Prof. César J. Ayala
Office Hours: Fridays 9-11
(please email first to confirm you are coming), or by appointment (email me to agree on a time). I will open a Zoom session while holding office hours in Haines 245, but in-person office hours take priority over Zoom. Zoom Link to Office Hours
Telephone: 310-267-4306 (office); 310-853-3627 (cell)
Office: Haines Hall 245
EMAIL: cjayala@soc.ucla.edu
Teaching Assistants
Course Description
We will read 3
"classical" social theorists of the nineteenth century: Karl Marx
(1818-1883), Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), and Max Weber (1864-1920). The
original works of these thinkers shaped the intellectual course of the
discipline of sociology and influenced several other academic disciplines
which seek to understand the social world. The writings of these three
thinkers continue to be of relevance for modern day researchers. The
objectives of this course are: to get an initial
exposure to the works of Marx, Durkheim and Weber through the reading of
original texts and critical commentary, in order to understand the
distinctive scientific achievements of these thinkers that help us today
analyze the social world.
Course Requirements
All
students are expected to attend the lectures and the discussion sections
punctually. Grades will be based on the following.
- Weekly Quizzes (online) 10%
- Section Participation 20%
- 2nd week paper 10%
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Midterm 30%
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Final 30% (not cumulative)
Readings
All
readings for this course are available for download in the course web page
and can be reached through this syllabus. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to be able to see and
print the readings.
Discussion Section Objectives
The
discussion part of the class is intended to provide a forum for student discussion of
each week's readings and lectures, with the goal of clarifying the material
and facilitating greater conceptual understanding of issues in contemporary
sociological theory. The TA will not lecture. This is an opportunity for
students to work through the course material as a group, with the TA's
assistance. Needless to say, given the difficulty of
the course material, full participation will be essential to good performance
on the exams. You don't really know material until you can talk and write
about it, and it is this level of understanding that will be tested in the
end.
Late policy:
Late papers will be docked 10% for each day they are overdue. So, for example, a paper submitted 3 days late can receive a maximum of 70%.
Section grading:
Section grading is split equally into attendance and participation.
Absences
Absences from Discussion Section: We allow 1 free excused absence. Students may take this absence whenever they wish and need not email their TA in advance. If they have further issues with attendance, they should write to their TA as soon as possible. Additional excused absences will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Preparation
For this
discussion section to be helpful, students MUST arrive prepared to
participate. This means having [1] attended the previous lecture [2]
completed ALL required readings.
Weekly Readings
Week 1
1) Zeitlin, "The Philosophical Orientations of Karl Marx."
(***This is a chapter from Irving Zetlin's book
listed below.)
2)
Marx, "Estranged Labor."
Movie
Clips from A Nous la Liberté (Dir. René Clair, 1931)
(manufacturing division of labor) and Movie Clip from Modern Times (Dir.
Charles Chaplin, 1936) (modern assembly line)
***Irving Zeitlin, Ideology
and the Development of Sociological Theory (Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001), henceforth cited as Zeitlin, IDST.).
QUESTION FOR PAPER 1
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Week 2
1. Hobsbawm,
"Introduction to the Communist Manifesto."
2. Karl Marx, Manifesto of the Communist Party (Full).
3. Zeitlin, "Marx's Historical Sociology." (from Zeitlin, IDST)
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Week 3
1.
Marx, "The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof."
2.
Marx, "Primitive
Accumulation. "(Capital, Chapters 26-33).
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Week 4
1.
Karl Marx, "The North American Civil War."
2.
Karl Marx, "The Civil War in the United States."
3. W.E.B. Dubois, "The
General Strike," Chapter 5 of Black Reconstruction in America (pub. 1935).
Optional:
James Oakes, "What the 1619 Project got Wrong," Catalyst, vol. 5, no. 3 (Fall 2021): pp. 8-47.
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Week 5
Sample
Midterm
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Week 6
- Weber, The Protestant Ethic and
the Spirit of Capitalism (Selections) [The Problem + The Spirit of Capitalism}.
-
- Zeitlin , "Max Weber, 1864-1920." (From Zeitlin, IDST)
-
- Giddens, "Max Weber, Protestantism and Capitalism." ***
*** From
Anthony Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory: An Analysis
of the Writings of Marx, Durkheim and Weber (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1971) herceforth cited as
Giddens, CMST.
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Week 7
Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the
Spirit of Capitalism (Selections) [Asceticism
and the Capitalist Spirit]
Zeitlin, "Weber's Methodology in the Social Sciences" (from
Zeitlin, IDST)
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Week 8
1.
Collins, "Weber's Last Theory of Capitalism"
2. Weber, General
Economic History, pp. 275-314.
3.
Weber, General Economic History, 315-371.
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Week 9
1.
Giddens, "Durkheims Early Works" ( from Giddens, CMST).
2.
Durkheim, " Mechanical Solidarity, or
Solidarity by Similarities,” from The Division of Labor in Society.
3. Durkheim, excerpts from "Solidarity Arising from the Division of Labor, or
Organic Solidarity” from The Division of Labor
in Society .
4. Durkheim, “The Increasing Preponderance of Organic Solidarity and
its Consequences” from The Division of Labor in Society.
5.
Durkheim, "Conclusion,"
pp. 329-341)
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Week 10
1.
Durkheim, Suicide, Introduction
2. Durkheim, Suicide, Book 2, Chapter 1
3. Durkheim, Suicide, Book 2, Chapter 2(Egoistic
Suicide)
4. Durkheim, Suicide, Book 2, Chapter 3(Egoistic
Suicide, continued)
5. Durkheim, Suicide, Book 2, Chapter 5 (Anomic
Suicide)
6. Giddens "Durkheims Conception of Sociological Method"
( from Giddens, CMST).
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Sample FINAL EXAM
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