PART ONE: THE EMERGENCE OF SOCIOLOGICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICALTHEORY

What Is Theory and What Does It Do?

Collins and Makowsky, Introduction: Society and Illusion, pp. 1-14 and Ch. 1, The Prophets of Paris: Saint Simon and Comte, pp. 15-25. Saltzman, Ch. 1, Introduction to Theory, pp. 1-12 Robert Wood, An Introduction to Thomas S. Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

PART TWO: THE CLASSICAL PERIOD: SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY TAKE SHAPE IN TANDEM

I. Karl Marx: Political Economy and Cultural Materialism

Collins and Makowsky, Ch. 2: Sociology in the Underground: Karl Marx, pp. 26-42 (omit last section on Engels) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, Section l: Bourgeois and Proletarians (1848)" Marx, "Preface to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859)" Lewis Coser, A Summary of Ideas : "Class Theory," "Dynamics of Change," and A Sociology of Knowledtge," at Dead Sociologists Index (click on each separately) Marx on the "opium of the people" Saltzman, Ch. 4: Determining Factors: Cultural Materialism and Political Economy, pp. 49-66, and "Contra Materialism," pp. 130-131. Marx and MicroCase Exercise

II. Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy and Liberty

Collins and Makowsky, Ch. 3: The Last Gentleman: Alexis de Tocqueville, pp. 48-60. Recommended for Sakai discussion forum: Robert Putnam, "Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital"

III. Friedrich Nietzsche: The Discovery of the Irrational and the Death of God

Collins and Makowsky, Ch. 4, Nietzsche's Madness, pp. 61-75. Nietzsche, "The Madman."

IV. Social Darwinism, Evolutionism and Liberalism/Utilitarianism

Ch. 5: Do-Gooders, Evolutionists, and Racists, pp. 76-92. Saltzman, Ch. 6, Transformation Through Time: History and Evolution, pp. 87-111, and "Contra Evolutionism," pp. 133-134.

In-Class Exam (multiple-choice)

V. Emile Durkheim and Anthropological Functionalism

Ch. 6: "Dreyfus's Empire: Emile Durkheim," pp. 93-106. Excerpts from Durkheim, Simpson and Giddens on "Crime" (online) Lewis Coser, "Individual and Society," at Dead Sociologists Index (online) and Kenneth Thompson, "Suicide" Excerpts from Durkheim, Coser and Thompson, "Religion" Saltzman, Ch. 2, Interdependence in Human Life: Social Structure and Function, pp. 13-30, and "Contra Functionalism," pp. 128-129. Durkheim and MicroCase Paper

VI. Max Weber and the Explication of Cultural Meaning in Anthropology

Ch. 7: Max Weber: The Disenchantment of the World, pp. 107-128. Excerpts from Max Weber, The Methodology of the Social Sciences Excerpts from Max Weber on stratification and charisma in Economy and Society Excerpts from Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Saltzman, Ch. 5, Coherence in Culture: Dominant Patterns and Underlying Structures, pp. 67-86, and "Contra Culture Patterns," pp. 131-132. David Berreby, "Unabsolute Truths: Clifford Geertz," Common Knowledge 6,1 (1977) [Sakai Resources] Video: Margaret Mead: An Observer Observed

VII. Sigmund Freud: Society, the Unconscious and Repression

Ch. 8, Sigmund Freud: Conquistador of the Irrational, pp. 129-147.

Exam (in-class multiple-choice and take-home essay)

PART THREE: TWENTIETH-CENTURY CROSS-CURRENTS

I. Micro-Sociology And Agency: Symbolic Interactionism and Social Process

Collins and Makowsky, Ch. 9: The Discovery of the Invisible World: Simmel, Cooley, and Mead, pp. 148-165; and Ch. 14: Erving Goffman and the Theater of Social Encounters, pp. 229-241. Herbert Blumer, "Society as Symbolic Interaction," in his Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method (University of California Press, 1969). [Sakai Resources] Saltzman, Ch. 3, Agency in Human Action: Social Processes and Transactions, pp. 31-48, and "Contra Processualism," pp. 129-130.

II. W.E.B. DuBois and African American Sociology

Ch. 11, "The Emergence of African-American Sociology: DuBois, Frazier, Drake, and Clayton," pp. 175-190. Video: W.E.B. Dubois: A Biography in Four Voices (Part 1)

III. Structural Functionalism and Postwar Sociology

Ch. 12: The Construction of the Social System: Pareto and Parsons, pp. 191-205 (skip section on Pareto).

 

IV.  Foucault, Bourdieu, and Postmodernism

Collins and Makowsky, Ch. 15: first two sections, pp. 242-250. Michel Foucault, "Panopticism" "Everything is Social": In Memoriam, Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) Saltzman, Ch. 7, "Critical Advocacy: Feminism and Postmodernism, pp. 113-125 and "Contra Feminism" and "Contra Postmodernism," pp. 134-138. Explore: Eastern State Penitentiary (a Philadelphia panopticon)

 

Saltzman, Concluding part of Ch. 8, pp. 138-142
Stephen Cole, "Why Sociology Doesn't Make Progress Like the Natural Sciences." Sociological Forum 8,1 (1994) [two parts, Sakai Resources]
Randall Collins, "The Sociological Eye and Its Blinders," Contemporary Sociology 27:1 (January 1998) [Sakai Resources]

Final Exam

 

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