Classical Sociological Theory

Where to find the readings:
= Firestone Reserve/Graduate Reading Room (paper).
= Blackboard E-reserves.
= World Wide Web (click on the link in the syllabus).
For purchase: = Labyrinth

September 20. Social Theory in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: Precursors and Points of Reference

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1660), Ch. 13.
John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government (1690), Ch. 5.
Jean Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality (1754), tr. G. D. H. Cole, Part I and Part II.
Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762), tr. G. D. H. Cole, Book 1.
Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), Part I, Section 1, Ch. 1; Section 3, Ch. 2; Part II, Section 2, Ch. 3; Part III, Ch. 1.
Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776), Chs. 1-3.

September 27. De Tocqueville.

Alexis de Tocqueville, The Old Regime and the French Revolution (Doubleday, 1955 [1856]), tr. Stuart Gilbert, Part I, Ch. 5; Part II, Chs. 1-3, 5-9; Part III, Chs. 1-3, 8.
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (Penguin, 2003 [1835, 1840]), tr. Gerald Bevan; online at Democracy in America, tr. Henry Reeve. Selections: v. 1, Author's Preface, chs. 2, 3, 5, 12; v. 2, Book 2, Chs. 2, 4, 5, 8, and v., 2, Book 3, Ch. 7.

October 4. Marx.

Robert C. Tucker, ed. The Marx-Engels Reader , 2d ed. (W.W. Norton, 1978), "Marx on the History of His Opinions" [1859], 3-6; "Theses on Feuerbach" [1845], 143-45; Selections from "Capital" [1867], 294-329, 336-343, 384-403, 419-438; "Manifesto of the Communist Party" [1848], 469-500; "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte" [1852], 594-617; "On Imperialism in India" [1853], 653-658.

October 11. Comte, Spencer, and Marx: Contending visions of a science of society

Auguste Comte, A Course in Positive Philosophy (1830), skim 3800-word condensation.
Herbert Spencer, "Population and Progress" [1852], "Progress: Its Law and Cause" [1868], "Methodological Individualism" [1873], "The Organic Analogy Reconsidered" [1876], and "Struggle in Evolution" [1873] in J. D. Y. Peel, ed., Herbert Spencer: On Social Evolution (University of Chicago Press, 1972), 33-52, 97-101, 134-141, 167-174.
Tom Bottomore, "Marxism and Sociology," in Bottomore and Nisbet, eds., A History of Sociological Analysis, 118-130.
Donald Levine, Visions of the Sociological Tradition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), ch. 2.

October 18. Durkheim and his school (1)

Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society (Free Press, 1997 [1893]).

October 25. Durkheim and his school (2)

Emile Durkheim, Suicide (Free Press, 1997 [1897]), Introduction (41-53), Book 1, Ch. 1 (57-81), Book 2 (145-294); Book 3, Ch. 1 (297-325).


For mid-term review: Levine, Visions of the Sociological Tradition , ch. 8 (167-180).

November 8. Weber (1)

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Dover, 2003 [1904-1905]).
Max Weber, Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology (University of California Press, 1978 [1922]), v. 1, Ch. 1 (4-62).

November 15. Weber (2)

Max Weber, "Politics as a Vocation" [1918], "Class, Status, Party" [1922], "Bureaucracy" [1922], and "The Sociology of Charismatic Authority" [1922] in H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, eds., From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, 1958), 77-128, 180-252.

November 22. Simmel

Georg Simmel, "The Problem of Sociology" [1908], "Exchange" [1907], "Conflict" [1908], "Domination" [1908], "Prostitution" [1907] "Sociability" [1910], "The Stranger" [1908], and "The Metropolis and Mental Life" [1903] in Donald Levine, ed., Georg Simmel on Individuality and Social Forms (University of Chicago Press, 1971), Chs. 3, 5-10, 20.
Georg Simmel, "On the Significance of Numbers for Social Life" [1908], "The Dyad" [1908], "Dyads, Triads, and Larger Groups" [1908], "Secrecy" [1908], and "The Secret Society" [1908] in Kurt Wolff, ed., The Sociology of Georg Simmel (Free Press, 1964), 87-95, 122-125, 138-142, 330-338, 345-361.

November 29. Self, Society, and the Civilizing Process

Charles H. Cooley, "The Social Self--The Meaning of I" [1902] and "Primary Groups" [1909] in Cooley, On Self and Social Organization (University of Chicago Press, 1998), 163-175, 179-184.
George H. Mead, Mind, Self, and Society (University of Chicago Press, 1934), 173-178, 200-226, 253-260, 273-281.
Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents (Norton, 1961 or 1989 [1930].
Norbert Elias, The Civilizing Process rev. ed. (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2000[1939]), 47- 72, 97-109,

December 6. Capitalism reconsidered

Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, 3d ed. (Harper & Row, 1950 [1942]), Ch. 7 (81-86), Ch. 11-12 (120-55).
Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation (Beacon Press, 1965 [1944]), Chs. 4-6, 11, 21.
T.H. Marshall, "Citizenship and Social Class," in Citizenship and Social Class, and Other Essays (Cambridge University Press, 1950), 10-85.

December 13. The theory of action, structural-functionalism, and the course of American sociology

Craig Calhoun, "Sociology in America: An Introduction," in Calhoun, ed., Sociology in America: A History (University of Chicago Press, 2007), 1-38.
Talcott Parsons, The Structure of Social Action (Free Press, 1967 [1937]), v. 1, Part I.
Robert Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure, enlarged edition (Free Press, 1968), 39-117, 136, 175-213.