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Home , Erik Olin Wright, Erving Goffman, Randall Collins

Classical 475 Spring 2015

Class meetings: 2:30-3:45 P.M. Mondays and Wednesdays Classroom: Ingraham 214 Instructor: Matthew Kearney E-mail: [email protected] Office location: Sewell Building, Room 3455 Office hours: 4-6 P.M. Mondays

Introductory Comments This course has two complementary goals: 1. Students will learn how to construct theoretical arguments about empirical material. 2. Students will learn the basic concepts and approaches of canonical social theorists.

Throughout the semester, we will attempt to bring these two goals together. That is, we will draw on canonical approaches in the process of constructing our own arguments about . This means we understand what major theorists say, critique what they say, and then – potentially – modify their arguments to construct our own explanations of social phenomenon. The premise of this course is that we will construct better explanations after we have seriously studied the classical sociological theory.

Notice that serious canonical study is not our end goal; it is only the first step. It is not enough to interpret the classical theories; the point is to change them. The class discussions, lectures, and paper assignments all aim at this goal: using the classical theorists to come to our own understanding of society. The fact that we are authorized to disagree with or modify canonical concepts does not mean we should do so lightly. We have to do serious study first, and we need to take that word 'serious' seriously. We do not discard a until and unless we have an alternative theory of comparable scope with which to replace it. This is an intimidating process, and it is supposed to be, but somebody has to do it, and it is going to be us. One semester, frankly, is not very much time for a task of this order, but we will at least get a good start.

We will focus on five theorists: Plato, (as summarized by Frederick Engels), Émile Durkheim, , and V.I. Lenin. Weekly assignments are specified below. At the end of the semester, we will read one another's work.

Obviously, far more classical and semi-classical social theory exists than we can read in one semester. In addition to the weekly reading assignments, I have listed some of the important work that we are not covering under the label "optional supplementary reading." The authors listed here are Julia Adams, Jeffrey Alexander, , , Raewyn Connel, Karen E. Fields, , , Mark Gould, Georg Lukács, R.R. Palmer, , Wolfgang Schluchter, and . To be clear, this reading is not required. Placing an optional supplementary reading in a particular week is not meant to suggest that it is not relevant to other weeks as well. All students are welcome to do as much of

1 the additional reading as they wish. Graduate students in this class, and undergraduate students considering graduate work in the social sciences, should do some of this additional reading.

Books to acquire (also on reserve in College Library) Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo by Plato, translated by G.M.A. Grube

The Elementary Forms of Religious Life by Émile Durkheim, translated by Karen E. Fields

What Is To Be Done? by V.I. Lenin, translated by Joe Fineberg and George Hanna

Note: These books are available for purchase at the Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative, 426 West Gilman Street, but you are not required to purchase them there. All other required are available online through learn@UW.

Grading University of -Madison Grading Standards: A Excellent 93-100 AB Very Good 86-93 B Good 80-86 BC Moderately Good 75-80 C Fair 70-74 D Poor 60-69 F Failure <60

Assignment 1: 5%. Assignment 2: 25% Assignment 3: 15% Final Paper: 40% Class Participation: 15%

Comment on participation: Active discussion is expected in response to assigned readings, what the instructor says, and what classmates say. A student who speaks up and says something relevant at least once a week will get full credit on participation. If a couple of weeks pass and we don’t hear from you, this portion of your grade will quickly tick downward.

Attendance policy: Attendance is required. You are allowed one unexcused absence without penalty. Each additional unexcused absence will take one point off your final grade. Note that a substantial number of unexcused absences becomes a significant grade penalty. To get an absence excused, notify me by e-mail before class begins why you are unable to come. Legitimate reasons include illness worse than a cold, being in serious pain, a plane that was supposed to arrive in plenty of time is delayed, etc. If you are in the rare situation of having a genuine emergency, just inform me when you can and I will retroactively excuse your absence. If your illness is so bad that you are physically unable to type an e-mail before class time, this counts as an emergency. If you have a lot of emergencies in the course of a semester, I reserve the right to start asking for notes from clinicians or other authorities. If you anticipate problems with attendance, drop the class or sign up for another section.

2 Final comment on grading: If I get the impression more than one or two students are not doing the reading, I reserve the right to begin testing you in class. I might get this impression if a sufficient number of students respond with silence when I ask about the reading, or are otherwise not participating in class. If I need to start testing you in class, the tests would not be announced in advance, anyone not present (without a pre-approved excuse) would get a zero, and the questions might be rather difficult. I would adjust the grading rubric, and the more tests I feel I have to give, the larger the portion of your final grade these would become. As long as people are taking the class seriously and making some sort of visible sincere effort, I will be perfectly happy and friendly. If you remain enrolled in this course, do everyone a favor by showing up, doing the reading, and having something to say or question to ask about it.

