SUMMARY AND OUTLINE OF "SOCIAL DREAMERS" ORIGINS OF SOCIOLOGY IN GERMAN AND FRENCH SOCIAL THEORY 1.   Introduction to European Social Theory: The goal of this introductory course in sociology is to introduce the student to the fundamental and distinctive System, Structures, Institutions, Culture, and History of modern industrial society. Through an examination of key theoretical, philosophical, and literary texts of the nineteenth century, we will investigate the central institutions of Modernity: Economy (market economy and industrial production), Polity (state and liberal democracy), Culture (Enlightenment science and liberal ideals), and Psychology (competitive self-interest and possessive individualism). 2.   Nineteenth-Century British Historical Novel: This lecture course begins with an investigation into Charles Dickens' historical novel, Hard Times (1854), as a broad introduction to the Empiricism and Positivism of David Hume in the Coketown schoolroom and the distinctive social patterns, institutions, and cultural values of nineteenth-century industrial Capitalism and the Utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham and James Mill. Hard Times sets the social parameters and values of Capitalism and the Enlightenment: materialism, individualism, and utilitarianism (ethics) and empiricism and rationalism (epistemology). It will be these theories of morals/politics (Hobbes and Locke) and knowledge (Hume and Descartes) that will be the focus of nineteenth-century social critique in Romanticism (Dostoyevsky and Dickens), Idealism (Kant and Hegel), Existentialism (Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Camus), and Classical Social Theory (Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Freud); and it will be these theories that will provide the introduction and general framework for this course. (2 weeks on Dickens) 3.   Early and Classical Liberalism: Hobbes, Locke, and J. S. Mill: Over the next period of lectures, we will examine the philosophical origins of political Liberalism in the writings of John Locke (1632-1704) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873). Within Locke's writings, the conflicts between Natural Rights (life, liberty, and property) and Natural Law (equality, mutual love, friendship, human needs and dignity, common good, and general welfare) reflect deeper conflicts between the Ancients and the Moderns that will form the heart of later Classical Social Theory. After Locke's theories of the state of nature, property, and individual liberty, we examine J. S. Mill's views on democracy, political pluralism, and individual freedom. In Locke's Second Treatise of Government, the conflict between Natural Rights and Natural Law was central, whereas, in Mill's On Liberty, there is a profound tension between politics and economics, democracy and modern capitalism that he attempts to resolve in his later work, The Principles of Political Economy.    (2.5 weeks on Locke and J. S. Mill). 4.   Classical Social Theory: Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Freud: Following this brief analysis of Enlightenment political theory, we turn to Classical Social Theory in the writings of Karl Marx (1818-1883), Max Weber (1864-1920), Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) as a critical reaction to the rise of Capitalism (political economy), Liberalism (politics), the Enlightenment (positivist science and industrial technology), and Possessive Individualism (personality, egoism, and market economy) in modern industrial society. These theorists were grounded in the traditions of Natural Law, Romanticism, Neoclassicism, German Idealism, and Aristotelian philosophy which prompted them to view Leeds, Manchester, and London -- the British Industrial Revolution and the Birth of Liberalism -- through the critical and poetic eyes and ideals of Ancient Greece. They saw Modernity from the heights of the Acropolis and the Parthenon as Athenian democracy provided them with a new vision of human possibilities and new "classical horizons" for a just and free society. (2.5 weeks on Marx, Weber, and Durkheim) 5.   Enlightenment and Rationalism: Rene Descartes (1596-1650) details the foundations and justifications for the Enlightenment, Modern Science, and Objectivity. He begins with the proof for the existence of the self as cogito, moves on to prove the existence of God (idea of God, cause of the idea of God, and the ontological argument), and concludes with a justification of the external world of perception and ideas and the validity of modern science. Weber focuses on the social implications of Enlightenment Culture in his theories of formal rationality, the last man, and modern bureaucracy. Descartes uses the Natural Law of God, Reason, and Nature -- rational and divine order of metaphysics and nature -- to ground the Enlightenment and Western science in the first half of the seventeenth century; Locke will also use Natural Law -- rational and divine order of economics and politics -- later in the same century to justify Liberalism, Capitalism, and Possessive Individualism. After the seventeenth century, the market economy, individual rights, private property, and Enlightenment science no longer require the application of Natural Law to justify themselves, since Liberalism and Science contain their own self-evident rationality and justification. However, in response to the rise of Modernity a secular form of ancient and medieval Natural Law (Aristotle to Thomas Aquinas), which emphasizes communal social ethics, the common good, and social justice, becomes incorporated into Classical Social Theory.   (1 week on Descartes) 6.   Psychoanalysis and Classical Social Theory: Sigmund Freud's (1856-1939) theory of Psychology and Psychoanalysis represents a depth inquiry into the structures of the human mind (ego, id, and superego), relationship between the conscious and unconscious mind, and the social repression of sexual drives and childhood memories within the nuclear family which defines our modern personality. Analyze the relationship between psychoanalysis and social theory.   (2 weeks on Freud) 7.   Existentialism and Social Theory: Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Camus: During the last four weeks of this course, we study the central importance of Existentialism -- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) -- to the origins of Classical Social Theory in the nineteenth century. Schopenhauer's crisis of knowledge and representations (ideas) as illusions and dreams and Nietzsche's theory of idolatry and moral nihilism set the stage for a more general understanding of the existential crisis of modern society, ethics, and culture. Existentialism evolved from epistemology and moral philosophy into social theory. The Classical Theorists were concerned with the meaning of human life expressed in terms of the meaning of individual freedom, self-realization, citizenship, creative work, reason, science, culture, democracy, and social justice; they were also concerned with the loss of meaning in Modernity resulting from Rationalization, Repression, Alienation, Anomie, Nothingness & Nihilism, and Dehumanization, Decadence, Disenchantment, & Dereglement (RRAANNDDDD). Existentialism, German Idealism, and Greek Philosophy became the pillars upon which rested the methods and ideals of critical social theory. Albert Camus' (1913-1960) work, The Fall, provides us with an interesting novel bookend to the course and summary of Existentialism and the Crisis of Modernity. It is a rewrite of Dante's Inferno (1300) and descent into the ninth circle of Hell to express the existential crisis of moral Nothingness and Nihilism for a contemporary audience which had just witnessed the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust. Within a sociology of literature, his work offers us the opportunity to compare the historical novel of the nineteenth century with the existential novel of the twentieth century -- Dickens' Coketown in England to Camus' Mexico City in Amsterdam.   (4 weeks on Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Camus) 8.   Sociology as a Critical Science of Social Justice: The most distinctive and important metatheoretical features of nineteenth-century European Social Theory are its Views of Science as: Critique (Epistemology and Ethics), Hermeneutics, Existentialism, History, and Holism (System, Structures, Functions, and Culture) :           (1) a Holistic and Historical Science that is expressed in its interdisciplinary, integrative, and historical study of the whole of modern society and the functional interrelationships among its component and structural parts of the Economy, Polity, Culture, and Psychology;          (2) a Critical Science based on a rejection of Enlightenment epistemology and the methodologies of rationalism (Descartes) and empiricism (Locke and Hume) and turn to the theories of knowledge of German Idealism (Kant and Hegel) -- Critique, Phenomenology, and Dialectic of Reason and Spirit, neo-Kantian philosophy of social science (Windelband, Rickert, Simmel, and Dilthey), and Existentialism and Radical Kantianism (Schopenhauer and Nietzsche). The concept of "Critique" implies a distinct epistemology, methodology, and philosophy of science that evolved and matured out of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, and nineteenth-century theories of knowledge and social science;           (3) an Ethical or Practical Science that brings together empirical and historical research with a call for social justice -- blending together history and critique, empirical research and ethics, and science and social justice. Practical Science begins with Kant's Critique of Practical Reason and Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit as it begins with morality (Moralitaet), develops into social ethics (Sittlichkeit), and, finally, forms the foundation of 19th-century social theory. The German Idealists attempt to create a world based on human dignity, moral autonomy, and self-conscious rationality. Hegel's criticisms of Kant rest upon his rejection of a transcendental moral imperative and individual freedom abstracted from the history, phenomenal experience, and social institutions of the Objective Spirit (family, economy, and state). The first example of practical social theory -- the synthesis of Structures and Ethics -- comes from Aristotle's study of politics and ethics in his examination of the moral economy, virtuous life, law and political constitutions, and ideal Athenian democracy in the Nicomachean Ethics and Politics. There was an Aristotle renaissance in the nineteenth century that played a central role in the formation of classical social theory. In fact, during this time Berlin was referred to by its own citizens as the "Athens on the Spree";           (4) an Historical, Critical, and Ethical Science, classical theory rejects positivism or the normative belief that the appropriate method of scientific research for the study of Society and History is the use of the techniques of the natural sciences. Sociology was formed as a response to the inadequacies of positivism or social physics in the writings of Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer and to the inadequacies of the view of Society and History as mechanical, linear, deterministic, and predictable. Positivist science is incapable of undertaking a critical analysis of the total social system -- its deep structures, functions and history; positivism inhibits the creation of critical social theory. (The main epistemological and methodological issues in numbers eight and eleven are discussed in more advanced courses in European social theory and are not the focus of this introductory course); and           (5) as an Existential and Hermeneutical Science that details the Crisis and Dialectic of Meaning in the modern age of Capitalism and Existentialism. Existentialism evolves out of Immanuel Kant's philosophy of subjectivity, cognitive and moral creativity, individual freedom, and human dignity into Schopenhauer's theory of the nothingness and illusions of representations and will and Nietzsche's critique of the cultural idols of Greek rationalism, medieval Christianity, early science, political liberalism, and modern morality, as well as epistemological and moral nihilism. In turn, these ideas provide the intellectual ground and inspiration for Marx's theory of alienation and work, Weber's theory of rationalization, the last man, and theoretical relativism of the "warring gods," Durkheim's theory of anomie, dereglement, organic solidarity, and collective representations, and Freud's theory of psychoanalysis, repression, and forgotten meaning. 9.   As a Holistic Science, Sociology examines the social totality in its Meaning, Structures, Functions, and History :                      (1)    Economy            market and production                                    Dickens, Adam Smith, & Marx                      (2)    State                   law and liberal democracy                              Hobbes, Locke, & J. S. Mill                      (3)    Institutions        solidarity, consciousness, civic morals            Durkheim                      (4)    Culture               Enlightenment, science, and values                Descartes, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, & Weber                      (5)    Personality         self-interest and individualism                        Locke & Freud 10.   As an Ethical or Practical Science, Sociology examines the Social Pathologies and Structural Crises of Modernity -- Rationalization (state bureaucracy, cultural disenchantment, and technical (ir)rationality), Repression (lost memories, experiences, and desires in the unconscious mind), Alienation (worker estrangement and capitalist exploitation), Anomie (cultural dereglement and social madness), Nothingness and Nihilism (cognitive, ethical, and existential meaninglessness), and Dehumanization, Disenchantment, and Dereglement (loss of mystery, ethics, and substantive reason) -- RRAANNDDDD:                      (1)            Economy                     Alienation                                       Marx                                                                            Dehumanization                                                       (2)            State                             Rationalization                               Weber                      (3)            Institutions                  Anomie                                           Durkheim                      (4)            Culture                        Disenchantment, Dereglement,       Weber, Schopenhauer,                                                                            Nothingness, & Nihilism                 & Nietzsche                      (5)            Personality                  Repression                                       Freud 11.   