the geometries of Lobachevski or Riemann. We simply ask of such sociologies that they use premises and reasonings which are as clear and exact as possible.

(4)Current in any given group of people are a number of propositions, descriptive, preceptive, or otherwise. For example: "Youth lacks discretion." "Covet not thy neighbour's goods, nor thy neighbour's wife." "Love thy neighbour as thyself." "Learn to save if you would not one day be in need." Such propositions, combined by logical or pseudo-logical nexuses and amplified with factual narrations of various sorts, constitute theories, theologies, cosmogonies, systems of metaphysics, and so on. Viewed from the outside without regard to any intrinsic merit with which they may be credited by faith, all such propositions and theories are experimental facts and as experimental facts we are here obliged to consider and examine them.

(5)That examination is very useful to sociology; for the image of social activity is stamped on the majority of such propositions and theories, and often it is through them alone that we manage to gain some knowledge of the forces which are at work in society - that is, of the tendencies and inclinations of human beings. For the man who lets himself be guided chiefly by sentiment for the believer, that is - there are usually but two classes of theories: there are theories that are true and theories that are false. The terms "true" and "false" are left vaguely defined. They are felt rather than explained. Oftentimes three further axioms are present:

· The axiom that every "honest" man, every "intelligent" human being, must accept "true" propositions and reject "false" ones. The person who fails to do so is either not honest or not rational.

· The axiom that every proposition which is "true" is also "beneficial," and vice versa. When, accordingly, a theory has been shown to be true, the study of it is complete, and it is useless to inquire whether it be beneficial or detrimental.

· At any rate, it is inadmissible that a theory may be beneficial to certain classes of society and detrimental to others - yet that is an axiom of modem currency, and many people deny it without, however, daring to voice that opinion.

(6)Were we to meet those assertions with contrary ones, we too would be reasoning a priori; and, experimentally, both sets of assertions would have the same value - zero. If we would remain within the realm of experience, we need simply determine first of all whether the terms used in the assertions correspond to some experimental reality, and then whether the assertions are or are not corroborated by experimental facts. But in order to do that, we are obliged to admit the possibility of both a positive and a negative answer; for it is evident that if we bar one of those two possibilities a priori, we shall be giving a solution likewise a priori to the problem we have set ourselves, instead of leaving the solution of it to experience as we proposed doing. On all that we can know nothing a priori. Experience alone can enlighten us.

Tasks

1. Name the passages defining the term “sociology”.

2. Summarize passage 3 in several sentences. Begin with:

The author claims that …

A careful account is given to …

V.Pareto has given rise to …

3. Read passage 4 and speak about Pareto’s attitude to the propositions given. Begin with:

The passage provides information on …

The author claims that …

He point out that …

4. Compress passages 5 and 6 into a statement using the phrases:

The examination allows …

The purpose of the examination is to …

The passage emphasizes that …

5. Summarize the content of the text.

SPEAKING

Chairing a Conference

Vocabulary to use

to welcome

to consider such subjects as

to chair the session

an agenda

a scientific program

to schedule

to cancel

a panel session

a working group session

a stimulating discussion

Speech patterns

I have a great pleasure to introduce …

Our first guest will speak on …

I now give the floor to …

Please feel free to ask questions and make comments.

Are there any questions?

I’d like to thank you all for a stimulating discussion.

All the topics seem to have been exhausted.

Our time is up. The discussion is closed.

I think we have done a good job. Thank you all.

Answer the questions:

1. Have you ever had an opportunity to chair a meeting?

2. What were your feelings?

3. How many speakers took part in the meeting?

4. What topics were on the agenda?

5. Were there any questions and comments?

6. Was the discussion stimulating?

Work in pairs:

Tell your partner about the experience of chairing a meeting.

Act out the situation: You are a chairman opening a Students’ Scientific Conference. You are given 5 minutes to do it.

GRAMMAR NOTES

Modal Verbs

Basic modals	Phrasal modals
can/ could do had better do may/ might do must do ought to do shall/ will do should do would do	be able to do be going to do be supposed to do have to do have got to do used to do

Read the following sentences, find the examples of modals. Translate the sentences into Russian:

1. Sociology can range from the analysis of brief contacts between anonymous individuals on the street to the study of global social interaction.

2. It seems totally unlike every object with which our senses acquaint us.

3. There are two great classes of aggregates with which the social aggregate may be compared-the inorganic and the organic.

4. This task turns difficult because the man can belong to the multiple organizations, some can be artificial, some can be natural, some can be combined.

5. The centers of development (or the “brain centers”) should unite on the professional base the lawyers, sociologists, economists, psychologists, politologists and other specialists for solving the complicated social problems.

