This is a required course for undergraduate sociology majors. The effort is made to give students the fundamentals of social theory, both "classical" and "contemporary." But the assumption is that any well-educated person should be at least familiar with the key writers and concepts. Accordingly, the course is conceived as a general education course and sufficient background, historical and philosophical, is offered. In contrast to many required sociological theory courses, I begin with Hobbes, Locke, Adam Smith and Rousseau (his "2^nd Discourse in the Origins of Inequality"), writers too often left for political science courses. On my view, these are the first "modern" writers to grapple with the fundamental questions regarding emerging "modernity" including capitalism. Perhaps neither Marx nor Durkheim are intelligible without understanding the views of Hobbes, Locke and Smith, views that are, indeed, still very much alive. Rousseau’s essay is a wonderful response to the "progressive" views of the "liberals." Comte is then introduced and a special effort is made to explain his theory of science, "positivism," along with his notions of a scientific sociology. Marx and Weber are central in any such course, especially since both have alternative visions of the character of a "scientific" social theory. From Durkheim, we go to Talcott Parsons and his critics: Mead/Blumer, Garfinkel, Goffman and so-called "conflict theory," emphasizing the large differences between C.W. Mills, neo-Marxists and Parsonian-remedied "conflict theory," e.g., in Dahrendorf. We turn to an account of the so-called "micro-macro gap" and agency/structure duality, and conclude with a sketch of so-called "post-modern"theory.

Students read excerpted primary texts and no textbook is used. Four essays are assigned on required topics and there is no mid-term or final exam. Finally, we make extensive use of the internet (www.blackboard.hawaii.edu. This is used to make available especially written short reviews and discussions of the primary reading (hyperlinked on the syllabus which follows), to offer ancillary materials available on the net, and to make possible asynchronous discussion as we proceed in the course.

Go to Syllabus