As a Critical Science, Sociology combines political economy, social philosophy, and history with the traditions of German Idealism, German Existentialism, Neo-Kantianism, Critical Hermeneutics, and Aristotelian philosophy. In its rejection of positivism, Classical Social Theory created a number of distinct Forms of Critical Science:                      (1)                Marx                                     Dialectical Science and Immanent Critique                      (2)                Weber                                   Interpretive/Cultural Science and Sociology of Understanding                      (3)                Weber                                   Historical Science and Structural/Functional Analysis of Capitalism                      (4)                Durkheim                             Functional Science and Theory of Collective Representations                      (5)                Freud                                    Depth-Hermeneutical Science and Dialogical Cure 12.   And, finally, as an Existential Science, Sociology seeks to uncover the lost meaning in private and public experience, that is, in the search for meaning in the productive life of the species being and the contradictions between the social ideals and the institutional reality (Marx), in the understanding of cultural experience and lived history and the dialectic of meaning in the concepts, consistency, contradictions, and consequences of particular intentions and historical events (Weber), in the moral values and social forms of the collective conscience, representations, and consciousness and their cultural breakdown in lost solidarity and anomic dereglement (Durkheim), and in the rediscovery of repressed meaning and forgotten memories ( Freud). The Existentialism of Kant's subjectivity and creativity in Marx, Schopenhauer's representational and moral nothingness and veil of Maya in Durkheim, Nietzsche's moral nihilism and epistemological perspectivism in Weber, and Schopenhauer's and Nietzsche's dualism between sensibility and understanding, physical desires and forms of egoism, and Dionysian ecstasy and Apollonian forms and their theory of the unconscious in Freud pervade every aspect of the methodology and theory of classical nineteenth-century social thought. Existentialism begins as a crisis of Knowledge and Truth in German Idealism, develops into a crisis of Meaning and Culture in German Existentialism and a crisis of Experience and Memory in Psychoanalysis, and ends in a crisis of the Institutions and Values of modern capitalism in Classical Social Theory: Nothingness and Nihilism are a product of Capitalism, Liberalism, and the Enlightenment -- NN is a product of RRAA. The social system and cultural lifeworld of Modernity establish the favorable conditions for the rise of existentialism. That is, the Crisis of Modernity begins in Epistemology, develops in Morality, Culture, and Psychology (Consciousness and Mind), and ends in the Structures of Society. Summary of the Forms of Existential and Hermeneutical Science:                      (1)                Marx                                      Meaning of Creative Work and Social Institutions                      (2)                Weber                                    Meaning of Culture & Historical Action                      (3)                Durkheim                              Meaning of Moral and Collective Representations                      (4)                Freud                                     Meaning of Repressed Desires and Memories Summary: Nineteenth-century European social theory represents a fundamental critique of the Four Pillars of Modernity:                      (1)               Capitalism                                      Market economy, industrial production, and private property                      (2)               Liberalism                                      Individual rights, market liberties, and liberal democracy                      (3)               Enlightenment Rationalism         Western science and technology                      (4)               Possessive Individualism               Egoism, individual liberties, and competitive self-interest The social theorists question the institutional, structural, and normative foundations of modern political economy through their critical analysis of the alienation and exploitation of industrial capitalism and political economy (Marx ), the rationalization and disenchantment of institutional bureaucracy and Enlightenment rationalism (Weber ), the anomic breakdown of communal solidarity and collective consciousness (Durkheim), the decline of natural law, communal responsibility and