“PHILOSOPHY - 2: CLASS, GENDER, NATION”
ARSENIY KHITROV
akhitrov@hse.ru
Office: Maly Trekhsvyatitelsky pereulok, 8/2, room 312 (Thursdays and Fridays, with
appointment)
I.
OVERVIEW OF TEACHING AIMS AND METHODS
1. PROGRAMME AUTHOR
Arseniy Khitrov, candidate of sciences in philosophy, is an assistant professor in
cultural studies at the NRU HSE.
2. SUMMARY
The course has two parts: a historical and a theoretical one. In its historical part, it
explores how European and Northern American scholars came to the idea that class,
gender, and nation are not pre-given essences but are products of history and people’s
interactions between people and that the belief in essences is ideology. In its
theoretical part, it aims at teaching students how to assess critically notions of class,
gender, and nation, their philosophical foundations, evolution, and their ideological
implications in theoretical thinking of the present day.
The historical part of this module starts with the exploration of changes that took
place in both European thought and socioeconomic conditions in the second half of
the 19th century. During lectures, students learn about reasons why Karl Marx,
Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud became suspicious in transparency of
introspection and how those thinkers came to their theories of irrational factors that,
as they believed, influence human behaviour and thinking. The course shows how
ideology, class consciousness, will to power, and sexual desire, being those factors,
became also keywords in critical theory, gender studies, and contemporary
nationalism studies. Throughout the 20th century those concepts functioned as
explanations of how individuals think and behave and how society works. However,
by the end of the century thinkers started to challenge those concepts and see ideology
in ideology critique itself. The historical part of the course finished with the most
recent debates on the issue.
The theoretical part of the course gives students understanding of philosophical
foundations, key concepts, and basic principles of the social constructionist paradigm
in the humanities and the social sciences. During seminars they are taught to assess
critically texts by Karl Marx and neo-Marxists, specialists in gender studies, and in
contemporary studies of nationalism and also to analyse research puzzles and
everyday situations relying on social constructionism principles.
Some pedagogical strategies innovative for the HSE are used during seminars. These
strategies aim at motivating students to be critical and to apply theories they study to
issues that they already know from other courses and from their everyday life.
3. EDUCATIONAL AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE
Educational aims:

Enhance students’ understanding of the 19th and 20th century European
philosophy;

Enhance students’ understanding of issues specific to Marxism, neo-Marxism
(critical theory), gender studies, studies in nationalism, and social
constructionism;

Enlarge student’s knowledge of key categories of those movements;

To teach students to apply those categories correctly to research problems that
are linked with issues covered by this course.
Educational objectives:

To teach students to critically assess philosophical texts;

To teach students to apply key philosophical categories correctly;

To sustain a reasoned argument backed-up with relevant evidence;

To communicate their own ideas and respond to others in discussion;

To work in groups.
4. ORIGINAL TEACHING METHODS
I divide the audience into 2-3 groups and give each group 20-25 minutes to prepare 1
critical statement about the texts recommended for the seminar and 3-4 critical
questions for the other groups. Questions must start with words ‘how’, ‘why’ and
never with ‘who’, ‘what’, or ‘when’, so that the answer would not be an exposition of
texts but students’ own reasoning. The rest of the seminar is staged as an exchange of
critical statements and questions between the groups accompanied with the teacher’s
comments.
During the course every student has to post 1 comment on one particular seminar and
1 comment on any comment on the other concrete seminar. This task aims at
provoking students to critically assess judgments of their fellow-students.
This is the first time I use this teaching method that is built upon the methods I used
last year and got a prize for from the Centre of Educational Innovations at NRU HSE.
II.
THE COURSE'S CONTENT
1. ORIGINALITY OF THE COURSE
The course deals with issues that are at the core of on-going debates in contemporary
philosophy, the humanities, and the social sciences. It explores philosophical
foundations of the paradigm of social constructionism that is one of the most
influential paradigms today.
The course’s content, structure of topics, and teaching methods are not based on any
existing courses and are direct results of my own research. However, the course’s
content corresponds to international agendas in teaching cultural and gender studies
and critical theory at the status they have today in the US,1 Canada,2 the UK,3 and
Australia.4 Additionally, the course is tightly connected with research themes in those
disciplines, as the course’s bibliography shows.
There are several courses taught at HSE in 2012/2013 academic year that deal with
some issues that my course covers. Those courses are the following:



1
Courses on ideology critique: ‘Sociological analysis of ideologies’ by Roman
Abramov (faculty of sociology),5 ‘Sociological and socio-philosophical
theories of illusionary forms of consciousness’ by Kirill Sovrin (faculty of
sociology),6 ‘Political theory’ by Gleb Musikhin (faculty of applied political
sciences).7
Сourses on gender studies: ‘Sociology of gender’ by Elena Rozhdestvenskaya
(faculty of sociology),8 ‘Gender history’ by Galina Zelenina (faculty of
history),9 ‘Gender expert evaluation of economic and social policy’ 10 and
‘Gender analysis in economic sociology’ 11 by Elena Mezentseva (faculty of
sociology), ‘Gender analysis of social work in public and private spheres’ by
Olga Simonova (faculty of sociology),12 ‘Social Hierarchy and Gender Issues
in East Asia’ by Evgeny Shteyner (faculty of philosophy),13 ‘Sociology of
family and gender relations’ by Olga Yusupova (Institute of demography).14
Courses on nationalism studies: ‘Nations and nationalism’ and ‘Post-imperial
syndrome and neo-imperial reason’ by Leonid Gorizontov (faculty of
history),15 ‘Racial discourse in society an politics’ by Nikolay Shcherbakov
(Department of World and Russian history),16 ‘Ethnosocilogy’ by Leokadia
Drobizheva (faculty of sociology),17 ‘Nation Building and State Formation’ by
http://generalcatalog.berkeley.edu/catalog/gcc_list_crse_req?p_dept_name=Critical+Theory&p_dept_cd=CRIT+TH,
http://www.princeton.edu/ecs/current-courses/,
2
http://www.calendar.ubc.ca/okanagan/courses.cfm?code=CULT,
http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~english/undergraduate/Courses.html,
http://www.mlcs.ualberta.ca/en/Courses.aspx.
3
http://www.gold.ac.uk/cultural-studies/programmes/,
http://webprod3.leeds.ac.uk/catalogue/dynprogrammes.asp?Y=201314&P=BA-ARTF%2FCS
4
http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/handbooks/aos/critical-theory/ ,
http://sydney.edu.au/handbooks/arts/units_of_study/table_a_ce.shtml#uosa_cultural_studies.
5
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/54589817.html
6
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/59638354.html
7
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/54586954.html
8
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/54589475.html
9
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/57802400.html
10
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/59865206.html
11
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/56481884.html
12
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/54587961.html
13
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/60219141.html
14
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/54589417.html
15
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/57802052.html, http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/58866560.html
16
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/58865689.html
17
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/56481202.html
Mikhail Ilyin (faculty of applied political sciences),18 ‘Migrants and Ethnic
Minorities’ by Anna Potsar and Irina Filatova (public policy department).19
However, none of those courses proposes the same perspective as my module or has a
structure similar to my course. Another feature that makes my course different from
all the courses mentioned above is that it touches upon fundamental philosophical
foundations of the categories of class, nation, and gender, while other courses taught
at HSE dedicated to rather practical application of these concepts within a particular
disciplinary framework.
Galina Zvereva, Vera Zvereva, Arkadiy Perlov, Boris Stepanov, Andrey Oleynikov
and some other colleagues from the Russian State University of Humanities teach
courses that embrace some issues of cultural studies and critical theory, but it is
impossible to assess their courses’ syllabi since the web site of the RSUH does not
contain them.20
Therefore, my course can be regarded as an original educational product in both the
Russian and the world educational markets.
Teaching methods proposed here are based, firstly, on my personal experience of
being a student on the Erasmus Mundus programme “Crossways in Cultural
Narratives” in universities of Sheffield (UK), Tübingen (Germany), and Perpignan
(France) during the 2009-2011 academic years and, secondly, on Professional