6.A family, an enterprise, the society can not be described by a single model.

7. The individual must be free to follow his conscience without fear of the powers that happen to be entrusted with administrative tasks in some of the fields of social life.

8. This theory should be "nucleus" of new sociology forming it and determining directions of the further development.

9. Compulsion should never be absolute; the "objector" should be offered a niche to which he can retire, the choice of a "second-best" that leaves him a life to live.

10. Juridical and actual freedom can be made wider and more general than ever before; regulation and control can achieve freedom not only for the few, but for all.

11. The power of the State was of no account, since the less its power, the smoother the market mechanism would function.

12. Neither voters, nor owners, neither producers, nor consumers could be held responsible for such brutal restrictions of freedom as were involved in the occurrence of unemployment and destitution.

13. Ultimately, sociological research must meet the canons of scientific method; immediately, the task is so to express these requirements that they may have more direct bearing on the analytical work which is at present feasible.

14. It seems as though death ought to have the effect of weakening vital energies, instead of strengthening them.

15. They talk about the marvel which men should feel as they discover the world.

16. A fact of common experience cannot give us the idea of something whose characteristic is to be outside the world of common experience.

17. Since neither man nor nature have of themselves a sacred character, they must get it from another source.

18. Under the influence of these directing ideas, observations could be made with better method.

19. Though the relationships between power and exploitation are not simple and direct, their existence can hardly be denied.

20. We may quote the frequency with which Blumer asserts that the Thomas-Znaniecki’s analyses of documents "merely seem to be plausible."

21. The soul is attached to a body which it can leave only by exception; in so far as it is nothing more than that, it is not the object of any cult.

22. The relationship between “positive” and “negative” sanctions may be quite complicated as they actually operate in social systems.

23. A general theory of social systems must begin from the interdependency of norms and power.

24. There are sociological problem for the explanation of which the integration theory of society provides adequate assumptions; there are other problems which can be explained only in terms of the coercion theory of society.

UNIT 9

READING AND SPEAKING

Pre-reading task

1. Comment on Henry Ford’s saying: “Had I worked fifty or ten or even five years before, I would have failed. So it is with every new thing. Progress happens when all the factors that make for it are ready, and then it is inevitable.”

2. Define the term “globalization”.

3. What are the main reasons for globalization processes?

4. How is sociology related with globalization?

5. Read the text.

Globalization

Growing attention to a variety of large-scale changes in economic relations, technology, and cultural relations, broadly subsumed under the description ''globalization,'' has inspired renewed interest in the ideas of convergence and modernity. The literature on globalization has several threads. One approach focuses on the economic and cultural impact of transnational capitalist enterprises that are judged to be responsible for the spread of a pervasive ideology and culture of consumerism. Ritzer (1993) summarizes this phenomenon as the ''McDonaldization of society''—a broad reference to the ubiquity and influence of the consumer brand names (and the large corporate interests behind them) that are instantly recognizable in virtually every country in the world today. The main implication of this perspective is that indigenous industries, habits, and culture are rapidly being driven aside or even into extinction by the ''juggernaut'' of the world capitalist economy dominated by a relatively few powerful interests.

Meyer (1997) provides a different interpretation of globalization in his work on ''world society.'' Although he argues that ''many features of the contemporary nation-state derive from a worldwide model constructed and propagated through global cultural and associational processes'', the essence of his position is that nations are drawn toward a model that is ''surprisingly consensual...in virtually all the domains of rationalized social life''. Meyer contends that various core principles, such as those legitimating human rights and favoring environmentalism, do not emerge spontaneously as an imperative of modernity, but rather diffuse rapidly among nations worldwide through the agency of international organizations, networks of scientists and professionals, and other forms of association. Although not referring specifically to convergence theory, this world society and culture approach makes a strong case for the emergence of widely shared structural and cultural similarities, many of which hold out the promise of improvement, among otherwise diverse nation-states.

The rapid growth of telecommunications and computing technology, especially apparent in the emergence of the Internet as a major social and economic phenomenon of the 1990s, presents yet another aspect of globalization that holds profound implications for possible societal convergence. However important and wide-ranging, the precise patterns that will ultimately emerge from these technological innovations are not yet clear. While new computing and communication technologies compress the time and space dimensions of social interaction (Giddens 1990), and have the potential to undercut national identities and cultural differences along the lines envisioned by McLuhan's (1960) ''global village,'' the same forces of advanced technology that can level traditional differences may ultimately reinforce the boundaries of nation, culture, and social class. For example, even as the computers and related communication technologies become more widely disseminated, access to and benefits from the new technologies appear to be disproportionately concentrated among the ''haves,'' leaving the ''have nots'' more and more excluded from participation. Over time, such disparities might well serve to widen differences both across and within nations, thus leading toward divergence rather than convergence.