love, and social justice (Locke and J. S. Mill), the unconscious repression of human psychology and instinctual needs ( Freud), and the loss of normative culture and existential meaning in knowledge, morals, and society (Dickens, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Camus). Results of these social pathologies lead to the Structural Crisis and Moral Incoherence of Modernity that must be addressed by integrating Science and Ethics -- Empirical Research and Social Justice. And the imaginative and creative spark that ignites this general social critique is found in the blending of the Ancients and the Moderns through the synthesis of Greek philosophy (Aristotle), German epistemology and philosophy of science (Kant, Hegel, and neo-Kantians) with the methods of historical and human science. The cornerstone of classical social theory is set in Political Economy, Philosophy, and History, and these areas become the foundations of European sociology. Romancing Antiquity: Integration of the Ancients and Moderns in Nineteenth-Century Sociology: The critique of the pillars of modern political economy and Enlightenment rationality was filtered through the nineteenth-century social theorists viewing the reality of Modernity through the ideals of the Ancients:                      (1)           Locke                        Aristotle, Richard Hooker, Oikonomia, and Natural Law                      (2)           Descartes                  Medieval Scholasticism, Aquinas, St. Anselm, and Natural Law                      (3)           J. S. Mill                   Aristotle, Pericles, George Grote, Social Justice, and Classical Athenian Democracy                      (4)           Marx                         Aristotle, Epicurus, Oikonomia, Social Justice, and Classical Athenian Democracy                      (5)           Weber                       Ancient History, Aristotle, Public Discourse, and Understanding                      (6)           Durkheim                 Aristotle, Montesquieu, and Collective Solidarity and Conscience                      (7)           Freud                         Sophocles and Oedipus Rex                      (8)           Camus                       Sophocles's Oedipus Rex, Aristotle's Poetics, Dante, and Greek Tragedy                      (9)           Schopenhauer           Plato's Theory of Forms, Aesthetics, and Beauty                      (10)         Nietzsche                   Sophocles' Oedipus, Aeschylus's Oresteia, Prometheus, Parmenides, and Heraclitus Conclusion: Nineteenth-century Sociology is the scientific and ethical study of the holistic and integrated Society, that is, the Total System, including the Structures, Political Economy, Functions, Lifeworld, Culture of Meaning, and History of Modernity -- Industrial Capitalism, Liberal Democracy, Individualism, and the Enlightenment & Existentialism. Sociology is the study of Society as RRAANNDDDD and the need for SOCIAL JUSTICE. The theorists constructed this critical science by integrating the Ancient views of social ethics, politics, and practical knowledge -- the ideals of the good life (eudaimonia), practical wisdom (phronesis), and social justice -- with historical and empirical analyses of Modernity. The result was a deep criticism of the structural pathologies of modern society (RRAANNDDDD) -- Rationalization & Disenchantment (Weber), Repression (Freud), Alienation & Dehumanization (Marx), Anomie and Dereglement (Durkheim), Nothingness (Schopenhauer), and Nihilism (Nietzsche) and a rejection of Enlightenment epistemology, science, and moral positivism (PERSONNNN) -- Predictivism, Empiricism, Realism, Scientism, Objectivism, Naturalism, Neutralism, Nominalism, and Nomothetic Laws -- as the basis for sociological inquiry. Founded upon the disciplines of political economy, history, and philosophy, while integrating the Ancients and the Moderns, sociology is a critical science of modern industrial society that combines empirical and historical analyses with a philosophical critique of morals and politics (epistemology, ethics, and social justice). Sociology applies four forms of the critical method: Dialectical, Historical, Interpretive, and Structural analysis. The Greeks gave the Moderns the exhilarating heights and extraordinary horizons from which to see their Social Dreams of a better life more clearly. They looked upon modern industrial capitalism, liberal democracy, cultural individualism, and the Enlightenment from the perspective of the elegance, beauty, and harmony of the Parthenon and Acropolis as they cried (out) for a better world. By integrating the Ancients and the Moderns, ethics and science, and sensibility and the understanding, a new type of social theory was formed in the nineteenth century that represented a fundamental rejection of formal science and positivism. By bringing together ancient Greece with modern social science, European