Sunday, May 6, 2012

Solidarity

Solidarity: The glue that holds people together in social institutions

Emile Durkheim (1893-1933) was a sociologist interested in how societies managed to unify their members with shared values and other bonds. He called this unity social integration, the degree to which members of a group or society feel united.

 For small units he proposed an answer in mechanical solidarity, a shared consciousness that people feel as a result of performing the same or similar tasks. This kind of solidarity can only take place in small and relatively undeveloped communities. There is usually little difference between members of the society and they share many ideals and engage in similar behaviors.

As social groups grow, they specialize divisions of labor. The industrial revolution was the driving force for most of today's divisions in labor, and as a result, people no longer depend on each other for similar values and ideas. Rather, persons are dependent on each other to fill the specific role in society they do. Durkheim called this new form of solidarity organic solidarity.

Ferdinand Tonnies used the terms Gemeinshaft and Gesellshaft to describe this fundamental shift in working relationships. Gemeinshaft communities, such as the Amish, focus on personal ties, kinship connections and lifelong friendships. These have been mostly crowded out today by the short-term, individualistic and self-interested associations which characterize Gesellshaft communities.

Solidarity is fostered through interdependence, whether the interdependence of shared ideals and values in a pre-Industrial revolution society or the material interdependence of roles people experience in an impersonal, industrial society.

Global Stratification: World System Theory

In 1974 Immanuel Wallerstin first proposed an alternative explanation of global stratification to the colonial theory of the 19th century. According to this theory, industrialization was the key which led to four groupings of nations: core nations, semi-periphery, periphery, and external areal.

  • The first group, the core nations, were the nations that industrialized first and which grew rich and powerful. These nations include Britian, France, Holland, and later Germany
  • The second group, the semi-periphery, are nations located in the Mediterranean who were originally quite wealthy, but their economy stagnated because of dependence on trade with the core nations.
  • The third group, the periphery, are the eastern European countries who sold cash crops to the core nations.
  • Lastly, the external area, are those nations which were left completely out of the early development of capitalism. This includes mostly Africa and Asia, though modern developments of the economy have changed that dynamic.
The globalization of capitalism has created a network of relationships between national economies. Production and trade in one country are affected by social upheaval or trade policy in another and whatever happens to one nation has consequences for the rest of the world. We are now part of a World system.

Sociology Study Guide

Definition of Sociology: The scientific study of human groups and institutions.

3 Sociological Perspectives

  1. Structural-Functionalism
  2. Symbolic Interactionist
  3. Conflict Theorist
Applied to Deviance
  • Functionalists point out that deviance, including criminal acts, is functional for society. Functions include affirming norms and promoting social unity and social change. According to strain theory, societies socialize their members into desiring cultural goals. Many people are unable to achieve these goals in a socially acceptable manner, i.e. by institutionalized means. Deviants, are people who either give up on societal goals or use disapproved means to attain them. Merton identified five types of responses to cultural goals and institutionalized means: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. Illegitimate opportunity theory stresses that some people have easier access to illegal means of achieving societal goals.
  • Symbolic interactionists have developed several theories to explain deviance such as crime (the violation of legalized norms). According to differential association theory, people learn to deviate by associating with others. According to control theory, each of us is propelled toward deviance, but most of us conform because of an effective system of inner an outer controls. People with less effective controls deviate. Labeling theory focuses on how labels help funnel people into or divert them away from deviance. People who commit deviant acts usually use techniques of neutralization to deflect social norms.
  • Conflict theorists take the position that the group in power imposes its definitions of deviance on other groups. From this perspective the law is an instrument of oppression used by the powerful to maintain their position of privilege. The ruling class uses the criminal justice system to punish the crimes of the poor while diverting its own criminal activities away from the public eye.
The 4 components of Non-Material Culture
  1. Language
  2. Beliefs
  3. Values
  4. Norms
    1. example: Value: Marriage supported by marital laws, a Norm
5 Types of Societies and the means of transition
  1. Hunter/Gatherer
    1. transformed by an ideology: the earth belongs to us
  2. Horticultural/Pastoral
    1. transformed by a tool: the Plow
  3. Agricultural society
    1. transformed by an invention: the Steam Engine
  4. Industrial Society
    1. transformed by an invention: the Microchip
  5. Post industrial
Agricultural society = Dawn of Civilization
  • specialization of Labor
  • development of cities and social institutions
Industrial Society = Birth of Sociology
  • rapid change causing anxiety over social solidarity
  • science seen as having all the answers
  • sociology = interest in changes in society + scientific method
Sociological Contributors
Max Weber
  • interested in how authority is exercised and legitimized
  • Emphasized the need to look for subjective meanings (he called this "Verstehen") and introduced the notion of
  • Ideal types (the use of typologies in understanding social phenomenon)
  • Major work: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Emile Durkheim
  • structure-functionalist
  • First to conduct real scientific research on suicide and solidarity
    • mechanical solidarity
      • the ties that bind people in a pre-Industrial Revolution society
      • characterized by shared values and strong social relationships
    • Organic solidarity
      • the interdependence that holds people together in a very complex, impersonal society
Karl Marx
  • Utopian thinker who theorized about the nature, movement, and predicted demise of capitalism
  • influential in launching Conflict perspective
  • Co-Authored (w/ Fredrick Engels) "The Communist Manifesto"
  • Other major work: "Das Kapital" (a major criticism of capitalism)
Population Theories
Malthusian 
- Population and food are a problem. 
Solution is starvation, population will curb itself
Neo-Malthusian 
- Population and resources are a problem. 
Solution is birth control.
Demographic Transition Theory 
- Population and space are a problem. 
Solution is birth control.
Modernization Theory
 - Population and technology are a problem.
 Solution is to modernize the world.
Neo-Marxist 
- Distribution of resources, waste, political corruption and instability, and access and utilization of resources are problems, not population. 
Solution: redistribution, political stability, stewardship

