Sociology 20005

(Classical) Sociological Theory—

Themes and Methods
Tuesday and Thursday, 1:30pm-2:50pm, Pick 016

Andreas Glaeser
SSRB 401d-e
a-glaeser@uchicago.edu
702-8679
Office hours: M 1:30-3

Teaching Assistants: Michael Castelle (Office hours: Th 12-1:30pm, Pick 016)

In Europe and European conquered America, the systematic inquiry into the 'good
society,' that is reflections on how society should be constituted to make human beings
'fulfilled' (that is “virtuous,” “happy” or whatever else is taken to make human life
valuable) is as old as philosophy itself. It is practiced today under the general label of
"normative social (or political) theory." Only the 19th century, however, saw the
emergence of sustained and systematic inquiries into how particular social arrangements
do work (as a matter of fact). Thus started empirical investigations of how particular
social arrangements have come about, how they are maintained and how they change
given their internal dynamics. Such inquiries fall under the rubric of what is today seen as
"(positive) social science." Indeed, the social sciences as we know them today have
emerged in response to the rapid social changes which were quickly transforming the
everyday life of wide swaths of the population in Western Europe and North America
after the French Revolution. History became the inquiry into the past of the newly
forming nation states which were thus endowed with an aura of permanence; (especially
on the European continent) economics (alongside law) became the discipline to help the
new nation state manage these new social arrangements; anthropology became the
inquiry into the "traditional" social arrangements of the non-European people which
Europeans and US-Americans came to dominate; sociology finally came to be the
discipline to study the internal workings and the origins of, above all, the "modern
condition." Sociological theory at its inception was a theory of modernity that is a theory
of a particular social present which is now history. The discipline of sociology, its
particular modes of inquiry took shape then; these theories are relevant today precisely to
the degree that they tell us something about our social present. Thus, although we will
read the sociological classics as theories of modernity, that is their present, I will
encourage you throughout the quarter to think our current world with these concepts.
Where do they still offer fresh insights? Where do they fail?

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Guiding questions for readings

Throughout the readings you should keep the following questions in mind.

1. How does the author conceive the quality of social relations in which people live?
How has the quality of relations shifted from "traditional" to "modern" societies?
2. How is modern social life organized into different kinds of pursuits? What is the
relationship between various parts of this organization?
3. What is the philosophical anthropology of the author? What is, for him (unfortunately
we only have male authors to consider here) the nature of human beings and how is this
nature malleable? What is the predicament of the "modern self"? How is it seen by these
authors as differing from selves in other (e.g. “traditional”) social arrangements?
4. Are there thought patterns which are characteristic of “modern” social life? Why do
they, according to the author, differ from “traditional” thought patterns?
5. Are there emotions and moods which are more characteristic of “modern” life? Why do
they, according to the author, differ from “traditional” thought patters?
6. How is the human body, the ways in which it is carried affected by modern life?
7. How are the qualities of social relations the forms of social organization, the thought
patterns, emotional and mood patterns, the body and its comportment related to each
other?
8. How does the author explain social change?

Requirements:

1. Students have to participate actively throughout the quarter.

2. Analytical Essays: All students have to write a number of analytical essays adding up
to a value of 9 points (of a total of 18 possible points which equals the number of class
sessions with meetings). The essay topics are listed in the meeting schedule. Essays are
about 800 (+/-10%) words long. The word count has to be printed under your name.
Essays are to be dropped in the assignment folder on chalk. They are due at class time.
Four points must be taken through week 5. Students who have not done so will
automatically be asked to withdraw from this class.

3. The final take home examination will consist in the analysis of some empirical data
with the help of the concepts we have learned to master during the course.

The grade weights are as follows. Oral participation: 20%, analytical essays 45%; final
35%.

Texts:]

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All texts are on Regenstein-Reserve. Most texts have also been ordered for purchase at
the Seminary Coop (marked with an asterisk)

1. *Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1997. The Discourses and other early political writings.
Edited by Victor Gourevitch. Cambridge: Cambridge Univeristy Press.
2. *Marx, Karl and Engels, Friedrich. 1978. The Marx-Engels Reader, second edition,
Robert Tucker, editor. New York: Norton. [TUCKER]
3. Marx, Karl. Grundrisse (Sketches for a Critique of Political Economy), Introduction:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1857/grundrisse/ch01.htm
4. *Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. London: Routledge.
5. *Weber, Max. 1946. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. H. Gerth and C. Wright
Mills Editors. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [G&M]
6. *Durkheim, Emile. 1997 . The Division of Labor in Society. New York: Free Press.
[DOL]
7. *Durkheim, Emile. 1995. The Elementary Froms of Religions Life. Translated by
Karen E. Fields New York: Free Press.
8. *Durkheim, Emile. 1982. Rules of the Sociological Method. New York: Free Press.
9. Simmel, Georg. 2009. Sociology: Inquiry into the Construction of Social Forms:
Leiden: Brill.
10. *Elias, Norbert.2000. The Civilizing Process. Oxford: Blackwell.
11. *Adorno, Theodor W. and Marx Horkheimer. 2002. Dialectic of Enlightenment.
Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Meeting and Reading Schedule:

