Bob Goldman

Bodine 211

Office hours: MW 2:30-4:30; Thursday afternoon

 "...what [we] know is too undigested, too unconnected, too atomic. It is only after close and prolonged reflection that we begin to see what was essential and what unimportant, to see why things happened as they did, and to write history instead of newspapers." - R.G. Collingwood, Speculum Mentis: The Map of Knowledge

Without social theories, histories cannot be constructed. Without social theories we are unable to make sense of the world in which we live. We normally make sense of our everyday life by means of informal, tacitly shared, social theories. These informal theories come to us by virtue of our class position, or our gender position, or race or religion, etc. This introductory course in social theory examines the origins and development of 'western' social theories in relation to the historical context of industrial capitalism and the democratic revolutions in Western Europe and the United States. Our study of social theory will focus on the "classic" formal sociological theories of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber. Prior to this, however, we will need to trace out some of the 'precursors' to this body of social theory. We begin by examining the early liberal social theory of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. We will then take a summary tour of Enlightenment social philosophers and the works of thinkers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Montesquieu and Mary Wollstonecraft who believed in a relationship between Reason and Human Freedom. We next turn to the conservative reaction (e.g., Edmund Burke) against Enlightenment views regarding the relationship between individuals and society. From here we take up very briefly Immanuel Kant's critique of the empiricist claims made by Enlightenment thinkers as they sought to justify scientific laws to guide human Progress. At this juncture, the development of social theory moves in multiple directions. One direction transformed empiricism into "positivism" (as characterized by August Comte). G.F.W. Hegel's philosophy of dialectical relations defined another direction and it will be important to dwell on his perspective as a prelude to studying the theoretical opus of Marx, especially as a guide to Marx's method. Then it's on to the 'classical' theorists - Marx, Durkheim and Weber.

This is but an introduction to the basics of western social theory. Though we haven't the time to take up the many twentieth-century theorists whose works are carved up in the Lemert volume, we'll touch on theories relating the self to society as well theories about the social nature of language -- from symbolic interactionism to structural semiotics to Foucault's rethinking of power. There are also critical responses to Western social theory as a whole that cannot be left silent. We conclude by encountering feminist and black theoretical challenges including the works of thinkers like W.E.B. DuBois, Simone de Beauvoir, Cornel West and Patricia Hill Collins.

Texts:

Anthony Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory. Cambridge University Press, 1971. (CMST)

C.B. Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism. Oxford University Press, 1962.

Charles Lemert (ed.), Social Theory: The Multicultural & Classic Readings. Westview Press, 1993.

In an effort to hold down the number of library reserve readings because of the problems generated by the heightened enforcement of copyright law, we will try using the Lemert reader in place of many of the readings formerly used in this course. However, a limited number of reserve readings will still be required.

One disadvantage of the Lemert edition is that it fractures some works into unnecessarily abbreviated readings. This is especially unsatisfying with respect to Marx, Durkheim and Weber. So, you will want to augment these readings with the fuller versions available either on the World Wide Web available via a Theory Portals located in the Sociology-Anthropology home page, or in the library.

Course requirements:

Your attendance, preparation, and participation are required. These will be weighted as fifty percent of your overall grade. Failure to adequately prepare, participate or attend class will be reflected in this portion of the grade. My expectation is that students who have read and prepared for class would be capable of taking the lead in class in raising key critical questions and answers regarding the theories being studied.

A chief measure of your preparation and participation will be outside of class. To facilitate greater dialogue and interaction among student peers, I ask that you form groups to work as writing and reading teams. To provide greater focus to your digestion and discussion of these theories, each writing and reading group will be provided accounts for use of a software program called Pacerforum that is accessible from Throckmorten and Watzek computer spaces. Instructions for getting and using your Pacerforum account will be provided. Using Pacerforum, individuals and groups will be able to engage in questioning and clarifying the theories that we are studying. The writing you do on the Pacerforum will provide me with a measure of your preparation and participation in this course (and as such this writing will figure prominently in accounting for this fifty percent of your course grade). We will discuss the use of Pacerforum at greater length in class.

The remainder of the course grade will be based on examination questions. Throughout portions of the term I will be posing questions, and asking you to write about them. The mid-term exam will be a take-home that consists of a selection from the list of questions already posed (I will specify a limited number of pages). The final will be handled in a similar way.

Please take pride in the written work that you turn in. Please proofread what you have done. Given the reward structures of capitalist society, it seems that it has become necessary to provide some disincentives to proofread one's own work. If a finished exam contains spelling errors (especially a theorist's name), grammatical errors or incomplete sentences, etc., I will deduct from the overall grade.

Readings:

C.B. Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism.

Irving Zeitlin, Ideology & the Development of Sociological Theory, 2nd ed., Prentice-Hall, 1981. (IDST) On reserve.

Michel Foucault, "What is Enlightenment?" On the internet and on reserve.

Mary Wollstonecraft, "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman." Available on the Internet and on reserve.

Zeitlin,"The Romantic-Conservative Reaction," IDST, pp.37-47. On reserve.

C.B. Macpherson, Burke, pp.1-7; 51-70; 71-74. On reserve.

Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, pp.30-34; 123-129. (a critique of empiricism). On reserve.

G.W.F Hegel, "Master-Slave Dialectic," from Phenomenology of Mind. pp.41-50. On reserve.

Audre Lorde, "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House," in Lemert, pp.484-487.

Karl Marx

Emile Durkheim

Max Weber

Marx, Weber & Durkheim in Critical Perspective

Self, Society & Knowledge

Race, Gender & Critiques of Social Theory

Social Semiotics