Demographic Transition
  • transition from high birth rate and death rates to low birth rates and death rates
  • some cultures do not move through this transition because of the momentum of cultural and structural forces that continue to value children as a blessing (not an "economic liability")
Socialization: Process by which we learn the norms of society and abide by them according to our statuses and roles.
  • Agents of socialization: social forces influencing individual
  • Status: position in society individuals fill
  • Role: behavior expected of a status

The Rise and Fall of Mozarabic Chant


The Iberian Peninsula is home to the convergence of many different traditions. The Strait of Gibraltar guards the Mediterranean and is the meeting place of Europe and Africa. Ambitious expeditions to the new world by Columbus spread the culture and traditions of the Spanish people to the Western Hemisphere, and interactions with the Moslem invaders served to gather together influences from across the entire globe. The peoples of the Iberian Peninsula cultivated a rich pagan tradition that developed through the influence of Christian missionaries into the Mozarabic chants of the eighth through the eleventh centuries (Angles, Relations of Spanish Folk Song to the Gregorian Chant, 1964). What transformed sacred Spanish music from its pagan roots into the predominantly Gregorian tradition of the seventeenth century? These sacred musical practices did not develop in an isolated manner, but were altered, enriched and eventually exterminated by the cultural expectations of their conquerors, especially those of the Latin Church. The first wave of influence on the native traditions of Spain was Hellenistic, brought by the Greek, Carthaginian, and Roman colonists (Chase, 1941). The second wave took place before and after the fall of Rome by the spread of Christianity, aided greatly by the rule of the Visigoths from 312 to 711 (The Mozarabic Rite, 1906). Sacred music experienced an upheaval during the conquest and rule of the Moors from 711 to the recapture of Toledo by the northern Christians in 1085, but little or no evidence of its influence on chant can be conclusively deciphered (Parrish, 1958). The main Moorish influence on the Spanish sacred musical tradition is the name “Mozarab,” a term referring to the Christians who did not flee or convert to Islam (Prado, 1928). The last wave of influence on the sacred tradition of Spanish music was the reconquest of Spain by Christian forces in 1085. This Reconquista was the final and most drastic transformation of sacred music. No longer concerned with correcting liturgical abuses, this final invasion by the northern Christians served to usurp the place of organic sacred traditions with Gregorian chants.
            The sacred music of ancient Spain revolved around rhythms and instruments most suited for dance, which they used in worship of the moon and other natural deities (Livermore, 1972). Evidence of pre-Greek musical instruments are found in the cave paintings of Aigues Vives, which depict perforated shells used as wind instruments, and of Cuento de la Mina, where there are paintings of animal horns, perhaps used both as wind and as percussion instruments (Chase, 1941). The influence of dance did not fade from sacred ceremonies until the late sixth century, when the Council of Toledo forbade dancing and singing ‘unholy songs’ during the liturgy (Angles, Hispanic Musical Culture from the 6th to the 14th century, 1940). Greek colonists expanded upon the ancient musical traditions of the time and introduced Greek musical theory and instruments, and the later Roman conquerors continued the exposure to classical musical traditions, which spread the influence of Greek musical theory to further reaches of the Iberian Peninsula (Chase, 1941). The Greek colonists erected ports on the southeastern and northern coasts, especially in the regions of Cantabria and Galicia, where the ruins of temples to Diana give testament to the presence of sacred Greek music (Livermore, 1972). A large lyre at Merida, known as Mercury’s great lyre, was placed in the temple dedicated to him, and ceramic illustrations depict instrumentalists playing the double aulos and a horn or tropa. (Livermore, 1972) Carthaginian influences can be seen in more ceramic illustrations of dance ceremonies from the 5th century B.C. (Livermore, 1972). When the Roman conquerors marched into Hispania, they established a system of mutual enrichment. Spain herself contributed many poets, philosophers, and even emperors to the Roman kingdom, while Rome brought their vast technological advances and military practices as well as their art and architecture (Chase, 1941). “In the south of Spain musical history begins with a quotation from Martial and the dances of the saltatrices of Cadiz – de Gadibus improbis puellae – famous in Rome in the second and third centuries.”[1] His contemporary, Quintillianus, also stressed the use of dance rhythms and classical instruments such as the pipe and the lyre (Chase, 1941). The colonies established by the classical empires brought not only classical theory and philosophy, but also contributed to the collection of instruments. Sacred music in Spain continued to draw from these influences, especially rhythmic foundations, well into the 10th century (Trend, 1924).
            During the fourth century, Spain experienced their own “twilight of the gods” as Christianity spread its sacred practices abroad. The influx of Christianity transformed the prior sacred traditions through their experience with Ambrosian, Gallican and Old Roman chant. Before the fall of Rome, the Christian influence in Spain was already widespread. Christian missionaries were on the move to the western reaches of the Roman Empire by 167, and after the Edict of Milan in 313 an explosion of conversion took place throughout Europe. One of the first Gnostic missionaries, Priscillius, kept most of the pagan practices of the native people and set religious texts to originally pagan melodies (Trend, 1924). Priscillianist tunes and dances exerted influences on future devotional hymns and chants and acquired a more devotional character as they were gradually freed from pagan and sometimes phallic imagery (Trend, 1924). Church officials attempted to purge liturgical music of pagan influences during the Council of Lugo in 571 (Trend, 1924), though dancing and the use of instruments continued to be present in the early Spanish liturgy until the sixth century at the third Council of Toledo (Angles, Relations of Spanish Folk Song to the Gregorian Chant, 1964). In addition to the pagan roots of this music, Latin influences on early sacred repertoire exist as early as the fifth century as evidenced in the martyr poems of Prudentius (Messenger, 1947).
