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.

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).