Development Programme “Methods of monitoring tests’ design to measure teaching
outcomes” that I attended at HSE from 30.05.2012 till 20.06.2012, and thirdly, on
discussions with colleagues during the workshop “Philosophy in the Contemporary
University” at HSE in St. Petersburg on 15th June 2012.21
2. THEMATIC PLAN OF THE COURSE
№
18
Topics
Total
Hours of Classroom Independ
Number of Work
ent Work
hours
Lectures Seminars
1. Theories of Ideology: Marx,
Nietzsche, and Freud
22
6
4
10
2. Karl Marx's, Max Weber,
Werner Sombart, and Alfred
Hirschman on the origins of
capitalism
9
2
0
5
3. Ideology Critique after Marx 13
4
4
5
4. Taylorism, Fordism, and Post- 18
Fordism. The working class
movement and its
interrelations with the
4
0
10
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/59627040.html
http://www.hse.ru/edu/courses/54171152.html
20
http://fii.rsuh.ru/section.html?id=5774
21
https://sites.google.com/site/teachingphilosophyhse/
19
European philosophy.
5. Foundations of Social
Constructionism
18
4
0
10
6. Social Constructionism and 14
Contemporary Gender Studies
2
8
10
7. Social Constructionism and
Contemporary Studies of
Nationalism
14
2
8
10
108
24
24
60
In sum:
III.
FULFILLMENT OF COURSE PLAN
1. Theories of Ideology: Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud
Lecture 1
The origins of the concept of ‘ideology’. Destutt de Tracy. Karl Marx.
Ideology as knowledge biased by interests. Class interests, will to
power, sexual desire.
Lecture 2
The evolution of Marx’s vision of ideology. Ideology VS praxis,
ideology VS science. Examples of the Marxist ideology critique, its
strong and weak sides.
Lecture 3
Naturalisation as an ideological operation. Culture/Nurture debates. Is
ideology critic based on a priori assumptions about human nature?
Essentialims.
Seminars 1 and 2
Required Readings
Engels, Frederick; Marx, Karl. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts
of 1844 and Communist Manifesto. New York: Prometheus Books,
1988. 19-52, 69-114.
Маркс К. Экономическо-философские рукописи 1844 года. В кн.:
К. Маркс и Ф. Энгельс. Сочинения. Изд. второе, Т. 42, М.:
Издательство политической литературы, 1974, С. 47-71, 86-127.
Supplementary Readings
Wright, Erik Olin. Class Counts. Student Edition. Cambridge: Maison
des Sciences de l'Homme and Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Мусихин Г. И. Очерки теории идеологий. М.: Издательский дом
НИУ ВШЭ, 2013.
Eagleton T. Ideology. An Introduction. London and New York: Verso,
1991.
Ricoeur, Paul. Lectures on Ideology and Utopia. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1986.
Freeden, Michael. Ideology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford
University Press, 2003.
2. Karl Marx's, Max Weber, Werner Sombart, and Alfred Hirschman on
the origins of capitalism
Lecture 4
Marx’s vision that the source of ideology is capitalism. Capitalism as
“Imperative to unlimited accumulation of capital by formally peaceful
means” (Boltanski, 4). Four elements of capitalism according to Marx:
1) The labour is a commodity; 2) Relationships between the worker
and the capitalist is a struggle; 3) More capital -> more exploitation; 4)
Labour/the worker is estranged/alienated. Max Weber on religious
sources of capitalism. Alfred Hirschman on psychological sources of
capitalism. The concept of the ‘interest’ and its genealogy.
Supplementary Readings
Hirschman, Albert. The Passions and the Interests. Political Arguments
for Capitalism before Its Triumph. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton
University Press, 1997.
Хиршман, Альберт. Страсти и интересы. Политические аргументы
в пользу капитализма до его триумфа. М.: Издательство
Института Гайдара, 2012.
3. Ideology Critique after Marx
Lecture 5
Can ideology critic be itself ideological? Neo-Marxism. Gramsci.
Althusser. Sartre. The Frankfurt School.
Lecture 6
Ideology as hegemony of meaning. Can facts speak for themselves?
Slavoj Zizek on ideology. Ideology in the anti-migrant speech.
Ideology of contemporary environmentalism. Ideology as practices.
Seminar 3
Required Readings
Voloshinov, V. N. Marxism and the Philosophy of Language. N.Y., L.:
Seminar Press, 1973.
Волошинов В. Н. Марксизм и философия языка. В кн.: М. М.
Бахтин (под маской). Фрейдизм. Формальный метод в