            As the Visigoths spread and solidified their empire, they gradually assimilated into the culture and the religion of the Catholic populace. Originally adherents of the Arian heresy, the Visigoths officially reconciled to the Church at the third Council of Toledo in 589 (Angles, Hispanic Musical Culture from the 6th to the 14th century, 1940). It was during the period of Visigothic rule that the three centers of musical culture developed: Seville, Toledo, and Saragossa (Huglo, 2007). The Hispano-Gothic chants, precursors to the Mozarabic chants, developed during this time through the often direct action of liturgists and members of church hierarchy. The brothers St. Leander and St. Isidore, musicians and successive archbishops, were responsible for the initial musical developments in Seville (Angles, Hispanic Musical Culture from the 6th to the 14th century, 1940). St. Leander and his contemporaries were especially important because of the influences they brought with them from sojourns in Constantinople and because of the many compositions credited to them. St. Isidore summarized the musical theories of Cassiodorus, themselves the intellectual offspring of Aristoxenos, in the monumental work Etymologiae (Chase, 1941). Book III of the Etymologiae consists primarily of writings on musical practices and its place in philosophy. Isidore’s De ecclesiasticis officiis deals exclusively with sacred musical practices, including hymns and psalmody (Huglo, 2007). In Toledo, St. Eugene codified the liturgical chants, as St. Gregory did with Roman chant. For this reason, chants from this time (Hispano-Gothic) are commonly referred to as Eugenian chants (Livermore, 1972).
It is easy to surmise the influence of other western chants on Hispano-Gothic chant when comparing manuscripts from Hispanic, Gallican and Ambrosian sources. Similarities in chant melodies across Ambrosian, Gallican and Hispano-Gothic chant may be observed by comparing the notation of the introit “Sitientes” which appears in the Mozarabic Liber Ordinum of Silos, a manuscript of St. Gall and the Antiphonarium of Montpellier (Prado, 1928).  For example, “at the median of the verse there is only a short rest without melodic formula, exactly as in Ambrosian psalmody.”[2] The similarity between the modalities of Old Roman and Hispano-Gothic chants are not surprising, being built on the same Greek theories of tonality and developing in the same family of chant (Huglo, 2007).  Prado, Huglo, and Parrish all contend that the Hispano-Gothic modes were identical to the modes of Gregorian chant and a diagram in Musica Isidori establishes the musical scale of Hispano-Gothic chant, the original source of which seems to be the Byzantine trochos. Huglo also suggested that the common Mozarabic practice of centonization has its roots in Byzantine tradition (Huglo, 2007). These Byzantine influences seem to owe at least part of their origin to St. Leander and his companion Johannes of Gerona, who spent seventeen years in Byzantium (Angles, Hispanic Musical Culture from the 6th to the 14th century, 1940). The presence of four distinct languages (Latin, Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew) in the Illatio (Sanctus) alone indicates further the vast treasury of influences on the liturgy (Rito Hispano-Mozarabe Ordinario de la Misa, 2009) and Prado even went so far as to suggest Jewish influences in the Pater Noster and the various Preces (Prado, 1928).
            The Visigothic rule, however favorable for the cultivation of sacred music, was economically and politically weak and offered little resistance to the pressing wave of Muslim conquest that swept into Spain from Africa in the eighth century. Though it is a point of pride for Spanish musicians to claim that they received no musical influence from their Muslim rulers, the Moorish invasion in 711 brought the musical traditions of the Middle-east to Spain. Many historians have emphasized how Islam tolerated much of Christian practice, though St. Eulogius decried the periods of intense purgation when “persecution filled the prisons with martyrs”[3] and the chanting of the Divine Liturgy fell silent. It was during this time period that the term “Mozarab” surfaced as the name given to those Spaniards who held to their Christian beliefs instead of becoming Muslim. Over time the name came to refer to the liturgical practices, language and chants of the Christian Spaniards during this time (Trend, 1924). As well as bringing their instruments, the Moors also brought their unique theoretical practices and their preference for extended melismas and lively rhythms. The philosopher-musician Al-Farabi in his Kitab al-misiqi al-kabir, the Grand Book on Music, prescribed seven series of rhythms that were often strongly marked and decorated with ornate, florid embellishments (Livermore, 28). One of the most prominent examples of Muslim melodic influence on sacred music, las Cantigas de Sancta Maria, are not genuinely sacred but secular genres with sacred text, as it was with most of the musical practices of the time, blending the realms of sacred and secular (Livermore, 1972). The Moorish influence on chant was an influence of negation, i.e., because of their presence the musical center of Saragossa and Toledo declined as centers of liturgical music. Nevertheless, the northern, mostly Christian centers such as Cordova survived and even flourished during this time in their own traditions (Angles, Hispanic Musical Culture from the 6th to the 14th century, 1940).
