# 24
   The Ecology of Sociological Ideas        

Friday – 10:00 a.m.                                                     Winter Term 2012 (14 weeks)
Coordinator:   Jill Roth Spuehler                                 Co-Coordinator: Larry Hermann

Course Description
Sociological theory developed out of the social/intellectual milieu, and the personal lives of the early sociologists.  These are the giants of  classical sociology: Comte, Marx, Spencer, Durkheim, Simmel, Weber, Veblen, Cooley, Mead, Park, Pareto, and Mannheim. Lewis Coser, the author of the core book, describes them in the book’s title as Masters of Sociological Thought.
In this SDG, we will explore two basic questions: 1) What were the personal, social, and intellectual conditions and influences that shaped the ideas of the theorists? 2) How do their ideas help us analyze and understand our lives and the social conditions of our own era?

Topics
1. Auguste Comte (1798-1857) Founding of the new science                            
2. Karl Marx 1818-1883) – Social conflict and the historic process
3. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) - Progress of the external world
4. Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) – The nature of social phenomena
5. Georg Simmel (1858-1918) – Society: a web of social interactions
6. Max Weber (1864-1920) – Idealism. Ideal Type, subjectivity
7. Max Weber – Rationalization and disenchantment
8. Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) – Social critic and new economist
9. Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929) – “The looking-glass self
10. George Hebert Mead (1863-1931) – Social interaction
11. Robert Ezra Park (1864-1944) – Chicago School and research
12. Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) – The Lions and the Foxes
 13. Karl Mannheim (1893-1947) – Sociology of knowledge
14. Evaluation of the tradition

Bibliography
Core Book:
Masters of Sociological Thought, by Lewis Coser  (used copies available from Amazon)
Others:
Aron, Raymond. Main Currents in Sociological Thought Volume.  Transaction Publishers, 1968.
Barnes, Elmer. Social Thought from Lore to Science. Dover Publishers, 1961.
Kivisto, Peter. Key Ideas in Sociology. Sage Publishers, 2010.
Mills, C. Wright. Images of Man; the Classic Tradition in Sociological Thinking. G. Brazille, 1960.
Morrison, Kenneth. Marx, Durkheim, Weber: Formation of Modern Social Thought. Sage, 1995.

Pre-Meeting:  Friday, December 16, 2011, 10:00 a.m.