MLS 605 Social Theory Assignments

You have freedom in the ways that you meet the objectives specified in this syllabus. Discuss modifications you wish to make with the instructor.

Three activities are listed below. They provide the opportunity to explore areas of particular interest to you. These areas should be pursued in a manner that will fulfill all of the course objectives.

1. Turn in unit reading reaction papers. These short essays may summarize content of the readings, however they should also include your reaction to and synthesis of the primary and supplemental material. Each paper should be double-spaced and follow the citation style appropriate to your sub-discipline (i.e. APA citation style is not appropriate for most social science journals).
8 reading reaction papers = 1/3 of your grade

2. As we speak, so we are. Engaging this material requires study, reflection and interpretation. The questions we ask are often more instructive than the answers given.

I have developed a list of ideas related to classic, modern and contemporary social theory. As you read, define these terms. Note, where you can, who coined them, how the definitions change. In your annotations, keep a list of bibliographic citations where the term is first used or where a particularly clear or useful definition given.

Your annotated definitions (quality is more important than quantity - you need not complete the list and do augment it with terms of your own choosing) are due at the end of the semester = 1/3 of your grade.

3. Choose ONE of the following:

3a. Scholarly paper (15-20 pages, citation style appropriate to your sub-discipline) showing critical thought, analysis and synthesis applying and or critiquing one (or more) theories of social philosophy as they pertain to a current social theoretic dilemma. This issue can be personal, social, or professional.

3b. Complete an individualized activity or project. The focus of this project should be one that is relevant to your educational goals and interests, acceptable to the instructor, and pertinent to the course objectives outlined above. This activity may take may take many forms; e.g. an article submitted for publication, documentation of the application of theory in a real-world conflict resolution, a field study in applied social science, or a creative pursuit showing command and application of social theory.

Your final project, due at the end of the semester = 1/3 of your grade.

