HIST 553 Syllabus/9
The Catholic University of America
Department of History
Spring, 2014
HISTORY 553: Classics of Social Thought
Mondays, 5:10-7:30pm
Prof. Jerry Z. Muller
O’Boyle 235
Office Hours:
Marist Hall 226
M 3:00-4:00pm
Tu 2:30-3:30pm, and by appointment
Phone: 202-319-5484
e-mail:
This course examines the great works of modern social science, works of ongoing interest and influence that have achieved the status of classics. Each work is studied in its historical context, but with an eye to bringing out the themes of perennial interest for the study of society, history, politics, economics, psychology and culture.
Requirements:
Graduate students: one short paper (c.10-15 pages), either examining key issues in the primary texts of one or more of the thinkers; or surveying key secondary literature on one of the thinkers explored in the course; plus a take-home final of approximately fifteen pages.
Undergraduate students: one short paper (c.10 pages), surveying key primary texts or secondary literature on one of the thinkers explored in the course; plus a take-home final of approximately fifteen pages.
Both undergraduate and graduate students should consult with Prof. Muller about the subject matter and relevant bibliography for their papers.
Grades will be based upon the papers, the final exam, and class participation.
Be sure to bring the relevant books (in the editions noted below) to class on the days indicated.
Jan. 12: Introduction; An Overview of the Course
Method in Intellectual History; Introduction to Hobbes
Quentin Skinner, “Meaning and understanding in the history of ideas,” (1969) History and Theory, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1969), pp. 3-53; also available at
http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1121766.files/Skinner%20Meaning%20and%20Understanding%20in%20the%20History%20of%20Ideas.pdf
Recommended:
James Tully ed., Meaning and Context: Quentin Skinner and his Critics (Princeton, 1988), pp.29-67.
Donald R. Kelley (Editor), The History of Ideas: Canon and Variations (The Library of the History of Ideas, Vol 1) (Univ of Rochester Press, 1990);
Melvin Richter, The History of Political and Social Concepts : A Critical Introduction (Oxford Univ Press,1995);
J.G.A. Pocock, “Introduction: The state of the art,” Virtue, Commerce, and History (Cambridge UP, 1985), pp.1-36;
J.G.A. Pocock, “The concept of a language and the métier d’historien: some considerations on practice,” in Anthony Pagden ed., The Languages of Political Theory in Early-Modern Europe (Cambridge UP, 1987), pp.19-40;
Richard Tuck, “The contribution of history,” in Robert Goodin and Philip Pettit ed., A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy (Blackwell, 1993), pp.72-89;
Mark Bevir, “Mind and Method in the History of Ideas”
History and Theory, Vol.36, #2, May, 1997, pp.167-189, esp. pp. 167-76;
Morton White, "Why Annalists of Ideas Should be Analysts of Ideas," The Georgia Review, XXIX, (Winter, 1975);
Dominick LaCapra, "Rethinking Intellectual History and Reading Texts, in LaCapra and Steven Kaplan (ed.) Modern EuropeanIntellectual History (Cornell University Press,, 1982), pp.47-85;
Gertrude Himmelfarb, "Introduction" to The Idea ofPoverty: England in the Early Industrial Age (New York, 1984), pp. 3-19.
Jan. 19: MLK Holiday – NO CLASS
Jan. 26: Hobbes, Leviathan ed. Curley 9780872201774
Reading: from editorial front matter, “Purposes and Features of This Edition”
- from the book itself: Introduction; Part I, chapters i-xiii (recommended xiv-xv); Part II, xvii-xviii; xxix-xxxi;
Noel Malcolm, “A Summary Biography of Hobbes,” in Sorell, Tom (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes (Cambridge, 1996), (supplied)
Recommended:
Curley introduction to Hobbes, Leviathan
Hobbes, Man and Citizen ed. Bernard Gert (Hackett, 1991);
Hobbes, Behemoth or The Long Parliament ed Holmes (Chicago, 1990);
Hobbes, The Correspondence ed. Noel Malcolm (2 volumes, Oxford, 1994);
Rogers, G.A.J. (ed.), Leviathan: Contemporary Responses to the Political Theory of Thomas Hobbes
Malcolm, Noel, Aspects of Hobbes (Oxford 2002)
Sorell, Tom (ed.,), The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes (Cambridge, 1996)
Springborg, Patricia, The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes’ Leviathan (2007)
Whitaker, Mark, “Hobbes’s View of the Reformation,” History of Political Thought, IX,1 (spring, 1988), pp.45-58.
