SOCIOLOGY/G 201A

 

“CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY I”

 

Fall 2002

 

Tuesdays, 2:00-4:50 pm in SSB 101

 

 

Prof.  Steven Epstein

Department of Sociology

University of California, San Diego

 

Office phone: 858-534-0489

E-mail: sepstein@ucsd.edu

Home page: http://sociology.ucsd.edu/~sepstein

Office hours: Mon 2:00-3:00 pm and Tue 5:00-6:00pm in SSB 476

 

 

 

 

The goals of this course are:

 

·        to provide a deep understanding of certain “classic” works and a systematic grasp of selected central figures in sociological theory;

 

·        to thereby consider the theoretical origins of contemporary sociology, and the ways in which the canonical texts inform and inspire subsequent theorizing;

 

·        to acquire a sense of the diverse ways in which social theories can be appropriated and adapted; and

 

·        to encourage an appreciation for the nature and uses of social theory in general.

 

This quarter we will focus primarily on the writings of two theorists: Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) and Karl Marx (1818-1883). These theorists have provided models for understanding society on which many sociologists have drawn. They set out to explain the broad contours of modern Western societies—their defining charac­teristics and their most pressing problems. To that end, both theorists sought to understand the dangers and possibilities inherent in the major transformations of Western society in the modern era: the rise of modern capitalism and the modern nation-state; the dissemination of democratic ideals; and the origins of new forms of social cohesion and oppression, social order and disorder.

 

Our goal will be understand how these theorists came to grips with these social transformations in providing an analysis of their society and the dilemmas confronting it: What do they consider to be the distinctive features of modern Western societies? What are the prospects for human happi­ness and fulfillment within such societies? And what is the proper role for the theorist who seeks to study, and perhaps improve, society?

 

We will approach each theorist’s work systematically, emphasizing the close interpretation of texts. In addition, we will read selected examples of subsequent social theory and sociological work inspired by Tocqueville and Marx, in order to gain a sense of the legacies of these theoretical traditions and their varied appropriations.

 

Careful reading of assigned materials will be crucial for this course.

 

 

Readings:

 

There are two required books, available for purchase at Groundwork Bookstore in the old Student Center:

 

            Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (various publishers—but please get the translation by George Lawrence)

           Robert Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader (Norton)

 

There will also be a course reader containing a substantial number of additional readings. I will announce how the course reader may be obtained.

 

 

Requirements:

 

You must write two essays. In each case, I will supply a choice of questions about two weeks before the due date, though you may also propose your own topic upon consultation with me. The questions I propose will be specific enough to focus you, but general enough to force you to devise your own thesis and figure out how to argue it. No secondary sources or additional research materials are required for these papers.

 

·        The first paper (8-10 pages) will be due in my mailbox on Friday, October 25.

 

·        The second paper (12-14 pages) will be due in my mailbox on Tuesday, December 10.

 

I will also ask each student to prepare discussion questions for two class meetings during the quarter. These questions must be emailed to all participants in the seminar by 4:00 pm on the day before class. Each of you will need to sign up for specific weeks at the first meeting of the course.

 

Your grade for the quarter will be based on the following formula:

            Paper #1: 35%

            Paper #2: 55%

            Class participation and discussion questions: 10%

 

 

Schedule:

 

NOTE: Readings preceded with double asterisks (**) can be found in the course reader.

 

 

Week 1 (Tue, October 1): Introduction

 

 

Week 2 (Tue, October 8): Alexis de Tocqueville: Equality, Democracy, Citizenship

            Democracy in America

            Vol. One:

                        Part I: Author’s Introduction (pp. 9-20), chapters 3-4 (pp. 50-60), chapter 5 (pp. 62-63, 68-70, and 87-98 only)

                        Part II: chapters 4 (pp. 189-195), 5 (pp. 197-99 only), 6 (pp. 231-245), 7-9 (pp. 246-315), 10 (pp. 316-325, 339-343, 355-363 only)

            Vol. Two:

                        Author’s preface (pp. 417-418)

                        Part II: chapters 1-2 (pp. 503-508), 4-5 (pp. 509-517), 13 (pp. 535-538), 20 (pp. 555-558).

                        Part III: chapters 1 (pp. 561-565), 9-10 (pp. 590-594), 12-13 (pp. 600-605), 17 (pp. 614-616), 21 (pp. 634-645).