            The final stage of influence on the native sacred chants of Spain prior to the Renaissance occurred during the Reconquista, the purging of Moorish rule by Christian powers. The Reconquista so altered the sacred musical traditions of Spain that it is nearly impossible to render the ancient chants with any fidelity (Spain in the Eleventh Century, 1858). This movement attempted to drive the physical presence of the Moors out of Spain and also sought to unite Spain with the rest of Catholic Europe by adopting the Roman rite and with it Gregorian chant (The Mozarabic Rite, 1906). The main proponents of the shift from native to more universal forms of worship were Alphonse IV of Castile and his queen, Constance, the daughter of Guido of Aquitaine. A French-born princess, Queen Constance was therefore warmly attached to the Roman liturgy (Trend, 1924).  She collaborated with a French monk, Bernard, whom Alphonse VI had instated as Bishop of Toledo, to replace the Mozarabic liturgy and chants with those of Latin practice (Spain in the Eleventh Century, 1858).  The main center of resistance to the liturgical reforms took place in Toledo, where Alphonse VI made the Roman rite obligatory immediately following his capture of the city in 1086. The people even held superstitious contests to “prove” which rite was superior, including trial by both fire and the sword (Trend, 1924). Although the results invariably favored the Mozarabs, Alphonse IV, Queen Constance, and the monks of Cluny were determined that the Roman rite should have the pride of place (The Performance of Music in Spain, 1929). Their efforts were ultimately successful, though six parishes in Toledo were granted special permission to continue celebrating the Mozarabic rite. At the turn of the thirteenth century, however, even there it had become obsolete (Angles, Hispanic Musical Culture from the 6th to the 14th century, 1940). Only about twenty or so genuine Mozarabic pieces exist in their entirety to this day, mostly at the Benedictine Monastery of Domingo de Silos. Other sources of chant and descriptions of liturgical music of the time that survive to this day are the Gradual of the Vall d’Aran, the Codex II of the Escorial, the Liber Sacramentorum, Codex Veronensis, and the Antiphonarium of Leon.
At the end of the 15th century Cardinal Francesco Jimenez de Cisneros of Toledo attempted to revitalize the chants and printed a Breviary and a Missal in 1500 (Mozarabic Liber Ordinum, 1928). Thanks to the two hundred years of silence, however, the diastematic neumes could no longer be translated by contemporary musicians. The difficulty of understanding Mozarabic neumes is compounded by the extreme demographic variety of notation and the ambiguity of distinctions between relative pitch and rhythmic indicators (Prado, 1928). For example, the neume types “scandicus, punctus, podatus, clivis and torculus are written in 9, 10, 13, 17, and 28 ways, respectively.”[4] In an effort to make performance of the chants possible, Cisneros imposed strict verse rhythms on melodies which were meant to be sung freely (Mozarabic Liber Ordinum, 1928). As it is today, modern scholars have tried to render the chants in a more faithful format by stripping them of whatever seems to be artificial, including the highly metered rhythms. (Prado, 1928). According to Messenger (1947), the two fundamental issues with understanding the Mozarabic neumes lay in understanding the number of notes indicated by a neume and deciphering the relative tonal height indicated by the neumes. Comparison of the Mozarabic chants with other chant traditions offers modern scholars many clues to their translation; nevertheless, performances of these chants remain highly speculative. A popular example of restored Mozarabic chant is Gaudete populi from the San Milan Liber Ordinum, a recording of which can be found on the Schola Cantorum CD, “A Treasury of Early Music.” Unique sources of Mozarabic hymnody, pilgrim songs sung at the Shrine of St. James of Compostela, lived on in oral tradition and were finally transcribed in 1897 (Trend, 1924). The Codex Calixti II also contains quite a number of these hymns, but in their transcription, the staff has only one line and the intervallic relationships rely on educated speculation. Because of the Reconquista the ancient traditional chants of Spain were abandoned for those of the Gregorian and as result, a great heritage of Spanish culture has been lost.
            In conclusion, each wave of new traditions brought change, sometimes drastic and other times quite subtle, to the sacred musical practices of the Iberian people. The classical colonists brought their wealth of musical philosophy, theory and their instruments to the region. Christianity then brought its riches from all the nations and combined them with the native, dance-like rhythms, contributing again to the store of musical instruments and theories. The glory of the Mozarabic chant, however, was short lived, as the last invasion by the Christian northerners stripped the regions of their cultural heritage in a disgusting display of ethnocentricism and political motivation (Spain in the Eleventh Century, 1858). No single development in music is completely self-fueled; it must influence and be influenced by various traditions and complementary movements. Mozarabic chant was no exception, being influenced by Ancient Classical theory, folk music, foreign chant traditions, and liturgical mandate. The history of sacred Spanish music is, however, exceptional in that it was always changing, i.e. there was never a point at which the chants and their performance were not actively developing. Vital and organic, Spanish sacred music prior to the Reconquista held a treasure-trove of unique musical practices, tragically beaten, but not destroyed completely. The Mozarabic chants are dead to all with the exception of the occasional celebration of the Mozarabic liturgy or the rare recording of intrigued musicians. As of today, there exists no habitat for these unique chants, and until there is, they will continue to lie forgotten by the broader musical community and the religious community for whom they existed in the beginning.




