Sociological Theory

社會學理論﹙碩士班﹚

SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY:

AN INTRODUCTION TO MARX, DURKHEIM, AND WEBER

Department of Sociology, TunghaiUniversity

Fall, 2009

Thursday 9:10-12:00

Instructor:黃崇憲

Office Hours:週三～週四，上午7:30~8:30／東海大學丹堤咖啡館（請事先約定）

Phone: (04) 23590121 ext. 36313

Office: SS 539

E-mail:

Course Description and Objectives

Sociology is the development of systematic knowledge about social life, the way it is organized, how it changes, its creation in social action, and its disruption and renewal in social conflict. Sociological theory is both a guide to sociological inquiry and an attempt to bring order to its results. Sociological theory is not simply a collection of answers to questions about what society is like. It offers many answers, but it also offers help in posing better questions and developing inquiries that can answer them. Like all of science, thus, it is a process. It is always under development, responding to changes in our social lives and to improvements in our sociological knowledge.

In most colleges and universities, sociology students who study social theory read texts by Marx, Weber, and Durkheim. These three nineteenth-century European social theorists are considered to have formulated many of the fundamental themes of sociology. They achieved several of sociology’s most distinct approaches and central concepts. Each of these thinkers was contributing to a common intellectual enterprise, what can be termed as the discovery of society. They responded in divergent ways to a shared historical context, which included the rise and transformation of Western society in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The aftermath of the French Revolution, the industrial revolution, the emergence of the market, and European colonialism opened up social, economic, and cultural opportunities and problems previously unimaginable, from the possibilities of more complex types of social organization (capitalism and socialism) to a novel type of culture based on rationality, social participation, and individualism rather than tradition.

These theorists recognized that these new societies differed in dramatic ways from those that preceded them. They were involved in explaining modernity. This course takes their works as the point of departure by engaging and summarizing the major themes of the classical sociological theory of Marx, Durkheim and Weber. Moreover, it also interprets their thought through the lens of new theoretical concerns that opened up new perspective on the issues in ways that not adequately addressed by Marx, Weber, and Durkheim. In doing so, this course is designed to familiar the students with classical sociological theory by focusing on the selected works of the “founding fathers”—Marx, Weber, and Durkheim—which are indispensable tools for us to grapple with fundamental questions about the rise of capitalism and the formations of modernity.

Class Citizenship

In a seminar course of this sort, it is my wish that I want the sessions and discussions to be as stimulating and exciting as possible, with a collegial and supportive atmosphere. Pedgogically, this seminar is dedicated to the proposition that knowledge is a collective product. This intellectual journey is intended to be collective; each participant (including me) is expected to contribute to our discussions and debates. Good seminars depend to a great extent on the seriousness of preparation by students. Let us all be good and responsible class citizens to make contributions as much as possible.

Requirements and Grading: (More specific requirements/details will be announced in class)

Class Participation and Discussion: 20%

Weekly Issue Memo Prepared for Class Presentation: 50%

※memo檔案請按如下格式命名：「memo-{xxxxxxxx八位數上課日期}-{姓名}」

範例（1）：「memo-20080925-XXX」

範例（2）：「memo-20080925-XXX-導言」

Handbook of Core Concepts: 30%

The requirements for this course are fourfold. You must fulfill all four of them; do not take this course if for whatever reason you cannot do so. All participants will be expected to: 1) take an active part in discussions ; 2) make at least two presentations on the readings to the seminar and twocritical comments on the weekly presentations during the semester ; 3) prepare weekly issue memos on the week’s required readings ; 4) a critical journal of core concepts.

1)Active Participation in Discussion: remember and apply this aphorism of Wittgenstein: “Even to have expressed a false thought boldly and clearly is already to have gained a great deal.” So speak up and speak out! What each of you will get out of the course depends in good measure on how much you collectively put in. So, play a constructive role in discussion: offer your own ideas in small chunks instead of long monologues; draw out and ask for clarification of the opinions of others; pose issues and questions you may not know the answer to; learn to permit someone to disagree with you without feeling attacked; learn to express disagreement in ways that promote constructive discussion instead of polarization.