                        Part IV: chapters 5-7 (pp. 679-702)

 

 

Week 3 (Tue, October 15): Tocqueville and his Legacy

            **Alexis de Tocqueville, The Old Régime and the French Revolution (New York: Doubleday, 1955):

                                    Foreword (pp. vii-xv)

                                    Part I: all (pp. 1-21)

                                    Part II: chapters 2, 5, 8 (pp. 32-41, 57-60, 77-81)

                                    Part III: chapters 3, 6, 8 (pp. 157-169, 188-192, 203-211)

 

            **Robert N. Bellah, Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and Steven M. Tipton, Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life (New York: Harper & Row, 1985):

                                    Preface (pp. vi-xii)

                                    Chapter 1 (pp. 3-26)

                                    Chapter 2 (pp. 27-51)

                                    Chapter 8 (pp. 196-218)

                                    Appendix (pp. 297-307)

 

           

Week 4 (Tue, October 22): Karl Marx: Alienation and the Premises of History

            Marx/Engels Reader:

                        Engels, “Speech at the Graveside of Karl Marx (pp. 681-682)

                        Marx, “On the Jewish Question” (pp. 26-46 only)

                        Marx, “Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right: Introduction” (pp. 53-65)

                        Marx, “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844” (pp. 70-101 only)

                        Marx, “Theses on Feuerbach” (pp. 143-145)

                        Marx, “The German Ideology” (pp. 146-200).

 

 

Week 5 (Tue, October 29): Marx: The Dynamics of Capitalism

            Marx/Engels Reader:

                        Engels, “Working Class Manchester” (pp. 579-585)

                        Marx, “Preface to the Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy” (pp. 3-6)

                        Marx, “Wage Labour and Capital” (pp. 203-17).

                        Marx, “Capital, Volume 1” (pp. 294-438)

                        Marx, “Capital, Volume 3” (pp. 439-442)

 

 

Week 6 (Tue, November 5 **RESCHEDULE**): Marx: Class Analysis and Politics

            Marx/Engels Reader:

                        Marx and Engels, “Manifesto of the Communist Party” (pp. 469-500).

                        Marx, “Speech at the Anniversary of the People’s Paper” (pp. 577-578)

                        Marx, “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte” (pp. 594-617)

                        Marx, “On Imperialism in India” (pp. 653-664)

           

 

Week 7 (Tue, November 12): “Structure” and “Agency” in Turn-of-the-20th-century  Marxist Trajectories

            Marx/Engels Reader:

                        Engels, “Socialism: Utopian and Scientific” (pp. 700-717 only).

                        Engels, “The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State” (pp. 734-759)

                        Engels, “Letters on Historical Materialism” (pp. 760-762 only)

 

            **Eduard Bernstein, Evolutionary Socialism (New York: Shocken Books, 1978), pp. xxiii-xxxii (“Preface”).

 

            **Rosa Luxemburg, Rosa Luxemburg Speaks (New York: Pathfinder Press, 1970), pp. 33-90 (“Reform or Revolution”).

           

 

Week 8 (Tue, November 19): Marxism and Revolution in the Twentieth Century

 

            **Robert C. Tucker, ed., The Lenin Anthology (New York: W.W. Norton, 1975):

                        “What Is To Be Done?” (pp. 12-15, 27-31, 49-59, and 67-91 only)

                        “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism” (pp. 243-251 only)

                        “The State and Revolution” (pp. 311-398)

 

            **Rosa Luxemburg, Rosa Luxemburg Speaks (New York: Pathfinder Press, 1970), pp. 365-395 (“The Russian Revolution”).

 

            **Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (New York: Grove Press, 1963), pp. 35-46 (“Concerning Violence”).

 

 

Week 9 (Tue, November 26): The Gramscian Reformulation of Marxism: Hegemony and the War of Position

 

**Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith, eds., Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci (New York: International Publishers, 1987):

            “The Modern Prince” (pp. 125-205)

            “State and Civil Society” (pp. 229-247 only)

            “The Study of Philosophy” (pp. 323-377)

 

            **Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1980s (New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986), pp. 57-86 (“Racial Formation” and “The Racial State”).

 

 

Week 10 (Tue, December 3): Marxist Theoretical Legacies: A Few Approaches

 

**E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (New York: Vintage Books, 1966), pp. 9-13 (Preface).

 

**Erik Olin Wright, Classes (London: Verso, 1985), pp. 6-135 (Part One).

 

**Catherine A. MacKinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), pp. 1-80 (“Feminism and Marxism”).