FORDHAM UNIVERSITY
Fordham College-Rose Hill
Interdisciplinary Capstone Course Spring 2015
Title: AN ETHICS OF MODERN SELFHOOD: THE PURSUIT OF AUTHENTICITY
SOCI 4052 R01
Mondays and Thursdays Dealy Hall 110 2:30-3:45pm
Instructor:
E. Doyle McCarthy, Professor of Sociology
Dealy Hall 405A
(718) 817-3855
mccathy@fordham.edu
Office hours: by appointment only, please email me.
SYLLABUS
This is an interdisciplinary capstone course on the topic of the modern and postmodern
self or identity. Its texts include materials from the social sciences and humanities.
The principal focus of the course is the modern culture of self or identity which is
examined as a series of personal and moral conflicts and dilemmas: those of public and private
life; of “society” (or community) and the “individual”; the conflict of rationality over
emotionality (and control and release); of personal freedom (“choice”) and social control
(determination); and the more recent conflicts concerning personal freedom and individuality
(and the individual’s mind) in the face of the growth of “mass society” and its “mass culture.” In
various texts and discourses—modern novels, political and sociological treatises, films, personal
memoirs—these conflicts are given expression and can be studied as a modern and postmodern
discourse about selfhood today in which we can discover some of the principal moral dilemmas
of persons today. In and through various texts and images we can begin to address the question,
“What is a self today?” What are the special problem and ethical dilemmas of our worlds and
ourselves as modern and postmodern “subjects”?
In the final section of the course questions of religion and faith are addressed as integral
to people’s modern and postmodern identities.
The “dilemmas” of modern identity—which will be framed and discussed in the
introductory classes of this course—include those described in classic works of social theory:
modernity is the “iron cage” in which the individual is trapped within a material and hyperrationalized culture. In other disciplines and discourses such as in novels and in works of urban
sociology, the city is depicted as the arena of loneliness and isolation, but an arena of personal
freedom as well. In works of psychology as well as in literary theory the modern pursuit of
“authenticity” is portrayed as a solitary and inward journey of the self. In the genre of film (and
studies of film) individuals are confronted by technologies that are both the conditions for the
engineering of conformity and the occasions for personal escape into entertainment and pleasure.
My aim in this course is to identify such a discourse of the self and to provide texts for its
discovery in a variety of works and genres: social and political texts and treatises, psychology and
psychoanalysis, literary theory, works on religious belief and theology, and in works of
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communication (film, television, entertainment). A second focus of the course is for the student to
examine contemporary notions of personal identity and their development in modern cultural
history.
From this study and discussion about modern identity will follow discussions about the
various meanings—moral, psychological, relational, ethical, religious—that attach to such a
modern and postmodern identity. For example, ideas of “personal freedom,” “individuality,” and
“authenticity” will be discussed within the framework proposed above. How, for example, can
these moral positions be reconciled with the notions of the self as a social and cultural formation?
The methodology of the course is that of the discipline of social philosophy and the field
of the sociology of knowledge and culture. It places the self or the modern identity as a
development or an elaboration of a complex social and political history. Of course this is not a
novel idea, but one that takes the lead from such classical and contemporary writers as
Montesquieu, Alexis de Tocqueville, Karl Marx, Max Weber, and, more recently, Norbert Elias,
Michel Foucault, Stephen Greenblatt, Peter Berger, Anthony Giddens, Stuart Hall, Charles
Taylor, Judith Butler and others whose works are read as studies in the sociology of the modern
and postmodern self.
REQUIRED READINGS
3 books (read in the order they are listed) THESE EDITIONS ONLY
1
Erving Goffman THE PRESENTATION OF SELF IN EVERYDAY LIFE
(Doubleday/Anchor 1959) ISBN # 0-385009402-7.
Goffman’s book is read together with the essay by Raymond William listed below.
2
Erich Fromm ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM (1941.1965) ISBN 0-8050-3149-9
3
Charles Taylor THE ETHICS OF AUTHENTICITY ISBN 0-674-26863-6
Required 6 readings, course booklet provided for purchase with the following readings:
1
Peter L Berger, “The Pluralization of Social Lifewords,” and “The Obsolescence
of the Concept of Honor” from THE HOMELESS MIND.
2
George Herbert Mead, a selection “The Self,” pp. 135-226 from MIND, SELF &
SOCIETY (Chicago 1934).