Strauss, Leo, Natural Right and History (University of Chicago Press, 1953), esp.ch.III,IV,V.
Skinner, Quentin, Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes (Cambridge, 1996)
Skinner, Quentin, Visions of Politics: Vol. III: Hobbes and Civil Science (Cambridge, 2002)
Richard Tuck, Hobbes (Oxford Past Masters, 1989)
Leo Strauss, The Political Philosophy of Hobbes: Its Basis and Its Genesis (1936; reprinted by University of Chicago Press);
G.A.J. Rogers and Alan Ryan (eds.), Perspectives on Thomas Hobbes (Oxford UP, 1990).
Wootton, David (ed.), Divine Right and Democracy: An Anthology of Political Writing in Stuart England
Burns, J.H., with Mark Goldie, The Cambridge History of Political Thought 1450-1700 (Cambridge, 1991)
Feb. 2: Hobbes, Leviathan; Introduction to Adam Smith
Reading: Part III, ch.xxxii-xxxiv; xxxvii; Part IV, ch.xliv (to end of paragraph 11); xlvii (pp.411-417; 477-484)
Recommended:
Collins, Jeffrey, The Allegiance of Thomas Hobbes (Oxford, 2005), Introduction and Ch.1, “Thomas Hobbes and the Uses of Christianity,” perhaps the best discussion of Hobbes’ view of Christianity
Strauss, Leo “Die Religionskritik des Hobbes” (1933), in Leo Strauss: Gesammelte Schriften Band 3: Hobbes’ politische Wissenschaft und zugehörige Schriften (Stuttgart, 2001), pp.263-370. (Now in English in Hobbes’s Critique of Religion and Related Writings (U Chicago Press, 2011)
Strauss, Leo, Spinoza’s Critique of Religion (1965, Chicago, 1997), esp. Part I: “The Tradition of the Critique of Religion”
On the reception of Hobbes see these volumes:
Malcolm, Noel, Aspects of Hobbes (Oxford 2002)
Sorell, Tom (ed.,), The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes (Cambridge, 1996)
Springborg, Patricia, The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes’ Leviathan (2007)
Mintz, Samuel, The Hunting of Leviathan (1962; reprinted 1996)
John Parkin, Taming the Leviathan: The Reception of the Political and Religious Ideas of Thomas Hobbes in England 1640-1700 (Cambridge, 2007)
Feb. 9: Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments ed. Ryan Hanley (Penguin Classics) 9780143105923
Reading: Parts I, II, iii, III (pp.11-78; 103-110; 131-197)
Muller, Adam Smith in His Time and Ours, pp.1-62; 93-112
Recommended:
Christopher Berry et al (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Adam Smith (Oxford UP, 2013)
Seigel, Jerrold, The Idea of the Self: Thought and Experience in Western Europe since the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge UP, 2005), ch. 5, “Adam Smith and modern self-fashioning.”
Hanley, Ryan Adam Smith and the Character of Virtue (Cambridge UP 2009)
Broadie, Alexander (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Scottish Enlightenment (2003)
For bibliography see Hanley, “Suggestions for Further Reading” and Muller, Adam Smith
Feb. 16: Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 9780865970069
Book I, pp.10-36; Book II, 65-104;
Muller, Adam Smith in His Time and Ours, pp.63-92; 113-205
Recommended: Muller, The Mind and the Market, ch.1-3.
