T/Th 2:30 - 3:45pm, 320 Elizabeth Hall

Dr. William R. Nylen
(Dept. of Political Science)
Office Hours: T,W,Th 3:45-5:00 in 315B Elizabeth Hall

SCHEDULE

Reading, discussing, writing about, and becoming one with many of
the Late Greats of Western Social Theory. Discovering and advocating their relevance to the 21st Century.

Grades will be based on performance in the following:

• Two (2) 5-10 page papers [10% each = 20%]

• Ten (10) 3+ page mini-papers on daily readings complete with page references (due every
  other class meeting) and ending with provocative questions for class discussion [20%]

• One midterm exam [20%]

• One final exam [30%]

• Remembering the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson ("Conversation is the workshop of the student."), daily classroom participation [10%]

• Steady improvement over the course of the semester will be factored favorably into calculation of the final grade. Slow burns or plummeting declines are bad enough not to have to sting twice.
  

Dr. Nylen stands by Stetson's official statement on grades, which says:   Grades ... represent the instructor's final estimate of the student's
performance in a course. The grade of A (+ or -) may be interpreted to
mean that the instructor recognizes exceptional capacity and exceptional
performance. The grade of B (+ or -) signifies that the student has, for any
combination of reasons, gained a significantly more effective command of
the material than is generally expected in that course. The grade or C or
C+ is the instructor's certification that the student has demonstrated the
required mastery of the material. A student is graded C- or D (+ or -)
when his/her grasp of the course essentials is minimal. The F grade
indicates failure to master the essentials and the necessity for repeating the
course before credit may beearned. [Stetson University Bulletin, 1999-
2000 (37-38)]

Any form of cheating, including and especially plagiarism, will result in an automatic F grade for the entire course. To plagiarize is ...
To take and pass off as one's own the ideas, writings, etc. of another. [Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language (1962)]

Late papers and make-ups of exams will be allowed only following prior discussion with Dr. Nylen or in the event of a well-documented medical or family emergency.

• Durkheim, Emile Suicide: A Study in Sociology (New York: Free Press, 1979).
• Freud, Sigmund Civilization and its Discontents (New York: W.W.Norton, 1961).
• Gerth, H.H. & Mills, C.W. [eds.] From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (New York: Oxford U.P., 1946).
• Mill, John Stuart Three Essays: On Liberty, Representative Government & The Subjection of Women (Oxford: Oxford U.P., 1975).
• Stigler, George J. [ed.] Adam Smith: Selections from The Wealth of Nations (Arlington Heights: AHM, 1957).
• Tucker, Robert C. [ed.] The Marx-Engels Reader, 2nd Ed. (New York: Norton, 1978).
• Max Weber. The Protestant Ethic & The Spirit of Capitalism, 3rd. Edition (Los Angeles: Roxbury, 1998).

8/23 (Th): Introduction:

• Social Theory and Social Science; Searching for: the logic of history, the logic of human behavior (individual and social), and the Methodological means to carry out the search

• The Social Science Debate about Modernity: What it is, Why it is, Why we should care, and What we should do about it.

• Recurring "essentially contested concepts": Human Nature, Modernity, Liberty, Justice, Equality, Order, Rationality, Solidarity, Domination, Exploitation, Human Rights ... and others that will inevitably turn up as the semester unfolds.

• The Postmodern critique of "universalizing" Social Theory/Science

Adam Smith & "18th Century Neoclassical Liberalism": selections from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations:

• Neoclassical Liberalism, mercantilism & the emergence of (British) capitalism, the "invisible hand" (‘the magic of the marketplace'), human nature, and the role of culture 

8/28 (T): "Introduction" (vii-ix) [3 pages], lecture. 

8/30 (Th/A1): "Book I" — pt.1 (1-47) [48 pages].
9/4 (T/B1): "Book 1" — pt.2 & "Book IV" (48-88) [41 pages].
9/6 (Th): NO CLASS (Dr. Nylen in Washington D.C.)
9/11 (T/A2): "Book V" (89-115) [26 pages].

