Classical Sociological Theory Sociology 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 Social Science 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 society. 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 social theory 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, Karl Marx (as summarized by Frederick Engels), Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, and V.I. Lenin. Weekly reading 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, Pierre Bourdieu, Randall Collins, Raewyn Connel, Karen E. Fields, Sigmund Freud, Erving Goffman, Mark Gould, Georg Lukács, R.R. Palmer, Talcott Parsons, Wolfgang Schluchter, and Erik Olin Wright. 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 readings are available online through learn@UW. Grading University of Wisconsin-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 information 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.