Bibliography

Angles, H. (1940). Hispanic Musical Culture from the 6th to the 14th century. The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 4, 494-528.
Angles, H. (1964). Relations of Spanish Folk Song to the Gregorian Chant. Journal of the International Folk Music Council, Vol. 16, 54-56.
Chase, G. (1941). Music of Spain. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Huglo, M. (2007). The Musica Isidori Tradition in the Iberian Peninsula. In S. Zapke, Hispania Vetus: Musical-Liturgical Manuscripts from Visigothic Origins to the Franco-Roman Transition (9th-1th Centuries) (pp. 61-92). Bilbao: Fundacion BBVA.
Livermore, A. (1972). A Short History of Spanish Music. New York: Vienna House.
Messenger, R. E. (1947). Hymnista. Speculum, Vol. 22, No. 1, 83-84.
Mozarabic Liber Ordinum. (1928). Speculum, Vol. 3, No. 2, 239.
Parrish, C. (1958). A Treasury of Early Music: Masterworks of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Baroque Era. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.: New York.
Prado, R. P. (1928). Mozarabic Melodics. Speculum, Vo. 3, No. 2, 218-238.
Rito Hispano-Mozarabe Ordinario de la Misa. (2009). Toledo: Ediciones Toledo, S.L.
Spain in the Eleventh Century. (1858). The Catholic Layman, Vol. 7, No. 84, 140-141.
The Mozarabic Rite. (1906, October). The Church Quarterly Review, 112-123.
The Performance of Music in Spain. (1929). The Musical Times, Vo. 70, No. 1034, 364-365.
Trend, J. B. (1924). Music in Spanish Galicia. Music & Letters, Vol. 5, No. 1, 15-32.