John Stuart Mill & "19th Century Neoclassical Liberalism": "On Liberty", "Representative Government" and "The Subjection of Women"

• Neoclassical Liberalism, political representation/participation, liberty, enlightened leadership 9/13 (Th): "Introduction" (vii-xxv) [19 pages], lecture.

9/18 (T/B2): selections from "On Liberty" [Chaps. I-III & first three pages of IV] (5-85) [81pages]. 
9/20 (Th/A3): "Considerations on Representative Government" [Preface & Chapters I-III & VI-VIII], (204-56 & 285-345) [60 pages].
9/25 (T/B3): "The Subjection of Women" [Chapters I-II] (471-523) [53 pages]; receive questions for Paper #1 (due Tuesday, 10/2).

Karl Marx & Marxism: selections from Robert C. Tucker's The Marx-Engels Reader,2nd Edition:

• ‘socially constructed' human nature; a "materialist" theory of history; a critique of industrial capitalism (class exploitation and alienation), a critique of Neoclassical Liberalism (bourgeois rationalism and "bourgeois democracy"); a ‘scientific and rational' alternative: Socialism & Communism.

9/27 (Th): "Introduction" (xix-xxxviii) [20 pages], lecture
10/2 (T/A4): Selections from "Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844" (66-93) [28pages]; PAPER #1 DUE
10/4 (Th/B4): "Alienation and Social Classes" (133-5) & Selections from "The German Ideology" (146-163, 172-175 & 193-200) [33 pages].
10/11 (Th/A5): Selections from "Manifesto of the Communist Party" (469-491), "Capital, Vol. One" (294-302) [31 pages].
10/16 (T/B5): Engels "On Morality" (725-7) & "The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State" (734-59) [29 pages].
10/18 (Th) Midterm Review (bring notes and critical reading assignments)
10/23 (T): MIDTERM EXAM (Smith, Mill & Marx): books, notes and mini-papers can be used during exam

Max Weber & ‘Weberianism': selections from Gerth & Mills [eds.] From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology and The Protestant Ethic & The Spirit of Capitalism

• legitimacy & the foundations of social power/authority

• stratification theory and a critique of Marx's ‘unidimensional' (class) analysis

• cultural influences on social organization (eg. religion on economics & politics)

10/25 (Th): Gerth & Mills "Introduction" (3-74) [72 pages], lecture.
10/30 (T/A6): The Protestant Ethic & The Spirit of Capitalism (35-128 & 166-183) [112 pages].
11/1 (Th/B6): The Protestant Ethic & The Spirit of Capitalism (xlii-lxii & 13-31) [52 pages].
11/6 (T/A7): Gerth & Mills, "Class, Status, Party" (180-195), "Bureaucracy" (196-244) [65 pages].
11/8 (Th/B7): Gerth & Mills, "The Sociology of Charismatic Authority" (245-52) & "The Meaning of Discipline" (253-64) [20 pages].
11/13 (T/A8): Gerth & Mills, "Politics as a Vocation" (77-128) [52 pages]; receive questions for Paper #2 (due Tuesday, 11/20).

Emile Durkheim & "19th Century Communitarianism": Suicide

• the essential communality ("collective consciousness" & "solidarity") of human beings; and modernity's challenge of individualism

11/15 (Th): "Editor's Introduction" (9-32) [24 pages], lecture.
11/20 (T/B8): "Preface" & "Introduction" (35-53), & selections from "Book Two" (145-172 & 208-276) [116 pages]; PAPER #2 DUE (Marx & Weber)
11/27 (T/A9): selections from "Book Three", Pp.297-338 & 386-392 [49 pages]; receive handouts for next class.

Sigmund Freud & Psychology: Civilization and its Discontents

• irrationality as a basic human (therefore, social) characteristic

11/29 (Th): Peter Gay's introduction, "Sigmund Freud: A Brief Life" (ix-xxii) [14 pages] & handouts, lecture.
12/4 (T/B9): Chapters I-III (10-52) [43 pages].
12/6 (AB10): Chapters IV-VIII (53-112) [60 pages].

Friday 12/7 (exact time to be announced): Final Review (bring notes and mini-papers) 

Monday 12/10 (9:00am - 11:00 am): FINAL EXAM (Comprehensive): books, notes and mini-papers may be used during exam