Syllabus
January 18 |
Introduction |
January 25 |
Cicero, De
Officiis, Book
III (course packet, p. 2); Montaigne, "Of the Useful and
the Honorable" (from Essays, 1595) (course packet, p. 72).
|
February 1 |
Montaigne (Michel de), "Of Friendship" (Essays) (course
packet, p. 79); Hobbes (Thomas), Leviathan
(1651)
(Penguin)
Recommended readings: Dewald (Jonathan) Aristocratic Experience
and the Origins of Modern Culture, chap. 4, 5 ("Friendship,
Love and civility", "Money and the Problem of Power"); Langer (Ullrich),
Perfect Friendship: Moral Philosophy from Boccaccio to Corneille,
pp. 165-76.
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February 8 |
Elster (Jon), Nuts
and Bolts for the Social Sciences (1989) (excerpts in course packet,
p. 85); Becker (Gary) "The Economic Approach to Human Behavior" (course
packet, p. 106); Hirschman (Albert O.), The Passions and the Interests
(1977). |
February 15 |
Molière, The
Misanthrope (1666) (course packet, p. 114); Elias (Norbert),
The Court Society (1969) chap. 5 (course packet, p. 186). |
February 22 |
La Rochefoucauld (François
de), Maxims
(1678)
(Branden Publishing Co); Butler (Joseph), "Upon the Social Nature
of Man" and "Upon the Love of Our Neighbor", in Fifteen Sermons
Preached at the Rolls Chapel, Sermons I and XI (1726) (course
packet, p. 206).
Recommended reading: Blau (Peter), Exchange and Power in
Social Life. |
February 29 |
Fénelon (François de
Salignac de la Mothe), The Maxims of the Saints Explained, Concerning
the Interior Life (1698); Bossuet (Jacques Bénigne)
(& al.), The Declaration of the Three Prelates upon An Explication
of the Maxims of the Saints (1698) (excerpts from the controversy
on Quietism, in course packet, pp. 218 and 259); Kierkegaard (Soren),
"You Shall Love" (excerpt from Works of Love, 1847)
(course packet, p. 284). |
March 7 |
Nicole (Pierre), "Of Charity and Self-Love"
(1715) (from Moral Essays, in course packet, p. 303); Mandeville
(Bernard), The Fable of the Bees (1714) (Hackett). |
March 14 |
Spring Break. |
March 21 |
Mandeville (Bernard), The Fable
of the Bees (1714) (Hackett); Weber (Max), Economy and Society
(1922), sections on interest, rationality and ideal interests
(course packet, p. 321). |
March 28 |
Rousseau (Jean-Jacques), Discourse
on the Origin of Inequality (1755) (Hackett); Reveries of the
Solitary Walker (1778) (excerpts in course packet, p. 334).
Recommended reading: Toennies (Ferdinand), Community and
Society. |
April 4 |
Helvétius (Claude Adrien),
Essays
on the Mind (1758) Third Discourse, chap. I, II, XIV
(course packet, p. 358); Simmel (Georg) "Sociability" and "Faithfulness
and Gratitude" in Kurt Wolff (ed.) The Sociology of Georg Simmel
(course packet, p. 370). |
April 11 |
Smith (Adam), Theory
of Moral Sentiments
(1759) (Liberty Fund).
Recommended reading: Haskell (Thomas L.), "Capitalism and the
Origins of the Humanitarian Sensibility" Parts I, II, American
Historical Review 90 (2,3) (1985), esp. pp. 339-41, 353-61, 547-66.
|
April 18 |
Smith (Adam) The
Wealth of Nations (1776)
(excerpts on self-interest and personal dependency in course packet,
p. 388). |
April 25 |
Mauss (Marcel), The Gift (W.
W. Norton). |
The books for this course are available at Labyrinth Books (Broadway
@ 112th Street). All other required readings are in a course
packet available at The Village Copier (Broadway @ 115th
Street). The recommended readings can be found at the Reserves (208-209
Butler Library).
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