[1]  J. B. Trend, “Music in Spanish Galicia,” Music & Letters 5, no. 1 (1924): 14
[2] Michel Huglo, “The Diagrams Interpolated into the Musica Isidori and the Scale of Old Hispanic Chant,” in Western Plainchant in the First Millennium: Studies in the Medieval Liturgy, ed. Sean Gallagher, (Burlington: Ashgate Publishing, 2003), 256.
[3]   Higini Angles. “Hispanic Musical Culture from the 6th to the 14th Century.” The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Oct., 1940) p. 500.
[4]  Anne Livermore, A Short History of Spanish Music (New York: Vienna House, 1972), 14.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Ethics Final Study Guide Pt. 2

The Virtues and their corresponding vices
(E) = excess
(D) = Deficiency


  • Prudence
    • Imprudence
    • negligence
    • prudence of the flesh
    • craftiness
    • Guile
    • Fraud
  • Justice
    • respect of persons (against distributive justice)
    • murder
    • bodily injury
    • theft and robbery
    • perjury
    • false judgment
    • reviling
    • backbiting
    • tale-bearing
    • derision
    • cursing
    • cheating
    • usury
  • Do Good and Avoid Evil
    • Transgression (E)
    • Omission (D)
  • Religion
    • Superstition (E)
    • idolatry (E)
    • divinations (E)
    • observances (E)
    • undue worship (E)
    • irreligion (D)
    • perjury (D)
    • sacrilege (D)
    • simony (D)
  • Truth
    • Boasting
    • Irony
  • Piety
    • dishonor of parents
  • Obedience
    • disobedience
  • Gratitude
    • Ingratitude
  • Friendliness/ Affability
    • Flattery (E)
    • Quarreling (D)
  • Liberality
    • Covetousness (D)
    • Prodigality (E)
  • Fortitude
    • fear (D)
    • fearlessness (E)
    • daring (E)
  • Magnanimity
    • presumption (E)
    • ambition (E)
    • vainglory (E)
    • pusillanimity (D)
  • Magnificence
    • meanness (D)
    • waste (E)
  • Patience
    • impatience
  • Perseverance
    • Effeminacy (D)
    • Pertinacity (E)
  • Temperence
    • Insensibility (D)
    • Intemperance (E)
  • Abstinence
    • Gluttony
  • Sobriety
    • Drunkenness
  • Chastity
    • Lust
  • Continence
    • incontinence
  • Clemency
    • cruelty
  • Meekness
    • anger
  • Humility
    • Pride
  • Studiousness
    • Curiosity (E)
    • Pusillanimity (D) 

Ethics Final Study Guide Pt. 1

Everything you ever wanted to know about the virtues and vices according to the Summa Theologica


