History of Social Ideas - SOC1315 - Printable introduction
The information about this course is at
http://studymore.org.uk/study.htmIt is essential that you use the website and follow instructions given on it. This introduction is not a substitute for the website. The advice about each of the essay questions, including reading, is on the web. It is essential that you follow the advice. The reading for a question can often be read online or printed from the web.
Module Coordinator: Andrew Roberts
Telephone 0208 986 5251 - Email address: studymore@studymore.org.uk.
Social Science History - Six Essays for Budding Theorists, the course text, is available on the web in two forms. One has links to sources. The other is for printing chapters you want to study closely. The essay guidance will help you decide which parts of this you need to study in greatest detail, but everyone is encouraged to read chapter one.
Module requirements You are expected to be fully engaged in the module. This means attending lectures, group meetings and individual tutorials - Starting work immediately on your first essay draft (including its bibliography and referencing) - Provisionally choosing your second essay titles within the first three weeks of the course (The title can be changed with agreement of the tutor) - Following the web advice given for your chosen essays - Submitting a draft essay, for feedback, by the deadline - Including a draft self-assessment (using the Marking Guide) with your draft - Acting on the feedback - submitting your first essay, with its self-assessment, by the deadline - Starting work on your second essay draft before the start of the second semester - Taking part in the review of your work in the first three weeks of the second semester - Submitting a draft second essay and self-assessment by the deadline - Acting on the feedback - submitting your second essay, with its self-assessment, by the deadline. Notifying the tutor of any unavoidable absences and making arrangements with the tutor for any necessary deviation from this list of requirements.
First Essay Question
Hobbes and Locke: What do Hobbes and Locke have to say about how society is formed? How does this relate to their ideas abut what reason is?
Second Essay QuestionsScience: What is science? Compare and contrast the ideas of Locke, and Wollstonecraft. Discuss these in relation to one of the theorists listed on the web, and develop your own opinion. [You must choose your third theorist at the start]
Plato and Aristotle: Outline Plato and Aristotle's concepts of reason and politics. Show how they relate these to gender. Reference your answer to Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Politics.
Hobbes, Weber and Durkheim: How do Hobbes, Weber and Durkheim relate the individual to society?
Rousseau and the French revolution: Discuss Rousseau's ideas about society and how they relate to the French Revolution with special reference to either women or slavery.
Total institutions: Relate the theories of Goffman, Bentham, and one other theorist from the list on the web to the development of total institutions in the 19th century.
Durkheim and Merton's Criminology: Outline and compare Emile Durkheim and Robert Merton's theories of society and anomie To what extent are they blaming society for crime?
Filmer and Locke: Is the family a good model for political society? Discuss in relation to Filmer and Locke. Relate your answer to both of Locke's Two Treatises on Government and to the extracts from Filmer (on the web).
Rousseau and/or Wollstonecraft: Discuss the relation between reason, gender, the family and politics in the work of Rousseau and/or Wollstonecraft, with special reference to Emile and/or Vindications of the Rights of Women.
The family and slavery: Discuss the relevance of the family and slavery to the general theories of society of Aristotle, Rousseau, and Olympe de Gouges
Thompson and Wheeler: Discuss the relation of utilitarian and owenite principles to politics, gender, the family, sex and class in Wheeler and Thompson's Appeal of One-half of the Human Race, Women, Against The Pretensions of the Other Half, Men, to Retain them in Political, and Thence in Civil and Domestic Slavery.
Mill and Taylor: Discuss the relation of gender and family to politics and class in Mill and Taylor's essay on The Future of the Labouring Classes
Communist Manifesto: Discuss the relation of gender and family to politics and class in Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto.
Crime: Discuss the relation of crime and criminal statistics to class, the family, sex, and politics in Engels' The Condition of the Working Class in England and Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto.
Subjection of Women: Is the family a good model for political society? Discuss in relation to J.S.Mill, with special reference to his book on The Subjection of Women.
Engels' "Origin": Discuss the relation of gender to history in Engels' The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State
Freud and society: Discuss the relationship between sexuality, gender and personality Freud's An Outline of Psychoanalysis. How does his theory of the development of the individual relate to his theory about society?
21st Century policy: Outline the ideas of Adam Smith or Jeremy Bentham or Thomas Malthus or Robert Owen and discuss their significance today