Finally, interest in convergence has also been given a boost by various political developments in the 1990s. In particular, the twin developments of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and the progressive weakening of economic and political barriers in Europe are notable in this regard. The demise of state socialism has revived interest in the possibilities of global economic and political convergence among advanced industrial societies. Although ongoing economic and political turmoil in the ''transition to capitalism'' in the former Soviet Union during the 1990s may cast serious doubt on the long-term prospects for convergence, developments have clearly moved in that direction with astonishing speed.

Answer the following questions

1. What are the main approaches to globalization in sociological literature?

2. Comment on the statement from the text: “… indigenous industries, habits, and culture are rapidly being driven aside or even into extinction by the ''juggernaut'' of the world capitalist economy dominated by a relatively few powerful interests.”

3. Do you agree with Meyer’s interpretation of globalization?

4. What is the role of computing technologies in the process of globalization?

5. What are the possibilities of global economic and political convergence?

6. If you were in power what would you do to support science in Russia?

READING AND TRANSLATION

Read the text about an American sociologist and answer the questions:

1. What did Parsons produce during his life?

2. What was Parsons’ action theory based on?

3. What does this theory include?

4. What does it reflect?

5. Why was his work dismissed by 1970s?

6. Who has made attempts to revive Parsonian thinking?

Talcott Parsons

(December 13, 1902 - May 8, 1979)

Talcott Parsons was an American sociologist, who served on the faculty of Harvard University from 1927–1973. He produced a general theoretical system for the analysis of society, which was called action theory based on the concept on methodological and epistemological principle of "analytical realism" and on the ontological assumption of "voluntaristic action" on behalf of the system-environment correlate of the actor.

As Parsons developed his theory it became increasingly based upon the theoretical principles of cybernetics and system theory, as well on Emerson's concept of "homostasis" and Ernst Mayr's concept of "teleonomic processes." On the meta-theoretical level Parsons' theory attempts to navigate and find a balance between psychologist phenomenology and idealism on the one hand and pure types of what Parsons called the utilitarian-positivistic complex, on the other hand. The theory includes a general theory of social evolution and a concrete interpretation of the major drives of world-history. In Parsons' theory of history and evolution, the constitutive-cognititive symbolization of the cybernetic hierarchy of action-systemic levels has in principle the same function as the function of genetic information in DNA's control of biological evolution but this factor of meta-systemic control does not "determine" any outcome, but rather it defines the orientational boundaries of the real pathfinder, which is action itself. Parsons' theory reflects a vision of a unified concept of social science and indeed, of a living system in general.

For many years Parsons was the best-known sociologist in the United States, and indeed one of the most influential and most controversial sociologists in the world. His work was very influential well into the 1960s, particularly in the United States, until it met with extensive criticism and was generally dismissed by the 1970s. Currently, interest in Parsons is increasing worldwide. Despite the traditional view that Parsons' theories are unsatisfactory if not inaccessible, prominent attempts to revive Parsonian thinking have been made by neo-Parsonsian sociologists and social scientists like Jeffrey Alexander, Bryan S. Turner, Victor Lidz, Uta Gerhardt, Giuseppe Sciortino, Helmuth Staubmann, David Sciulli, Richard Münch, Kazuyoshi Takagi and Ken'chi Tominaga, the latter a towering figure in Japanese sociology. On the issue of studying Parsons' biographical and historical data scholars such as William Buxton, Uta Gerhardt and Jens Kaalhauge Nielsen have been most prominent. The key centers of Parsons interest today beside the US are Germany, Japan, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

1. Translate the following proper names:

Talcott Parsons; Harvard University; Emerson; Ernst Mayr; Effrey Alexander; Bryan S. Turner; Victor Lidz; Uta Gerhardt; Giuseppe Sciortino; Helmuth Staubmann; David Sciulli; Richard Münch; Kazuyoshi Takagi; Ken'chi Tominaga; William Buxton; Jens Kaalhauge Nielsen.

2. Translate the following sociological terms:

action theory; methodological and epistemological principle; analytical realism; voluntaristic action; homostasis; teleonomic processes; utilitarian-positivistic complex; constitutive-cognititive symbolization;

3. Translate the following words and phrases:

ontological assumption; system-environment correlate; cybernetics; to navigate; phenomenology and idealism; major drives of world-history; controversial sociologists; dismiss; inaccessible; revive; a towering figure; prominent.

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