2)Seminar Presentations: Each week students will present that week’s readings and lead discussions. These presentations should be 30-40 minutes long for each and should try to establish a focused agenda for the discussion that follows. The point of the presentation is not to comprehensively summarize the readings, but to provide a critical evaluation, focusing on the strengths and weakness of the arguments/analyses, comparing different perspectives, and highlighting the most important issues and questions they raise as a way of launching the day’s discussion. In addition to the presentations, each week one or two students should play the role of “discussant” to critically comment on the presentations. These comments should be 10 minutes long.The presentors should submit their prepared texts through e-mail by Tuesday 17:00 such that the discussants will have enough time to prepare comments/responses.

3)Weekly Issue Memo: to facilitate collective learning and avoid a situation of “pluralistic ignorance”, every week participants will submit issue-memo to the class as a whole by e-mail. I believe strongly that it is important for students to engage the week’s readings in written form prior to the seminar sessions. These weekly memos are intended to prepare the ground for good discussions by requiring participants to set out their initial responses to the readings which will improve the quality of the class discussion since students come to the sessions with an already thought-out agenda.Since this course is a required and foundational course, I particularly emphasize the preparation of this weekly issue memo as the core part of class training and will effect your final grade decisively.

I refer to these written comments as “issue memos”. They are not meant to be

mini-papers on the readings; nor need they summarize the readings as such. Rather, they

are meant to be a think-piece, reflecting your own intellectual engagement with the

material: specifying what is obscure or confusing in the reading; taking up issue

with some core idea or argument; exploring some interesting ramification of an idea in

the reading. These memos do not have to deal with the most profound, abstract or

grandiose arguments in the readings; the point is that they should reflect what you find

most engaging, exciting or puzzling. These issue memos should be 4-6 pages long.

We will arrange to share these memos through e-mail, and the week’s presenters, if s/he

likes, can use other students’ comments to prepare an agenda for discussion. In order for

everyone to have time to read over other class participants’ comments, these will be

imperatively due on e-mail NO LATER THANWEDNESDAY（the day before class）

17:00. You are encouraged to read and to respond to each other’s issue memos both

before and after the week’s meeting. These memos area real requirement, and failing to

hand in memos will affect your grade. I will read through the memos to see if they are

“serious”, but not grade them for “quality”. Since the point of this exercise is to enhance

discussions, late memos will not be accepted. If you have to miss a seminar session for

some reason, you are still required to prepare an issue memo for that session. Since I may

not total the number of memos each student writes until the end of the semester, please

keep copies to be sure of fulfilling the requirements. Students who submit memos should

also be prepared to summarize/explain them in class.

※memo檔案請按如下格式命名：「memo-{xxxxxxxx八位數上課日期}-{姓名}」

範例（1）：「memo-20080925-XXX」

範例（2）：「memo-20080925-XXX-導言」

4. Keep a critical journal of core concepts (More specific instructions of preparing this journal will be discussed in due course of this class)

Books Recommended for Purchase

Giddens, Anthony. 1971. Capitalism and Modern Social Theory: An Analysis of the Writings of Marx, Durkheim and Max Weber. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.

中譯：簡惠美。1989。《資本主義與現代社會理論：馬克思、涂爾幹、韋伯》。台北：遠流。

Marx, Karl. 1998.The Communist Manifesto: A Modern Edition. London: Verso.

Durkheim, Emile. 1972. Emile Durkheim: Selected Writings. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press..

Weber, Max. 2001.The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. London: Routledge.

SEMINAR SESSIONS & READING ASSIGNMENTS

PART I. KARL MARX: THE PRIMACY OF PRODUCTION

Week 1.(9/24)Course Introduction

Week 2.(10/1)Karl Marx (I)

Week 3(10/8)Karl Marx (II)

Week 4.(10/15)Karl Marx (III)

Week 5(10/22)Karl Marx (IV)

PART II. EMILE DURKHEIM：THE DISCOVERY OF SOCIAL FACTS

Week 6(10/29) Durkheim (I)

Week 7(11/5) Durkheim(II)

Week 8(11/12)Durkheim (III)

Week 9(11/19)Durkheim (IV)

Week 10(11/26)Mid-term Exam (No Class)

PART III. MAX WEBER：THE PRIMACY OF SOCIAL ACTION

Week 11(12/3)Weber (I)

Week 12(12/10)Weber(II).

Week 13(12/17)Weber(III).