  1. What is a genus, species, and differentia?
    1. Genus: matter
    2. Species: form
    3. Differentia: that which separates a species from everything else in the genus
  2. What are the four causes?
    1. Formal 
    2. Agent
    3. Material
    4. Final
  3. How do the four causes relate to ethics?
  4. What are the five intellectual virtues?
    1. intuition - inductive reasoning
    2. science - reasoning deductively
    3. Wisdom - seeking God
    4. Prudence - directing morals
    5. Art - making things
  5. What are the three acts of the intellect?
    1. Apprehension
    2. Judgment
    3. Reasoning
  6. What does Aquinas mean by science?
    1. Knowledge: a perfection of the intellect
  7. How is ethics a science?
    1. It is a practical study/knowledge of virtue and vice
  8. What are the 12 components of a voluntary action?
    1. Apprehend the good
    2. Will the good
    3. Judge the universal
    4. Intend the good
    5. Counsel
    6. Consent
    7. Judgment of means
    8. Free choice
    9. Command
    10. Execution
    11. Contemplation
    12. Enjoyment
  9. What is the relation between capacity, habit, act and object?
    1. our capacities allow us to act for some object and doing so repeatedly is a habit
  10. What are the various synonyms for capacity?
    1. ability, potential, ...
  11. What are the various species of habits?
    1. virtue
    2. vice
  12. What are the various synonyms for acts?
    1. works, functions, operations...
  13. What are the capacities of humans?
    1. grow, assimilate nutrition
    2. reproduction
    3. sensation
    4. appetite
    5. intellect
    6. will
  14. What are the capacities of animals?
    1. grow, assimilate nutrition
    2. reproduction
    3. sensation
    4. appetite
  15. How is man a rational animal?
    1. Man is an animal capable of reasoning to the knowledge of universal truths
  16. What does voluntary and involuntary mean?
    1. voluntary - consent of the will
    2. involuntary - without consent of the will
  17. What did the word cardinal originally mean?
    1. From the Latin word cardo, meaning hinge: all the other virtues revolve around these
  18. What does the word virtue originally mean?
    1. From the Latin word vir, meaning manly: denoting manly virtue
  19. What are the four cardinal virtues?
    1. Prudence
    2. Justice
    3. Fortitude
    4. Temperance
  20. What part of the soul is prudence found in?
    1. intellect
  21. What does the word prudent originally mean?
    1. knowing, forseeing
  22. What is the difference between practical and speculative reason?
    1. practical - using truth as a means to an end
    2. speculative - finding truth for its own sake
  23. What does Aquinas mean by science?
    1. knowing
  24. What does he mean by self evident?
    1. that which is a necessary conclusion, needs no deductive reason to come to
  25. What is the difference between a universal and a particular?
    1. Universal: that which applies to everything in the species
    2. Particular: a specific instance or application
  26. What is the role of prudence in relation to the ends and means?
    1. prudence illuminates for us the means deemed most appropriate for achieving antecedently established ends
  27. Be able to give examples of ends and means
    1. Universal - marriage
    2. Particular - the marriage of Jane and John Doe
  28. What is meant by a moral virtue?
    1. those that perfect the appetitive powers of the soul
  29. What is meant by a mean in moral virtues?
    1. a balance between the extremes of excess and deficiency
  30. What is meant by command?
    1. the object of prudence, to direct subordinates in the right course of action
  31. What is the difference between an individual and a common good?
    1. an individual good has as its end the good of a specific person, whereas the common good has as its end the collective good of the many.
  32. What is meant by good counsel?
    1. the research of reason to perform any particular act
  33. What is meant by 'judging well according to common law?'
    1. right judgment about particular practical matters
  34. What is meant by 'judging well according to general law?'
    1. right judgment according to higher principles
  35. When is imprudence a sun?
    1. When it is a negation, not a privation, i.e. the movement or act of reason is in opposition to prudence, i.e. rejecting counsel. Mortal when it involves contempt and rejection of the Divine Law, but venial if acting beside the Law and without contempt and with out detriment to things necessary for salvation.
  36. How/ why is lust a cause of imprudence?
    1. because pleasure corrupts the operation of right reason
  37. What is the difference between prudence of the flesh and craftiness?
    1. prudence of the flesh denotes a man who sees carnal goods as his final end
    2. craftiness is the obtaining of an end, whether good or evil, through counterfeit means
  38. How is right related to justice?
    1. right is the object of justice
  39. What are the two basic kinds of right?
    1. Natural right
    2. Positive right
  40. What constitutes a natural right?
    1. the law of equal returns, unchangeable
  41. What is a positive right?
    1. a thing is adjusted or commensurated to a person by agreement or common consent 
  42. In what part of the soul does justice reside?
    1. the will
  43. How is justice a general virtue?
    1. the good of any virtue is referable to the common good, which justice directs, so that all acts of virtue can pertain to justice, insofar as it directs the common good
  44. How is justice a particular or special virtue?
    1. a legal justice directs a man immediately to the good of another individual
  45. What are the two species of justice?
    1. Distributive (whole in relation to its parts)
    2. Commutative (part to part)
  46. What is restitution?
    1. to reinstate a person in the possession or dominion of his lawful goods, must be given for salvation, must pay back the inequality, not just the amount, including giving what was not given in the first place.
  47. What does Aquinas mean by respect of person?
    1. Respect of someone's position or office rather than their personal merits
  48. Under what conditions is killing another person lawful?
    1. Involuntary, so long as not negligent
    2. self-defense, only so far as it is an unfortunate side-effect
    3. Defense of the community or common good
