Revision:OCR Philosophy Synoptic Paper - Sociology and Philosophy

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SOCIOLOGY

Durkheim

(elementary forms of religious life) - "If religion has given birth to all that is essential in society, it is because the idea of society is the soul of religion.”

Durkheim said that just as sacred things are superior to man, so was society. In worship, man finds it difficult to direct his feelings to something, which is superior to him, so he directs his feelings at a symbol.

Religion is that symbol.

Religion is about people meeting with similar social ideas.

Ultimately in favour. Good things come out of religion.

Morals. Stability. Strong community. Hope. Regulations etc

Marx

“Religion is the opiate of the masses”

Marx had a Utopian vision of the future in which all people would be equal because the class system would no longer exist and no one would be exploited.

Religion is encouraged by those is power. It acts as a means of control. Encouraging alienation and oppression. It gives illusionary goals whose purpose is to compensate our suffering. Such goals take away our momentum to do something here and now in this life. The only life we may so have. RELIGION = BAD.

1. It promises a life of eternal bliss in heaven giving people something to look forward to.
2. You can be rewarded for suffering. “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.”
3. Religion offers hope that one day, divine intervention will solve their problems.
4. Religion can be used to justify the social class system and your place in it.

PSYCHOLOGY

Freud

“Religion is an illness or neuroses”

He offers a reductionist explanation. Each stage of our infancy produces tensions, which if unresolved becomes locked in our unconscious mind. They can emerge later in life and create emotional and behavioural problems.

Freud goes back to the “Primal Horde” where men would be jealous of their father’s (the alpha male) relationship with their mother and so kill their father to get mother’s attention. They then experience guilt and begin to revive the father figure, and worship him. God.

With God taking the place of the father we have a continuing sense of parental protection.

Jung

We have the innate ability to generate religious images of God. Our images of God are picked up from our experiences of the world. They’re regional, what we think, see, believe is similar to what those near us will believe.

This ability, is called our archetype best described as “image generator”

A religious experience is “always due to a cause external to the individual”

RELIGION = GOOD.

It harmonises the Psyche, and removal of religion can lead to psychological problems. If you reject religion you reject a large part of the individuation process.

To deny religion is to deny a part of you

CONNECTIONS

Can be used to argue against most things because offers alternative ideas about why people follow religion. Why we have a God.etc.

PAST Q’s

• Discuss the claim that psychology has seriously undermined the idea that it is right to follow one’s conscience

• Both ethics and religion are invented as a means of holding society together

• Discuss the view that morality and religion are no more than responses to the needs of society.

SELF

Religion is good so long as people don’t become too sucked in. I am agreeing mostly with Durkheim.

Comments

The notes are suitable for someone studying the topic of the soul for AS Level philosophy. The are aimed for the OCR exam board, but will also be suitable for other exam board specifications.

These notes were originally written by flickeeby in this post on TSR Forums.