Week 14(12/24)Weber(IV).

Week 15(12/31)Weber(V)

PART IV. Capitalism, Socialism and Social Theory

Week 16(1/7) Synthesis and Comparison (I)

Week 17(1/14) Synthesis and Comparison (II)

Week 18 (1/21)Final Exam (No Class)

Week 1 (9/24) Introduction (No Required Readings for This Week; Listed Readings for Suggestions Only)

How I Define and Design This Course

Dilemma: Breadth or Depth? (Brain-storming and Any Suggestions Welcome!)

Language Issues

Theory as Tool and Theory as End-Product

The Rise and Fall of Classical Social Theory

Conceptual Pragmatism

Learning about vs. Learning from Social Theory

Theoretical Understanding vs. Theorization

Consuming vs. Constructing Theory

Text vs. Context of Social Theory: History of Ideas or Sociology of Knowledge?

＊ Critical Issues in Social Theory

Holism vs. Methodological Individualism

Structure vs. Agency

Level of Abstraction vs. Unit of Analysis

Positivism vs. Anti-Positivism: The Philosophy of Science Debate

Explanation vs. Interpretation

Forms of Explanation: Causal, Functional, Intentional

Meta-theoretical vs. Substantive

Conceptualization vs. Labeling (or Renaming)

The Types of Sociological Theorizing

Nature of Constitutive Elements

Subjective Objective

Constructionism

Weber / Utilitarianism
Marshall, Pareto
Functionalism
Durkheim / Critical Structuralism
Marx

Terms of Individualistic

Explanation

Holistic

A Mapping of Some Sociological Theories in a Two-Dimensional Space

Action

Structure

Subjectivism

/ Symbolic
Interactionalism / Phenomenology
Weber
Ethnomethodology / Giddens
Berger/Louckmann
Bourdieu
Marx

Objectivism

/ Homans / Durkheim

＊The Core Concepts That Sociological Theory Must Address and Attempt to Reconcile:

Agency –Meaning and Motives in Social Arrangements

Rationality –The Maximization of Individual Interest

Structure– Secret Patterns Which Determine Experience

System –An Overarching Order

＊The Main Phenomenon That Sociological Theory Seeks to Explain:

Culture and Ideology

Power and the State

Differentiation and Stratification

□Sociology at Large

Background Readings:

Bauman, Zygmunt, and Tim May. 2001. Thinking Sociologically. Cambridge: Basil

Blackwell.

Johnson, Allan G.. 1997. The Forest and the Trees: Sociology as Life, Practice, and

Promise.Philadelphia: TempleUniversity Press.

Giddens, Anthony. 1982. Sociology: A Brief but Critical Introduction.London:

Macmillan Press.

Core Readings:

Mills, C. Wright. 1959. The Sociological Imagination. Oxford: OxfordUniversity

Press.

＊ The Rise of Social Theory

Hamilton, Peter. 1992. “The Enlightenment and the Birth of Social Science.” Pp. 17-58 inFormations of Modernity, edited by Stuart Hall and Bram Gieben. Cambridge: Polity.

Heilbron, Johan. 1995. The Rise of Social Theory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Hughes, H. Stuart. 1981. 《意識與社會：1890年至1930年間歐洲社會思想的新取向》。李豐斌譯。台北：聯經。

Marsh, David & Gerry Stoker, 2002. Theory and Methods in Political Science. NewYork :Palgrave Macmillan

---中譯, 2007/《政治學方法論與途徑》. 台北：韋伯文化。（第一章政治學中的本體論與知識論）

＊ Political Formations of Modernity

Held, David. 1992. “The Development of the ModernState.” Pp. 71-119 in

Formations of Modernity, edited by Stuart Hall and Bram Gieben. Cambridge:

Polity.

＊ Economic Formations of Modernity

Brown, Vivienne. 1992. “The Emergence of the Economy.” Pp. 127-166 in

Formations of Modernity, edited by Stuart Hall and Bram Gieben. Cambridge:

Polity.

＊ Social Formations of Modernity

Bradley, Harriet. 1992. “Changing Social Structures: Class and Gender.” Pp. 177-211

in Formations of Modernity, edited by Stuart Hall and Bram Gieben. Cambridge:

Polity.