    4. justice executed by legitimate authority
  49. What is Aquinas' argument for corporal punishment?
    1. for the sake of the whole, a part may suffer, especially for the cure of that part
  50. What is the difference between theft and robbery?
    1. Theft takes in secret whereas robbery takes by force
  51. Which is worse?
    1. robbery
  52. What is calumny?
    1. falsely charging a person with a crime
  53. What are the three species of lying?
    1. Jacose: a lie told in jest
    2. Officious: a lie told for the benefit of something else
    3. Malicious: a lie told in order to do someone/something harm
  54. What is reviling?
    1. the dishonoring of a person
  55. What is backbiting?
    1. speaking against another's name secretly
  56. What does Aquinas mean by tale-bearing?
    1. Speaking evil of persons in order to sever relationships
  57. What is derision?
    1. Shaming a person with words
  58. What does Aquinas mean by cursing?
    1. to command or desire another's evil, as evil, being intent on the evil itself
  59. Why does Aquinas think that usury is wrong?
    1. Usury is to sell what does not exist, because money is consumed by its use, and therefore there is an inequality in transaction, which is injustice
  60. What is the difference between sins of omission and sins of transgression or commission?
    1. a sin of omission is not doing what one ought to do
    2. a transgression is doing what one ought not to do
  61. What does Aquinas mean by religion?
    1. offering service and ceremonial rites to a superior nature that men call divine
  62. How is religion a natural phenomenon, rather than a part of special revelation?
    1. Natural reason tells man that he is subject to a thing higher than himself on account of his personal defects. Naturally, anything superior deserves obeisance from that which is inferior
  63. What is the difference between natural religion and revealed religion?
    1. Natural religion - public signs, philosophy and natural revelation, 
    2. Revealed religion - given by God to private individuals, involves belief
  64. What does Aquinas mean by prayer?
    1. To ask becoming things of God, an act of reason
  65. How is prayer efficacious?
    1. by prayer we make ourselves able to receive what God has already deigned to give us (partial causality)
  66. What are the two theological errors that one must avoid in a discussion of prayer?
    1. God can change His mind
    2. Implying necessity on human affairs
  67. What is meant by contingent?
    1. that which could be otherwise
  68. What is meant by necessary?
    1. that which could not possibly be otherwise
  69. What does Aquinas mean by sacrifice?
    1. Offering certain sensible signs to God as a sign of the subjugation and honor due to Him
  70. What does Aquinas mean by vow?
    1. A binding to do or omit some particular thing
  71. What is meant by an oath?
    1. Calling God to bear witness to the Truth of a statement
  72. Is cursing the same as using foul or obscene language?
    1. no
  73. What is perjury?
    1. to swear falsely under oath
  74. What is piety?
    1. giving honor to one's parents
  75. What is observance?
    1. paying honor to persons in positions of dignity
  76. What is dulia?
    1. paying honor to those humans that are above us
  77. What is latria?
    1. to give honor to God
  78. What is honor?
    1. recognition of merit 
  79. What is the virtue of truth?
    1. speaking the truth with entire self - representing oneself honestly
  80. What are the different kinds of lies?
    1. material lie
    2. formal lie
  81. What is the difference between a material lie and a formal lie?
    1. material - false statement (irrespective of intent)
    2. formal - intention to deceive (irrespective of truth of words)
  82. What is irony?
    1. belittling oneself
  83. What is affability and its corresponding vices?
    1. flattery as excess and quarreling as deficiency
  84. What is liberality and its corresponding vices?
    1. to use money well for the sake of others
      1. covetousness as the deficiency
      2. prodigality as excess
  85. What is equity?
    1. interpreting law according to the spirit of the law and not its letter
  86. How does the Decalogue pertain to the virtues?
    1. They confirm the basic principles of morality. Religion pertains to the first three, piety to the fourth and justice to all the rest
  87. What is fortitude?
    1. that which removes all obstacles to doing good
  88. What is the ultimate act of fortitude?
    1. martyrdom
  89. What is magnanimity?
    1. literally 'great mindedness,' pursuing great things
  90. What is munificence?
    1. greatness in regards money
  91. What is ambition?
    1. excess of magnanimity
  92. What is pusillanimity?
    1. deficiency of magnanimity, literally 'small mindedness'
  93. What is temperance?
    1. the moderation of pleasures
  94. What is shamefacedness?
    1. when one is embarrassed of their sins
  95. How does shamefacedness point to the reality of ethics?
    1. shows a recognition of wrongdoing
  96. What does Aquinas mean by fasting and abstinence?
    1. fasting is withholding  from all food
    2. abstinence is withholding from certain foods
  97. What is the difference between chastity and virginity?
    1. chastity is regulation of venereal acts according to one's state in life
    2. virginity is complete abstinence from venereal acts
  98. Why are lust and drunkenness sinful?
    1. because they draw men away from the order of right reason
  99. What is continence and incontinence?
    1. continence - doing what is right in opposition to desire
    2. incontinence - doing what is wrong in conjunction with desire in opposition of conscience
  100. What is cruelty?
    1. hardness of heart in exacting punishment
  101. What is meekness?
    1. that which moderates anger
  102. What is clemency?
    1. that which moderates punishment
  103. What is modesty?
    1. honesty in outward movements
  104. How is anger a virtue?
    1. when it directs a man to correction of a wrong
  105. What is studiousness?
    1. moderation of desire for knowledge
  106. What is curiosity?
    1. excess with regards studiousness
  107. What are the capital vices?
    1. vainglory
    2. envy
    3. anger
    4. sloth
    5. covetousness
    6. gluttony
    7. lust
  108. What makes a vice capital?
    1. derived from 'caput' meaning head, a vice leading to other vices