Accommodations (aka no grading penalty) This class will provide accommodations for religious observances. If there are dates during this semester for which you will require accommodation, e-mail these dates to the instructor by the second week of class, that is, by Wednesday, February 4.

If you are a varsity athlete, a member of the marching band, or a member of some other university-sponsored group whose activities require travel, and you have unavoidable travel obligations that conflict with class meeting times, provide the instructor a copy of all the dates for which you will be absent by Wednesday, February 4.

This class will provide accommodations for any disabilities acknowledged by the University of Wisconsin McBurney Disability Resource Center. If you have a McBurney visa, provide a copy of it to the instructor by Wednesday, January 28.

Comments on Plagiarism The Department of Sociology uses powerful anti-plagiarism software that compares student work to a vast, comprehensive data base of on-line texts, and to papers submitted to Sociology courses in previous semesters. Any written work submitted to this class may be processed through the anti-plagiarism software. In addition, you are hereby notified that any written work you submit to this class may be entered into the anti-plagiarism data base so that it cannot be plagiarized in future semesters. A clear definition of plagiarism as well as about disciplinary sanctions for academic misconduct may be found at the Dean of Students web site: www.wisc.edu/students/saja/misconduct/UWS14.html

Knowledge of these rules is your responsibility, and lack of familiarity with the rules does not excuse misconduct. The paragraph above is a Sociology department statement on plagiarism, which I agree with completely. The one below is from me personally.

To plagiarize is to lie and to cheat. When you represent someone else's work as your own, you steal from the person who actually did the work. This harms the victim on a deeper level than stealing their material possessions, especially if that person is a professional scholar. You have not only taken away part of their livelihood – on some level you have taken a part of their mind and pretended it was yours. This is a deeply nasty thing to do. But it gets worse, because beyond even that, to plagiarize is to violate the basic values of the academic enterprise we are here for.

3 Ultimately, we are pursuing knowledge. At the undergraduate level, this typically means improving our minds so we may more effectively and accurately understand the world. Courses and the assignments in them are supposed to be exercises toward this end. To blow them off by cheating is to discard the larger pursuit of knowledge that you signed up for when you went to college. If I believe you have plagiarized an assignment, I will use every resource I possibly can to seek the severest punishment. Believe me, you will wish you had turned in something sub-par instead.

Readings and Assignments Week 1, January 21: Introduction to class. Conceptual starting points. • Read the course syllabus

Week 2, January 26 & 28: Can virtue be taught? • Meno by Plato • Euthyphro by Plato • Crito by Plato

Optional supplementary reading: • "Why is Classical Theory Classical?" by Raewyn Connel, American Journal of Sociology (1997) • "A Sociological Guilt Trip" by Randall Collins, American Journal of Sociology (1997) • A History of the Modern World by R.R. Palmer, Joel Colton, and Lloyd Kramer. A solid overview of European history, though superficial for the rest of the world. • The Structure of Social Action by Talcott Parsons, especially pages 3-102 and 695- 775

Week 3, February 2 & 4: Solidarity • The Division of Labor in Society by Emile Durkheim, translated by W.D. Halls, pages 31-43, 60-64, 72-77, 83-86, 275-287, and xxxi-xxxv.

Optional supplementary reading: • The Division of Labor in Society by Émile Durkheim, translated by W.D. Halls, pages i-xxx, xxxvi-lvii, 1-30, 44-59, 65-70, 78-82, 87-274, and 287-341 • Suicide: A Study in Sociology by Émile Durkheim, translated by John A. Spaulding and George Simpson • "Legitimation and Justification: The Logic of Moral and Contractual Solidarity in Weber and Durkheim" by Mark Gould. In Current Perspectives in Social Theory. Volume 13 (1993) • The Presentation of Self in by Erving Goffman

Assignment 1: To be distributed in class. This will be a paper of approximately 2 pages.

Week 4, February 9 & 11: Authority • Economy And Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology by Max Weber, translated by Ephraim Fischoff et al, pages 3-7, 19-26, 31-56, 212-251, 262-266

4 Optional supplementary reading: • Any and all of the rest of Weber’s Economy And Society • "The Rule of the Father: Patriarchy and Patrimonialism in Early Modern Europe" by Julia Adams. In Max Weber's Economy And Society: A Critical Companion. Edited by Charles Camic, Philip S. Gorski, and David M. Trubek • Distinction by Pierre Bourdieu, translated by Richard Nice • The Structure of Social Action by Talcott Parsons, especially pages 579-694

Week 5, February 16 & 18: • “Review of Volume One of Capital for The Fortnightly Review” by Frederick Engels • “Review of Volume One of Capital for the Demokratisches Wochenblatt” by Frederick Engels