Unit 1 Orientation	Read: Lemert's Social Theory (hereafter ST) (ST) Introductory Essay: Social Theory Its Uses and Pleasures pp 1-20 (ST) Modernity's Classical Age pp 21-27 Review the People and Timeline resources For background on intellectual history skim the following essays Set 1 by Steven Kreis Modern European Intellectual History: An Introduction The New Intellectual Order: Man, Nature and Society The Triumph of Science and the Heavenly City of the 18th Century Philosophe The Vision of Human Progress: Vico, Gibbon and Condorcet The Utopian Socialists: Robert Owen and Saint-Simon The Age of Ideologies (1): General Introduction The Age of Ideologies (2): Reflections on Karl Marx The Age of Ideologies (3): The World of Auguste Comte Darwin Friedrich Nietzsche and the Birth of Modernism set 2 by James Heartfield Intellectual currents of the twentieth century Analytic philosophy and the Vienna Circle American pragmatism Analysts and therapists Structuralists and functionalists Phenomenologists Existentialists Post-modernism For a brief look at the precursors of anthropology skim On the Origins of Modern Theoretical Anthropology Chicago SSR Prelim Notes The society for social research, department of sociology, University of Chicago, doctoral students post their cram notes for the preliminary exams. These are useful potted histories and worth a look. The introduction and index is here. Rousseau, Jean. 'On the Social Contract.' TS, pp. 119-25 Spencer, Herbert. 'The Nature of Society.' TS, pp. 139-43 Hobbes, Thomas. 'Of the Natural Condition of Mankind.' Theories of Society. Edited by Talcott Parsons et al., pp. 99-101. Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. Garden City NY: Anchor Books, 1969, vol. 1, pt. 1 (chs. 4, 5), pt. 2 (chs. 1, 2, 4): pp. 58-98, 173-79, 189-95.
Unit 2	Karl Marx 1818-1883
	(ST) pp 29-69 Estranged Labour from Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 Tucker pp 70-79 Camera Obscura from the German Ideology Tucker pp 154 Class Struggle from Manifesto of the Communist Party Tucker 473-479 The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte Tucker pp 594-607 On Imperialism in India Tucker pp 662-664 The Values of Commodities from Capital, Vol. I Tucker pp 302-314 Fetishism of Commodities from Capital, Vol. I Tucker pp 319-322 Labour-Power and Capital from Capital, Vol. I Tucker 336-343 Engels, from the Origin of Family Private Property and the State Tucker pp 735-6, 757-8. Chicago SSR Prelim Notes Marx, Karl. The Marx-Engels Reader. 2nd ed. Edited by Robert C. Tucker. New York: W. W. Norton, 1978, Marx on the History of His Opinions pp. 3-5, version 2 A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right (pp. 16-25) version 2 Estranged Labour 70-81, version 2 German Ideology 143-75, version 2 version 3 Wage, Labor and Capital 203-17, version 2 The Critique of Capitalism 224-26, The Method of Political Economy 236-44, version 2 Commodities 302-12, The Fetishism of Commodities 319-29, version 2 Production of Relative Surplus Value 403-417version 2 Manifesto of the Communist Party 469-91, version 2 The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte 594-617. version 2 Historical materialism and the critique of capitalism Mathieu Deflem
Unit 3	Max Weber 1864-1920
	(ST) pp 99-125 The Spirit of Capitalism and the Iron Cage from The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. The Bureaucratic Machine from Economy and Society pp 196-198 224-230 What is Politics from Essays in Sociology pp 77-79 The Types of Legitimate Domination from Economy and Society 212-216 Class, Status, Party from Economy and Society pp 927-939 Weber and Anthropology Chicago SSR Prelim Notes Weber, Max. Economy and Society. Edited by Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich. New York: Bedminister Press, 1968, vol. 1, Conceptual Exposition, pp. 3-38 (Basic Terms), 212-54 (Legitimate Domination), 926-40 ( Class, Status, Party), 956-1005 (Bureaucracy). _________. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Translated by Talcott Parsons. New York: Scribner, 1976. _________. Max Weber on the Methodology of the Social Sciences. Translated and edited by Edward Shils and Henry A. Finch. Glencoe IL: Free Press, 1949, pp. 50-112 (Objectivity essay). _________. General Economic History. New York: Collier, 1961, chs. 22, 27-30 (skip pp. 239- 49 [pp. 323-37 in Free Press edition]). _________. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. Translated by Hans H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills. New York: Oxford University Press, 1946, pp. 77-156, 267-301, 323-59 (Vocation essays, World Religion essays); (cf. corrected translation of pp. 293-94 in Appendix of Levine, The Flight from Ambiguity). The Rationalization of Society Mathieu Deflem
Unit 4	Emile Durkheim 1858–1917
	(ST) pp 69-99 Anomie and the Modern Division of Labor from Notes on Occupational Groups Division of Labor pp1-4 Sociology and Social Facts from Suicide a Study in Sociology pp 3-4 Suicide and Modernity Suicide a Study in Sociology pp 246-258 Primitive Classification and Social Knowledge from Primitive Classification pp 55-62, 81-88 The Cultural Logic of Collective Representation from Elementary Forms of the Religious Life pp 466-96 Chicago SSR Prelim Notes Durkheim, Emile On the Division of Labor in Society. New York: Free Press, 1964, book 1, chs. 1-4, 7; book 2, ch. 2; book 3, chs. 1-3. _________. 'Types of Suicide.' TS, pp. 213-18. _________. 'Anomic Suicide.' TS, pp. 916-29. _________. 'On the Normality of Crime.' TS, pp. 872-76. _________. Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. New York: Free Press, 1947 (orig. 1915). 'Introduction'; book 1, ch. 1; book 2, ch. 7; book 3, ch. 1; 'Conclusion.' The Science of Society as a Moral Order Mathieu Deflem
Unit 5	Psychoanalysis
	Sigmund Freud 1856–1939. (ST) pp 125–148 The Psychical Apparatus and the Theory of Instincts Dream-Work and Interpretation Oedipus, the Child Remembering, Repeating, and Working-Through The Return of the Repressed in Social Life Civilization and the Individual Chicago SSR Prelim Notes Freud, Sigmund. 'The Libido's Attachments to Objects'and 'The Ego and the Superego.' TS, pp. 729-39. _________. 'Anxiety as Motivation' and 'Mechanisms of Defense.' TS, pp. 799-818. _________. 'Internal Sources of Behavioral Instability and Their Control.' TS, pp. 940-44.
	Eric Fromm 1900-1980 (ST) Psychoanalysis and Sociology pp 221–224
	Erik H. Erikson 1902-1994 (ST) Youth and American Identity pp 326-329
Unit 6	Self and Others
	Georg Simmel 1858–1918 (ST) The Stranger pp 184–188 Chicago SSR Prelim Notes Simmel, Georg Georg Simmel on Individuality and Social Forms.. Edited by Donald N. Levine. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971, chs. 3, 5, 6, 7, 16, 24. _________.The Sociology of Georg Simmel. Translated by Kurt H. Wolff. Glencoe IL: Free Press, 1964, Pt. 2 [ch. 1 ([the sociological] significance of [group size]), ch. 3 ('The Isolated Individual and the Dyad'), ch. 4 ('The Triad')], pp. 307-16 ('Knowledge, Truth, and Falsehood in Human Relations'), pp. 379-95 ('Faithfulness and Gratitude'). Forms of Social Life Mathieu Deflem
	Charles Horton Cooley 1864–1929 (ST) The Looking Glass Self pp 188 191 Chicago SSR Prelim Notes Cooley, Charles H. 'Primary Groups.' TS, pp. 315-18.
	George Herbert Mead 1863–1931 (ST) The Self, the I and the Me pp 224-229 Chicago SSR Prelim Notes Mead, George H. TS, pp. 163-617 ('The I and the Me'), pp. 739-40 ('Taking the Role of the Other'), pp. 829-30 ('Internalized Others and the Self'), pp. 999-1004 ('From Gesture to Symbol'). Mind Self Society Mathieu Deflem
	Simone de Beauvoir 1908-1986 (ST) Woman as Object pp 337-340
	Erving Goffman 1922-1983 (ST) On Face Work pp 330-334 Chicago SSR Prelim Notes Erving Goffman 1 Erving Goffman 2 Goffman deflem
Unit 7	Structuralism
	Ferdinand de Saussure 1857-1913 (ST) Arbitrary Social Values and the Linguistic Sign pp 148-157
	Claude Levi Strauss 1908 - (ST) The Structural Study of Myth pp
Barthes	Roland Barthes 1915-1981 (ST) Semiological Prospects 314-318
Althusser	Louis Althusser 1918-1990 (ST) Why Theory? pp 317-321

Unit 8	Choose a tradition or a thinker, research in depth, write a reading reaction
Final Project

Orientation

Chicago SSR Prelim Notes

Chicago SSR Prelim Notes

Chicago SSR Prelim Notes

Psychoanalysis

Self and Others

Chicago SSR Prelim Notes

Chicago SSR Prelim Notes

Chicago SSR Prelim Notes

Chicago SSR Prelim Notes

Structuralism