Flashcards: Social concepts

The Protestant work ethic (or Puritan work ethic) is a concept in theology, sociology, economics and history which emphasizes that hard work, discipline and frugality are a result of a person's subscription to the values espoused by the Protestant faith, particularly Calvinism, in contrast to the focus upon religious attendance, confession, and ceremonial sacrament in the Roman Catholic tradition.

A revolution (from the Latin revolutio, "a turn around") is a fundamental change in political power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time when the population rises up in revolt against the current authorities.

The word authority (derived from the Latin word auctoritas) can be used to mean the right to exercise power given by the State (in the form of government, judges, police officers, etc.), or by academic knowledge of an area (someone that can be an authority on a subject).

From a sociological perspective, social norms are informal understandings that govern the behavior of members of a society.

In political science, legitimacy is the right and acceptance of an authority, usually a governing law or a régime.

Social constructionism or the social construction of reality (also social concept) is a theory of knowledge in sociology and communication theory that examines the development of jointly constructed understandings of the world that form the basis for shared assumptions about reality.

In religion, ethics, philosophy and psychology "good and evil" is a very common dichotomy.

Social rights are those rights arising from the social contract, in contrast to natural rights which arise from the natural law, but before the establishment of legal rights by positive law.

In social science and politics, power is the ability to influence or outright control the behavior of people.

Social oppression is the socially supported mistreatment and exploitation of a group of individuals.

Secularization is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward nonreligious values and secular institutions.

(For other uses, see Liberty (disambiguation).) Liberty, in philosophy, involves free will as contrasted with determinism.

Common sense is a basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge things that is shared by ("common to") nearly all people and can reasonably be expected of nearly all people without need for debate.

Rechtsstaat is a doctrine in continental European legal thinking, originating in German jurisprudence, that can be translated as "legal state", "state of law", "state of justice", "state of rights", or "state based on justice and integrity".

In philosophy, fraternity is a kind of ethical relationship between people, which is based on love and solidarity.

Value criticism (in German Wertkritik) is a branch of post-Marxism which criticizes capitalistic society.

The face-to-face relation (French: rapport de face à face) is a concept in the French philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas' thought on human sociality.

Gemeinschaft (German pronunciation: [ɡəˈmaɪnʃaft]) and Gesellschaft ([ɡəˈzɛlʃaft]), generally translated as "community and society", are categories which were used by the German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies in order to categorize social ties into two dichotomous sociological types which define each other.

Civic virtue is the cultivation of habits of personal living that are claimed to be important for the success of the community.