＊ Cultural Formations of Modernity

Bocock, Robert. 1992. “The Cultural Formations of Modernity.” Pp. 229-268 in

Formations of Modernity, edited by Stuart Hall and Bram Gieben. Cambridge:

Polity.

＊The West and the Rest

Hall, Stuart. 1992. “The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power.” Pp. 275-320 in

Formations of Modernity, edited by Stuart Hall and Bram Gieben. Cambridge:

Polity.

□Why Classical Sociological Theory?

Background Readings:

Giddens, Anthony. 1971. Capitalism and Modern Social Theory. Cambridge:

CambridgeUniversity Press.

Craib, Ira. 1997. Classical Social Theory. 1997. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press.

Callinicos, Alex.1999. Social theory :a historical introduction . New York :New York University Press ---中譯 2000.《社會學理論思想的流變》。簡守邦譯。臺北：韋伯文化.

Aron, Raymond. 1967. Main currents in sociological thought.translated by Richard Howard & Helen Weaver. New York:Basic Books,

----中譯. 社會學主要思潮葛智強,胡秉誠,王滬寧譯。上海：上海譯文出版社。

Core Readings:

Merton, Robert. 1967. Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: Free Press. Pp.

1-38.

Alexander, Jeffrey. 1987. “The Centrality of the Classics.” Pp. 11-57 in Social Theory

Today, edited by Anthony Giddens & Jonathan Turner. Stanford: Stanford

University Press.

PART I KARL MARX(1818-82): THE PRIMACY OF PRODUCTION

Driving Impulses

Key Issues:

A Materialist Social Ontology

Historical Materialism

Critique of Capitalism

Class as a Social Relation

The State and Politics

Seeing Things Differently

Legacies and Unfinished Business

Background Readings:

Althusser, Louis, and Etienne Balibar. 1970. Reading Capital. London: NLB.

Anderson, Perry. 1976. Considerations on Western Marxism. London: NLB.

----. 1983. In the Tracks of Historical Materialism. Chicago and London: University

of Chicago Press.

Elster, Jon. 1986. An Introduction to Karl Marx. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity

Press.

Gouldner, Alvin. 1980. The Two Marxism: Contradictions and Anomalies in the

Development of Theory. New York: Seabury Press.

McLellan. David. 1974. Karl Marx: His Life and Thought. Basingstoke: Macmillan.

Mandel, Ernest. 1970. Marxist Economic Theory. New York: Monthly Review Press.

General Analyses of Marx’s Works

Avineri, Shlomo. 1968. The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx. Cambridge:

CambridgeUniversity Press.

Berlin, Isaiah. 1996. Karl Marx: His Life and Work. New York: OxfordUniversity

Press.

Carver, Terrell, ed. 1993. The Cambridge Companion to Marx. New York: Cambridge

University Press.

Cohen, G. A. 1978. Karl Marx’s Theory of History. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press.

Giddens, Anthony. 1981. A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism, vol. 1:

Power, Property and the State. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Giddens, Anthony. 1985. A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism, vol. 2:

The Nation-State and Violence. Berkeley: University of California Press.

McLellan, David. 1972. The Thought of Karl Marx: An Introduction. New York:

Harper and Row.

Ollman, Bertell. 1977. Alienation: Marx’s Concept of Man in Capitalist Society. New

York: CambridgeUniversity Press.

West, Cornel. 1991. The Ethical Dimensions of Marx’s Thought. New York: Monthly

Review Press.

Philosophical Aspects of Marx’s Thought

Althusser, Louis. 1970. For Marx. New York: Pantheon Books.

Derrida, Jacques. 1994. Spectres of Marx. New York: Routledge.

Kolakowski, Leszek. 1978. Main Currents of Marxism: Its Rise, Growth, and

Dissolution. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Lefebvre, Henri. 1982. The Sociology of Marx. New York: ColumbiaUniversity

Press.

Marxist Economics

Mandel, Ernest. 1971. The Formation of the Economic Thought of Karl Marx, 1843 to

Capital. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Moseley, Fred. ed. 1993. Marx’s Method in Capital: A Reexamination. Atantic

Highlands, NJ: Prometheus Books.

Sweezy, Paul. 1970. The Theory of Capitalist Development: Principles of Marxian

Political Economy. New York: Modern Reader Paperback.