Optional supplementary reading: • Capital by Karl Marx, volume 1, especially pages 89-104, 109-113, 125-139, 163- 177, 247-257, 270-329, 340-346, 417-517, 643-682, 711-802, 873-895, 908-940 • Capital by Karl Marx, volume 3, especially pages 117-145, 200-205, 241-338, 349- 359, 493-514, and 1025-1026 (page references are to the Penguin edition of Capital, translated by Ben Fowkes) • "Value, Price, and Profit" by Karl Marx • History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics by Georg Lukács, translated by Rodney Livingstone, pages 1-26

Week 6, February 23 & 25: What is to be done? • What Is To Be Done? by V.I. Lenin, pages 5-93

Optional supplementary reading: • "First Address of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association on the Franco-Prussian War" by Karl Marx • "Second Address of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association on the Franco-Prussian War" by Karl Marx • Introduction to The Civil War in France by Friedrich Engels • The Civil War in France by Karl Marx

Week 7, March 2 & 4: Burning Questions • What Is To Be Done? by V.I. Lenin, pages 93-187

Optional supplementary reading: • Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels • ": Utopian and Scientific" by Friedrich Engels • "The State and Revolution" by V.I. Lenin • Envisioning Real Utopias by Erik Olin Wright

Week 8, March 9 & 11: On the soul • Phaedo by Plato

5 Optional supplementary reading: • Apology by Plato • Phaedrus by Plato • Republic by Plato • Timaeus by Plato

Assignment 2: To be distributed in class. This will be a paper of approximately 5 pages.

Week 9, March 16 & 18: What is religion? • The Elementary Forms of Religious Life by Émile Durkheim, pages 1-83

Optional supplementary reading: • "Translators Introduction" by Karen E. Fields, in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life • The World’s Religions by Huston Smith • "The Societal Ideal and Religious Authority in the Layene Brotherhood" by Matthew Kearney. Working paper in Politics, Culture, and Society. University of Wisconsin- Madison • The Structure of Social Action by Talcott Parsons, especially pages 301-408

Week 10, March 23 & 25: The origin of religion • The Elementary Forms of Religious Life by Émile Durkheim, pages 84-168

Optional supplementary reading: • The by Max Weber; this is equivalent to Economy and Society by Max Weber, edited by Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich, chapter 7 • The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber, translated by Talcott Parsons • “The Protestant sects in America” translated by Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich • The Structure of Social Action by Talcott Parsons, especially pages 409-470

No class March 30 & April 1: Spring recess

Week 11, April 6 & 8: The totem • The Elementary Forms of Religious Life by Émile Durkheim, pages 169-275

Optional supplementary reading: • The Religion of China by Max Weber • The Religion of India by Max Weber • "Hindrances to Modernity: Max Weber on Islam" by Wolfgang Schluchter, in Max Weber and Islam, edited by Toby E. Huff and Wolfgang Schluchter • Karen E. Fields. 1982. "Charismatic Religion as Popular Protest: The Ordinary and the Extraordinary in Social Movements." Theory And Society. 11(3): 321-361

Week 12, April 13 & 15: Cults

6 • The Elementary Forms of Religious Life by Émile Durkheim, pages 276-391

Optional supplementary reading: • "Cultural : Social Performance Between Ritual and Strategy" by Jeffrey C. Alexander. Sociological Theory (2004) • The Structure of Social Action by Talcott Parsons, especially pages 500-578 • The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud • “A Function of the Social Settlement” by Jane Addams

Week 13, April 20 & 22: God • The Elementary Forms of Religious Life by Émile Durkheim, pages 392-448

Optional supplementary reading: • The Rules of Sociological Method by Émile Durkheim • The Theory of Social and Economic Organization by Max Weber, pages 94-108, 113- 114, 116-123, 133-138, 149-151, 158-323, 369-381, and 386-429 • The Structure of Social Action by Talcott Parsons • The Logic of Practice by Pierre Bourdieu, translated by Richard Nice

Week 14, April 27 & 29: Student critiques of paper drafts • Drafts of classmate papers, as distributed

Week 15, May 4 & 6: Student critiques of paper drafts • Drafts of classmate papers, as distributed

Assignment 3: Each student will read drafts of the final papers of approximately five other students, and discuss each of them as a group while other students listen. The immediate goal is for each student to receive constructive criticism that will improve the final paper draft. The broader goal is to socialize students into peer interaction around their own academic work. The instructor will participate as little as possible, except to keep discussions on track and within necessary time limits. Prior to the final paper discussion, students will prepare a 1-page written summary of their critique of each classmate, and give a copy to each other and to the instructor.

Final Paper: Use one or more theoretical approaches introduced during the semester to address some empirical question. References need not be limited to course readings, but the argumentative approach or theoretical framework should emerge at least in part out of at least one reading from the course. Critiques of theoretical approaches presented in class are acceptable and encouraged. Students are required to gain instructor approval for their final paper topic; it is recommended they do this before the middle of April. 10-15 pages.

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