MINNESOTA STATE UNIVERSITY MOORHEAD
Department of Sociology & Criminal Justice
Sociology 302
Sociological Theory
Instructor: Michael W. Hughey
email: hughey@mnstate.edu
REQUIRED READINGS
Emile Durkheim, Emile Durkheim: On Morality and Society. Edited by Robert N. Bellah.
Karl Marx, The Marx-Engels Reader, edited by Robert C. Tucker.
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
Thorstein Veblen, possibly some selected readings as assigned
COURSE OBJECTIVES
This course will explore some of the major questions raised by classical sociological theorists and
examine how they attempted to systematically answer them. Areas of inquiry likely to be dealt with
include:
Epistemology: approaches to the understanding of the social world
The problem of social order: How is society possible? What accounts for social stability?
The problem of social change: How and why is order disrupted?
The origins, nature, and consequences of capitalism
The relationship between the individual and society
The sources, nature, and consequences of "modernity"
The sociology of knowledge: How do we know what we know?
Social psychology: Why and how are we who we are?
RECOMMENDED READINGS
This is obviously not an exhaustive list of readings, but it does his some of the high points of classical
sociological theory.
Hannah Arendt,
Emile Durkheim,
Emile Durkheim & Marcel Mauss
Alvin Gouldner
Otto Kirchheimer
Karl Mannheim,
Karl Marx,
The Origins of Totalitarianism
On Violence
The Division of Labor in Society
Rules of the Sociological Method
Suicide
Professional Ethics and Civic Morals
Sociology and Philosophy
The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
Primitive Classification
The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology
Political Justice
Ideology and Utopia
Capital (3 volumes)
The German Ideology
Marcel Mauss,
Robert Michels,
Barrington Moore,
Friedrich Neitzche,
Franz Neumann,
Frank Parkin,
Karl Polanyi,
Alfred Schutz,
Georg Simmel,
Hans Speier,
Alexis de Tocqueville
Thorstein Veblen,
Max Weber,
The Communist Manifesto
On Religion
A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
The Grundrisse
Writings of the Young Marx on Philosophy and Society
Pre-Capitalist Economic Formations
The Gift
Political Parties
The Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
Beyond Good and Evil
The Geneology of Morals
The Democratic and the Authoritarian State
Marxism and Class Theory
The Great Transformation
On Phenomenology and Social Relations
The Phenomenology of the Social World
On Women, Sexuality, and Love
On Individuality and Social Forms
The Sociology of Georg Simmel
Conflict and the Web of Group Affiliation
Philosophy of Money
Social Order and the Risks of War
Force and Folly
Democracy in America (2 volumes)
The Ancient Regime
The Instinct of Workmanship
The Theory of the Business Enterprise
The Theory of the Leisure Class
Absentee Ownership
Marx, Race, Science and Economics
Economy and Society (3 volumes)
From Max Weber (edited by Gerth and Mills)
The Methodology of the Social Sciences
The Religion of China
The Religion of India
Ancient Judaism
General Economic History
On Law in Economy and Society
The Theory of Social and Economic Organization
The Agrarian Economy of Ancient Civilization