Modern European Intellectual History, Pt. 2: The Age of Grand Ideologies [Syllabus, in English] (original) (raw)
Bulletin description In this course we will examine our concepts of society, power, value, and desire through reading selected works by Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud. The goal is to understand their ideas and the social context that shaped them through a close examination of their works not to attempt to prove or disprove their many arguments. The emphasis of the course will be on engaging the original texts and attention will be paid to how each writer went about their critiques as well as the revolutionary consequences that followed --- including those that were antithetical to their own views and work. Detailed description Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud: The Sciences of Life and Society In this course we will examine our concepts of society, power, value, and desire through reading selected works by Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud. The goal is not to attempt to prove or disprove their many arguments, but to understand those views and the social context that shaped them through a close examination of their works. Special emphasis will be on reading the original texts and attention will be paid to how they went about their critiques as well as the revolutionary consequences that followed --- including those that were often antithetical to their own views and work. In this course we will examine the knowledge of social life and its relation to our concepts of society, power, value, and desire through reading selected works of Marx, Darwin, Nietzsche, and Freud. You might begin thinking about the course in this way: Darwin placed us in the natural world and showed that we share a common genealogical origin in nature. Marx shows us how we have changed that nature and at the same time changed ourselves. Nietzsche raised the problem of what those changes have cost us: what have we had to give up in order to have society? Finally, Freud sought to understand how we might deal the consequences of civilization/culture (he used the German kulture, which in English can mean either culture or civilization). The overarching is for you to begin to understand these ideas and the social context that shaped them. So what is important is how they went about their critiques and the revolutionary consequences that followed --- including those that were antithetical to their own views and work, e.g., eugenics, Nazism, the gulags, etc., but which are nonetheless often invoked their names. It is important to keep in mind that this course is only a single semester and so it can only serve as an introduction to some aspects of what are extensive and varied bodies of work. Many students do not have the opportunity to read any of these authors except for brief excerpts or secondary accounts. So the primary purpose here is to allow you to begin an engagement that, for the fortunate, lasts a lifetime. So, we will examine the production of nature, society, power, and desire through the works of Marx, Darwin, Nietzsche, and Freud. And we examine them not because they are canonical “great works” but because they mark how works become canonical; not because we are concerned with “Great Men” or “Great Figures In Thought” but because these authors/works mark changes in knowledge and the limits to truth in their time by raising fundamental problems that the sciences of life and society seek to address address. The readings for this course will cover both their well known as well as more obscure, but often more important, works of social critique.
Past Syllabi (2004-2009) (Smith College, Columbia University & CUNY)
These are past syllabi from 2004-2009, when I taught as a visiting Assistant Professor at Smith College, as Preceptor (sole instructor) in the Core Curriculum at Columbia, and as an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at CUNY-York. It does not include classes taught 2010 onwards at Queen's University, the University of Graz, McGill University, or (my current institution) Pace University.
Classical Sociological Theory- Graduate Seminar Syllabus
Classical theories by the traditional " holy trinity " of sociology—Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber—have long been considered part of the disciplinary canon. Yet in recent decades, that canon has been called into question and the consensus regarding what even constitutes " classical " theory has dissolved. What does it mean, then, to study classical sociological theory today? Should old texts make way for new, or is there room in the canon for a more diverse set of perspectives? Rather than simply presenting the sociological canon as given, this class explores these questions and invites students to consider which thinkers and theorists and theories are essential to the discipline. A class on theory is important for (at least) two reasons. First, you cannot be a sociologist without understanding sociological theory. Sociologists are not merely data collectors or, to put it another way, collecting and analyzing data always involves theory—whether explicitly or implicitly. A solid basis in sociological theory will help you to be both aware of, and informed about, the kind of theorizing that influences your work. Second, engaging with debates about what makes a theory " sociological " and which theories should be considered canonical is an important way not only to learn about the history of discipline, but also to think about its future. Course Objectives The course has three objectives: 1) To introduce students to some of the key texts and theorists considered cornerstones in the making of sociology as a discipline. We will examine how some of the so-called founders conceived of society and " the social " as objects of analysis, and what methods they proposed for its study. 2) To encourage students to think critically about the notion of classical theory and canon formation by situating texts in their appropriate historical context and comparing this with more contemporary applications. 3) To review some of the key theoretical issues and debates in the discipline, such as social structure vs. agency, explanation vs. interpretation, and the relation between different levels of theorizing.
What’s Modern Anti-Semitism? [Syllabus, in English]
The course addresses major issues in the history of Anti-Semitism inmodern Europe. Topics include: origins of modern Anti-Semitism and difference from older theological forms of Jewish-hatred, differences in Anti-Semitic patterns in Eastern Central and Western Europe, anti-Semitism in music and cinema, Jewish self-hatred and internalization of Anti-Semitic stereotypes by Jews, the ambiguous connections between Philo-Semitism and Anti-Semitism, patterns of post-Holocaust anti-Semitism and contemporary debates on the persistence and new forms of Anti-Semitism. A strong emphasis will be put on cultural and intellectual origins of Jewish hatred, as well as on discussion of Jews' major ideological, political and social responses to Anti-Semitism.