3
Raymond Williams, “Drama in a Dramatised Society,” pp. 3-13 in RAYMOND
WILLIAMS ON TELEVISION (ed. A O’Connor, Routledge, 1989).
4
Michel Foucault “Sexual Discourse and Power,” pp. 199-204 in CULTURE &
SOCIETY eds. Alexander & Seidman (Cambridge 1990).
5
Foucault on Ethics: “Introduction” to The Use of Pleasure, History of Sexuality
Vol 2, pp. 3-32; see also Bob Robinson “Michel Foucault: Ethics,” The
Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
6
Daniel Bell ‘The Disjunction of Realms,” pp. 3-30 in THE CULTURAL
CONTRADICTIONS OF CAPITALISM (Basic Books 1996).
2
Organization of Weekly Meetings:
The course will include a weekly lecture (Mondays) on the current readings. There is a
class discussion, task-oriented with questions to discuss, most Thursdays, after an initial brief
lecture.
The progress of readings for lectures and discussion groups will be given to you
each week with class hand-outs and/or email notifications. It is important to check emails
frequently during the week. Each week your weekly papers/journal entries are due.
Course Requirements:
A. Attendance and regular participation in class is required of each student and is taken
seriously in grading; all absences are accounted for via email or note; absences for
illness requires a note or record. 30 pts of the final grade is preparation &
participation in all classes and discussions.
B. 50 pts. Weekly short 1-page papers (typed 12 pt, double-spaced, about 300
words or 1 page) or handwritten journal entries are due on the readings of the
week. These are response papers to the readings and discussions of the week, not
research papers. I will read and provide some comments on the papers, but we will
not grade the weekly papers until the end of the course. However, you will lose
points if the work is not done on time and/or if your essays do not reflect the
readings. The papers are brought to class on designated class days each week in
folders that contain all the papers you have written. It is important that you keep a
complete set of papers with my written comments. Please remember to keep all
your weekly papers in a folder, adding to them week by week. At the end of the
course you will each hand in the complete set of papers in your folder.
C
Grades of A or A- require that students earn “excellent” evaluations in the 3 areas
described above 1. preparation and preparation in classes, 2. weekly papers, 3. final exam.
DATES TO REMEMBER
Feb 16 Mon holiday, Presidents Day
Feb 17 Tues No class in this class, Monday class schedules are followed in FC-RH
March 16-22 SPRING Break
March 23 Mon classes resume
Wed April 1, 2015 extra class for Mon/Thurs classes
April 2-6 Easter recess
April 27 Mon in this class, last class meeting
May 4-11 Final exams
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2015
Jan. 5
Mon.
University Reopens
Jan. 12
Mon.
Classes begin following a Monday academic schedule; Academic Advising 2:30-4:00 in
Department/Program Offices
for Majors; in Keating 302 for others
Jan. 19
Mon.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - University Closed
Jan. 20
Tue.
Deadline for Add/Drop of courses; last day for program change
Jan. 23
Fri.
Deadlinefor removal of INC, ABS, NGR grades from Fall 2013
Jan. 30
Fri.
Last day of Attendance Reports to be submitted by all instructors (Round 1)
Feb. 5
Thurs.
Deadline to submit Candidatefor Degree cards (May 2015 and August 2015 Graduates)
Feb. 6
Fri.
Arts and Sciences Faculty Day
Feb. 16
Mon.
President's Day - University Closed
Feb. 17
Tue.
Classes resume following a Monday academic schedule
Feb. 19-26
Thurs.-Thurs.
Midterm Examinations
Feb. 20
Fri.
Last day for designating a course Pass/Fail
Mar. 5
Thurs.
Mid-semester evaluations for all students due
Mar. 16-22
Mon.- Sun.
Spring Recess - No Classes; University Open
Mar. 23
Mon.
Classes resume following a Monday academic schedule
Mar. 24
Tue.
Last day to withdraw from a class without incurring a WF
Mar. 30
Mon.
Last day of Attendance Reports to be submitted by all instructors (Round 2)
Apr. 2-6
Thurs.- Mon.
Easter Recess - University Closed
Apr. 7
Tue.
Classes resume following a Tuesday academic schedule
Apr. 29
Wed.
Last day of Classes
Apr. 30
Thurs.
Reading Days begin
May 1
Fri.
Final Examinations for Modern Languages
May 4- 11
Mon.-Mon.
Final Examinations
May 14
Thurs.
Encaenia (Senior Awards Ceremony)
May 15
Fri.
Baccalaureate Mass
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May 16
Sat.
University Commencement
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