Week 1

Tuesday, 1 April: Introduction—Imainging the Social

Introduction: “The Social Roller-Coaster of the Long 19th Century”

Rousseau’ian Beginnings

Thursday, 3 April: The Birth of Historical Consciousness

Rousseau, Second Discourse, pp. 124-188 (plus Rousseau’s notes # 9, 10,

15)
Analytical Essay 1: Some interpreters have seen in Rousseau’s essay a call to return
to nature? Do you think this captures Rousseau’s intention?

Week 2

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 Karl Marx

Tuesday, 8 April: History, Ideas Practice

Marx: The German Ideology Part I (146-200)

Analytical Essay 2: Explain what Marx means when he says that it is being that
determines consciousness and not the other way round?

Thursday, 10 April: Capital I

Marx: Capital (Tucker pp. 302-344)

Analytical Essay 3: Explain the relationship between Marx’ concepts of exchange

value, use value, and value?

Week 3

Tuesday, 15 April: Capital II

Marx: Capital (Tucker pp. 344-438)

Analytical Essay 4: What is the relationship between Marx’ concept of surplus

value and his general formula for capital?

Thursday, 17 April: Dialectics

Grundrisse: Introduction

Analytical Essay 5: What does Marx mean with dialectics?

Week 4
Max Weber

Tuesday, 22 April: Capitalism once more

Weber: Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, “Author’s

Introduction”,
Weber: G&M, ch. 11 “The Social Psychology of World Religions”

Analytical Essay 6: What is a process of rationalization? Describe its components

and dynamics. Refer to one of Weber’s examples.

Thursday, 24 April: Religion

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 Weber: Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism,
pp. 13-79; 102-125

Analytical Essay 7: How can Weber explain the emergence of capitalism culturally?
How does he plausibilize the arch from theological doctrine to behavior even among
people who do not share the doctrine?

Week 5

Tuesday, 29 April: Institutional Dynamics

Weber: Religious Rejections of the World and Their Directions (G&M

pp.323-359)

Analytical Essay 8: Why is Weber concerned with different spheres of life? How
does his account here contribute to our understanding of social dynamics?

Thursday, 1 May: Interpretative Sociology

Weber: Economy and Society 1-28 (e-reserve)

Weber: Objectivity/selections (e-reserve)

Analytical Essay 9: “What is Weber’s theory of action?” (value: 1 point)

Emile Durkheim

Week 6

Tuesday, 6 May: Social Cohesion through Similarity

Durkheim: Division of Labor intro, Part I Introduction and chs. 1, 2, 3

Analytical Essay 10: Why does Durkheim create the concepts of mechanical and
organic solidarity?

Thursday, 8 May: Social Cohesion through functional Differentiation

Durkheim: Division of Labor, Part I ch. 5 Part II, ch. 2 Part II,
Conclusions
Analytical essay 11: Explain Durkheim’s theory of social development. Describe
precisely how and why it takes a particular direction.

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Week 7

Tuesday, 13 May: Durkheim on Method

Durkheim: Rules, Preface, chs 1,2,5

Analytical Essay 12: Why does Durkheim not provide us with what we call today a
microsociology?

Georg Simmel

Thursday, 15 May: An Interactionist Foundation for Sociology

Simmel: Sociology, chapter 1, e-reserve

Analytical Essay 13: Why does Simmel distinguish between matter and form?
Discuss an example in detail paying particular attention to the insight this
distinction can generate.

Week 8

Tuesday, 20 May: Individuality

Simmel: Sociology, chapter 6 (intersection of social circles), e-reserve

Analytical Essay 14: Wherein lies the advantage of analyzing social wholes in terms
of intersecting social circles rather than in terms of groups or classes?

Norbert Elias

Thursday, 22 May: The concentration of power

Elias: Process of Civilization: Synopsis pp. 363-396

Analytical Essay 15: How does Elias explain the emergence of foresight, a wider or
deeper temporal horizon for actors?

Week 9

Tuesday, 27 May: Internalization of External Pressure

Elias: Synopsis, pp. 397-448

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Analytical Essay 16: What is the role of shame in Elias’ theory?

Critical Theory

Thursday 29 May: The bad in the good

Adorno/Horkheimer: The Concept of Enlightenment, 1-34

Analytical Essay 17: What are the reasons why processes of enlightenment
undermine their own apparent intentions?

Week 10

Tuesday, 3 June: The role of mass media

Adorno/Horkheimer: Culture Industry, 94-136

Analytical Essay 18: What is the role of the mass media in the reproduction of class
boundaries?

FINAL EXAM HANDED OUT