Feb. 23: Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 9780865970076
Book III, p.397-422, para 18; Book V, p. 781, para 48-p. 796;
Muller, Adam Smith in His Time and Ours, pp.113-205
Introduction to Tocqueville
Feb. 24: Tuesday (“Administrative Monday”) Tocqueville, Democracy in America trans. Goldhammer (Library of America), 9781931082549
NB: Consult the chronology at the end of this volume
Author’s Introduction; Vol 1, Part I, chapters 2-4, end of chapter 5; Vol. 1, Part II, chapters 5-9
Recommended:
Kramnick, Isaac, “Introduction” to the Penguin edition of Democracy in America
Tocqueville, Recollections;
Tocqueville, The Old Regime and the French Revolution;
Tocqueville on America after 1840: Letters and Other Writings, edited and translated, with an interpretative essay, notes, and appendices by Aurelian Craiutu and Jeremy Jennings (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009
Selected Letters on Politics and Society by Alexis De Tocqueville, ed. Roger Boesche (Univ California Press,1986);
Larry Siedentrop, Tocqueville (Oxford Past Masters)
Hugh Brogan, Hugh, Tocqueville (1973)
Hugh Brogan, Alexis de Tocqueville: A Life (Yale, 2007)
Roger Boesche, The Strange Liberalism of Alexis De Tocqueville (Cornell Univ Press, 1987);
André Jardin, Tocqueville: A Biography (1988)
James T. Schleifer, The Making of Tocqueville’s Democracy in America 2nd ed, (2000)
Welch, Cheryl (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Tocquevile (2006)
Benjamin Constant, “The Liberty of the Ancients compared with that of the Moderns,” in Constant: Political Writings ed. B. Fontana (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought);
Stephen Holmes, Benjamin Constant and the Making of Modern Liberalism (Yale UP, 1984);
Mar. 2: Tocqueville, Democracy in America; Introduction to Marx
Vol. II - Preface, Part I; Vol. II, Part II, Part III, ch.1-14;
Mar. 16: Marx, Selected Writings ed. Simon 9780872202184
Editor’s Introduction, pp.ix-xvii; The German Ideology, pp. 102-121; The Communist Manifesto, pp.157-169; “Preface” to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, pp.209-213.
Muller, The Mind and the Market, ch.7
Recommended: Leszek Kolakowski, Main Currents of Marxism: Vol. 1: The Founders (Oxford UP, 1978), chapters 9, 12, 14, 16;
Elster, Jon, An Introduction to Karl Marx (Cambridge, 1986);
Seigel, Jerrold, Marx’s Fate: The Shape of a Life (Princeton, 1978);
Hampsher-Monk, A History of Modern Political Thought, chapter on Marx;
Manuel, Frank E. A Requium for Karl Marx (Harvard, 1995)
Sowell, Thomas, Marxism: Philosophy and Economics
for further research: Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe
Mar. 23: Mill, The Subjection of Women ed. Susan Okin 9780872200548
Recommended: Stefan Collini, “Their Master’s Voice: John Stuart Mill as Public Moralist,” in Collini, Public Moralists: Political Thought and Intellectual Life in Britain 1850-1930 (Oxford, 1991)
Mar.23: Weber, Protestant Ethic, ed. Baehr 9780140439212
pp.1-45. 67-87; 105-112
Appendix II: “Prefatory Remarks to Collected Essays in the Sociology of Religion” (1920)
Muller, The Mind and the Market, ch.9
Introduction to Durkheim
Recommended:
Weber, Economy and Society
Weber, Political Writings ed. Peter Lassman and Ronald Speirs (Cambridge UP, 1994)
Dirk Käsler, Max Weber: An Introduction to his Life and Work (Chicago, 1988)
Hartmut Lehmann and Guenther Roth (ed.), Weber’s Protestant Ethic: Origins, Evidence, Contexts (Cambridge, 1993)
Wolfgang Mommsen and Jürgen Osterhammel (ed,), Max Weber and his Contemporaries (GHI, 1987)
Mar. 30: Durkheim, On Suicide trans. Buss 9780140449679; Introduction to Freud
Introduction (Durkheim’s, not the editor’s), Book 1, ch.3; Book 2, ch.1-5; book 3, ch.1 (pp. 15-30; 92-114; 148-305; 329-361.)
