How much do ideas actually matter for shaping individual action and for historical events? Do ideas really matter? How free are people (you) to simply
act on the basis of ideas, apart from the physical impulses and pressures
which influence you, if at all? This question matters for both the social
sciences and for history
How has the assumption of philosophical materialism typically held in history
and the social sciences affected perception of the importance of ideas for
human action and historical events?
O it encouraged the intellectual class to have more respect for the critical role of
ideas in influencing human behavior than we had previously considered in Western
history.
it encouraged the intellectual class to have more respect for the critical role of
ideas than was appreciated in other cultures
it encouraged the intellectual class to have more respect for the power of ideas to
move individual behavior and social events than people typically did in prior eras in
the West or in other cultures
No effect. Such philosophical assumptions have no effect on social theory.
a negative effect, i. e. encouraged a greater skepticism about the importance of
ideas. As the social sciences increasingly came to assume that there is nothing but
matter, people (you) are essentially animals like rats or roaches with no souls or
free will or ultimate ideals to act upon This implied people and ideas themselves
are simply products of social conditions. Thus the social sciences and history also
came to be increasingly skeptical of the role of independent role and importance of
ideas at all for motivating human behavior.