литературоведении. Марксизм и философия языка. Статьи. М.:
Лабиринт, 2000, С. 349-486.
Supplementary Readings
Балибар Э., Валлерстайн И. Раса, нация, класс. Двусмысленные
идентичности. М., 2004, С. 135-217.
Wright, Erik Olin. Class Counts. Student Edition. Cambridge: Maison
des Sciences de l'Homme and Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Seminar 4
Required Readings
Althusser, Louis. “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes
towards an Investigation).” Mapping Ideology. Ed. Slavoj Zizek.
London, New York: Verso, 1995. 100-40.
Альтюссер, Луи. Идеология и идеологические аппараты
государства (заметки для исследования) // Неприкосновенный
запас. 2011. №3 (77).
4. Taylorism, Fordism, and Post-Fordism. The working class movement and
its interrelations with the European philosophy.
Lecture 7
The evolution of the working class’ condition in Europe from the 19th
century to the present day. Assembly lines. Predictable careers.
Patriarchal family. Reproduction of social institutions by economic
conditions. Edward Bernays and Sigmund Freud. Sexuality and
advertisement. Managerial revolution.
Supplementary Readings
Boltanski, Luc, and Eve Chiapello. New Spirit of Capitalism. London,
New York: Verso, 2007.
Sennett, Richard. The Culture of the New Capitalism. New Haven,
London: Yale University Press. 2006.
Esping-Andersen, Gøsta, ed. Changing Classes. Stratification and
Mobility in Post-industrial Societies. SAGE. 1993.
Saunders, Peter. Social Class and Stratification. Routledge: London
and New York, 1990.
Lecture 8
Decentralization, meritocracy, and management by objectives. Hippie
movement and mai ’68. Trade unionism. The French Communist Party
and French philosophers. Intellectuals and power: cases of Althusser,
Foucault, and Mills. Post-Fordism and cognitive capitalism. The
concept of the ‘multitude’ by Negri and Hardt.
5. Foundations of Social Constructionism
Lecture 9
Origins of the paradigm. Cognitive constructionism in Kant, and
Husserl. Linguistic turn in philosophy. The idea of the arbitrariness of
the sign in Saussure and the late Wittgenstein. Performative utterance
in Ausitn. Berger and Luckmann’s The Social Construction of Reality.
The issue of agency.
Supplementary Readings
Burr, Vivien. Social Constructionism. London, New York: Routledge,
2003.
Hacking, Ian. The Social Construction of What? Cambridge,
Massachusetts, London, England: Harvard University Press, 1999.
Lecture 10
Discourse theories. Discourse and power. Examples of the discourse
analysis.
6. Social Constructionism and Contemporary Gender Studies
Lecture 11
Language, sex, and gender. The origins and the evolution of the
concept of gender. Feminism’s influence on evolutionary psychology.
Seminar 5
Required Readings
Rubin, Gayle. "The Traffic in Women: Notes on the ‘‘Political
Economy’’ of Sex." Feminist Anthropology. A Reader. Ed. Ellen
Lewin. Blackwell Publishing, 2006. 87-106.
Рубин, Гейл. Обмен женщинами. Заметки о «политической
экономии» пола. В кн.: Антология гендерной теории. Минск, 2000,
С. 99-113.
Seminar 6
Required Readings
Nochlin, Linda. "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?"
Linda Nochlin. Women, Art, and Power. New York: Harper and Row,
1988. 145-78.
Seminar 7
Required Readings
Buss, David Michael & David P. Schmitt. “Evolutionary Psychology
and Feminism.” Sex Roles 64 (2011): 768–787.
Seminar 8
Required Readings
Meynell, Letitia. “Evolutionary Psychology, Ethology, and
Essentialism (Because What They Don’t Know Can Hurt Us).”
Hypatia 27.1 (2012): 3-26.
Hall, Kim Q. ““Not Much to Praise in Such Seeking and Finding”:
Evolutionary Psychology, the Biological Turn in the Humanities, and
the Epistemology of Ignorance.” Hypatia 27.1 (2012): 28-49.
7. Social Constructionism and Contemporary Studies of Nationalism
Lecture 12
The origins of the concept of the ‘nation’. Ethnic and civic concepts of
nation. Nationalism as political ideology. Four demands of
nationalism: culturally homogenous community; sovereignty; loyalty;
legitimacy of power. Primordialism. Early studies of nationalism.
Ernest Renan. Modernists in studies of nationalism: Gellner, Anderson,
and Hobsbawm. Limitations of modernism and contemporary historical
studies.
Seminar 9
Required Readings
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin
and Spread of Nationalism. London, New York: Verso, 2006. 9-36.
Андерсон, Бенедикт. Воображаемые сообщества. Размышления об
истоках и распространении национализма. М.: Канон-Пресс-Ц,
Кучково Поле, 2001, С. 33-59.
Supplementary Readings
Малахов В. С. Национализм как политическая идеология: Учебное
пособие. М.: КДУ, 2005.
Seminar 10 and 11
Required Readings
Hirschi, Caspar. The Origins of Nationalism. Cambridge University
Press, 2012. 1-49.
Seminar 12
Exam
Exam Questions
1. How does Marx define social class? Is class analysis applicable to
contemporary Russian society? Give an example and explain why.
2. What is capitalism, Fordism, post-Fordism, and neo-liberalism? What are their
philosophical foundations?
3. Give your own definition of ideology, relate it to Marx’s and Althusser’s
visions, and specify how ideology is different from worldview and science.
4. Give your own definition of naturalization, give 2 examples from texts we
studied, and comment on each of them.
5. How would you define discourse? Do you think discourse is different from
language? Relate your answer to Voloshinov’s and Foucault’s theories.
6. What is gender studies? Give your own definition and 2 examples of research
questions specific to the field relying on texts by Gayle Rubin and Linda
Nochlin.
7. Do you think that in contemporary Russian society women are used as gifts or
currency? Give examples and relate your comments to Gayle Rubin’s ideas.
8. How do you understand basic ideas of social constructionism? Give 2
examples of research questions formulated in the spirit of this paradigm and
comment on them.
9. How are social biology/evolutionary psychology and social constructionism
interrelated? Give 2 examples of contradictions between them. Explain why
these contradictions appear.
10. What is social constructionist vision of nationalism?
About the exam
During the last seminar (1 hour 20 minutes) you will have to give a written answer to
one of these questions. You will be given a particular question at the beginning of the
exam.
Please make sure you put all your bags, notebooks, clothes, and gadgets on the table
that I will indicate you. You are allowed to take with you a pen only. I will give you
paper. If I notice that you use anything except your pen and paper to write your
answer, you will get the grade ‘0’ for your exam. You may take a bottle of water with
you.
You will get ‘0’ for plagiarism, regardless the volume of the texts borrowed from
somebody else without a correct reference.
You have to give a well-structured, logical, and clearly written answer on 2 pages
minimum. You have to demonstrate an ability to analyse critically issues that we dealt
with during our seminars and lectures. I do not expect detailed expositions of theories
but your own critical and well-argued judgments. However, you always have to rely
on concepts and theories that we have studied throughout the course. 50% of the final
grade for this exam will be of the structure and logic of your answer. You have to start
your answer with a clear question and you have to finish your texts with a clear
answer of this question. Please consult examples of structures that you can find in the
‘Terms and Conditions' section on LMS.
I will post your grades for the exam and final grades on June 3th on LMS.
I wish you good luck!
IV.
FORMS OF CONTROL
1
2
Cumulative Grade
Control over the course of the semester
Seminar Grade
Gcurrent
Gseminar
 Essay (comment on the seminar) – 10
 Active performance during
maximum. 400-500 words posted on LMS
the seminar - 1 maximum
during the week after the seminar.
per seminar;
 Homework (comment on the comment on  Episodic but quality
the seminar) - 10. 400-500 words posted
performance during the
on LMS during two weeks after the
seminar - 0,5;
seminar.
 Sub-standard (may be
active) performance - 0.
n1 = 0,5
Independent Work
Grade
No assessments
Exam Grade
Gexam
500-600 words
written in the class
during 1h 20 min. For
more see “About the
exam” section in this
programme.
q2*Gcummulative
k1=0,5
k2=0,5
Gcummulative= k1*Gcurrent + k2*Gseminar
* These grades are subject to rounding.
Оfinal =
q1*Gexam +
Gcurrent = n1*Gessay + n2*Ghomework
At the
end:
1 q1 = 0,4
q2 = 0,6
2
n2 = 0,5
3
Final Grade (Goes into
the Diploma)
Gcummulative*
Gexam
Gfinal*