Recommended:
Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life trans. Fields (Free Press, 1995);
Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society trans. Hall (Free Press)
Steven Lukes, Emile Durkheim: His Life and Work (1975)
Dominick LaCapra, Emile Durkheim: Sociologist and Philosopher (Chicago, 1972)
Judith Surkis, Sexing the Citizen: Morality and Masculinity in France, 1870-1920 (Cornell, 2006), ch. 5 and 6.
Apr. 13: Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams trans. Crick 9780199537587; Introduction to Simmel
pp.5-6; 78-169; 330-412
Recommended:
The Cambridge Companion to Freud ed. Jerome Neu
Philip Rieff, Freud: The Mind of the Moralist (3rd ed.)
H. Stuart Hughes, Consciousness and Society,chapters 1,2,4.
Peter Gay, Freud: A Life for Our Time (1988)
Frederick Crews (ed.) The Memory Wars: Freud’s Legacy in Dispute (New York, 1995)
Apr. 20: Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms 9780226757766;
“Group Expansion and the Development of Individuality,” pp.251-93;
Recommended, The Mind and the Market, ch.9
Simmel, The Philosophy of Money trans. Bottomore and Frisby
Kurt Wolff (ed.), The Sociology of Georg Simmel (Free Press)
Poggi, Gianfranco, Money and the Modern Mind: Georg Simmel’s Philosophy of Money
Klaus Lichtblau, Georg Simmel (Frankfurt, 1997)
Apr. 27:
Hayek, “The Uses of Knowledge in Society,” in F. A. Hayek, Individualism and Economic Order (1948)
Muller, The Mind and the Market, ch. 13
Recommended:
Gamble, Andrew, “Hayek on knowledge, economics, and society” in Edward Feser (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Hayek (Cambridge UP. 2006).)
Final Take-home exam due Tuesay, May 5 by noon.
Required primary works (in order)
Hobbes, Thomas, Leviathan ed. Curley (Hackett: 0-87220-177-5)
Smith, Adam, The Theory of Moral Sentiments ed. Hanley (Penguin Classics, 2009: 978-0143105923)
Smith, Adam, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations ed. Campbell and Skinner; two volumes (Liberty Classics: 0-86597-008-4)
Tocqueville, Alexis de, Democracy in America trans. Goldhammer (Library of America: 978-1-931082-54-9)
Marx, Karl, Selected Writings ed. Simon (Hackett: 0-87220-218-6)
Weber, Max, The Protestant Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism and Other Writings ed. Baehr (Penguin: 0-14-043921-8)
Durkheim, Emile, Suicide: A Study in Sociology (Penguin Classics: 978-0140449679)
Simmel, Georg, Georg Simmel on Individuality and Social Forms ed. Levine (University of Chicago: 0-226757765)
Freud, Sigmund, The Interpretation of Dreams (Oxford UP: 0-19-282352-3)
Hayek, F. A. Individualism and Economic Order (Chicago UP; 978-0226320939)
Among the most useful general reference works which you may want to consult for this course in the Reference Room of Mullen Library are:
Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences
International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences
New International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences
The New Palgrave (on the history of economic thought)
Dictionary of the History of Ideas
Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe
Thoughtful guides to several of the thinkers we will be reading include:
Aron, Raymond, Main Currents in Sociological Thought, 2 Volumes,
-- on Tocqueville, Marx, Durkheim, Weber
Coser, Lewis, Masters of Sociological Thought, Second Edition
-- on Marx, Durkheim, Weber
Hampsher-Monk, Iain, A History of Modern Political Thought – on Hobbes, Marx
Strauss, Leo and Joseph Cropsey (ed.) History of PoliticalPhilosophy, Third Edition -- on Smith, Tocqueville, Marx