social theory represents over 2500 years of enriching and creative intellectual history. And by critically standing on the shoulders of these intellectual giants, we might be better able to understand our present social situation and offer rational and democratic alternative courses of action. SOCIOLOGY IS A PRACTICAL, CRITICAL, AND HISTORICAL SCIENCE OF SOCIETY PRACTICAL (ETHICS) -- refers to Moral Economy, Social Justice, and the 2500 year history of moral philosophy, social ethics, and Natural Law from the Ancient Hebrews, Classical Greeks, Early Christians, and Medieval Scholastics to the Moderns. CRITICAL (EPISTEMOLOGY) -- refers to the theory of knowledge grounded in the Critique of Constructed Objectivity, Representations, and Pure Reason (rejection of positivism and the metaphysics of empiricism and rationalism) in the neo-Kantian and neo-Hegelian epistemology and methodology of Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Freud. The Critique of Kant is then blended with the Phenomenology and Dialectic of Hegel in Classical Social Theory. Positivism makes discussion of metatheory -- Ethics, Critique, Methods, and Society -- very difficult because of its own Metaphysics of Objectivism, Realism, Naturalism, and the split between Science (fact) and Ethics (value) on the one hand, and its phenomenal or surface method of causal laws and universal prediction -- can't get access to deep structures or meaning -- on the other. The critical theory of knowledge rejects both Enlightenment empiricism and rationalism, while it introduces a constitution and dialectical theory of truth. HISTORICAL (METHODS) -- refers to the historical analysis of the MEANING and STRUCTURES of modern capitalist society. This scientific approach includes the methods of hermeneutics and understanding (Verstehen) and historical explanation, objective possibility, and adequate causality, that is, the methods for the understanding and interpretation of the Values, Ideals, and Culture of the Lifeworld (neo-Kantian idealism and German Historical School) and the social institutions that constitute the structural preconditions for modern capitalism in medieval society (Catholic Church, feudalism and decentralized fiefdoms, and commercial cities with autonomous legal, political, economic, and military institutions), 16th-century bureaucratic state, and the modern economy (market economy, private property, science and technology, industrial production, and factory system) (later materialism of Weber). Included under historical methods are the dialectical explanation and functional causality of the Structures, Contradictions, and Crises of the System of political economy (neo-Hegelian historical materialism and dialectical method of Marx)), the sociology of knowledge, religion, and the collective representations of society (Durkheim), and the depth hermeneutics and psychoanalytic reconstruction of the lost memories of socio-sexual repression (Freud). SCIENCE (METHODOLOGY) -- refers to the European concept of science as CULTURAL, HISTORICAL, MORAL, AND DIALECTICAL SCIENCE, that is, a scientific inquiry based on hermeneutical, interpretive, or cultural science (Weber), depth-hermeneutics (Freud), moral or historical science (Durkheim), and dialectical or critical science (Marx) that examines the interpretation and meaning of individual actions, culture, and history, as well as the deep structures, functions, contradictions, and crises of social institutions -- Rationalization & Disenchantment, Repression, Alienation & Dehumanization, Anomie & Dereglement, and Nothingness & Nihilism (RRAANNDDDD). In German, these views of science have been referred to as Geisteswissenschaften, Kulturwissenschaften, and Geschichtswissenschaften. SOCIETY (THEORY) -- refers to the modern social system of Capitalism, Liberalism, and the Enlightenment found in its holistic and integrated Structures, Functions, Culture, and History. It integrates the other fragmented disciplines into a comprehensive study of modern industrial society: STATE ---- ECONOMY ---- CULTURE ---- PERSONALITY ---- SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS Liberal Democracy    ---    Industrial Production    ---    Enlightenment    ---    Repressed Unconscious Natural Rights and Law   ---   Market Economy   ---   Science & Technology --- Possessive Individualism State                                      Economy                             Culture                            Personality END AS BEGINNING -- This is the end of the course on Social Dreamers but only the beginning of our analysis of Modernity. The classical tradition of the nineteenth century is the "core" of Sociology but there are many new and exciting questions, theories, and methods to be examined, including the historical rise of the following: (1) monopoly capital, globalization, finance capital, and macroeconomic crises and state interventionism; (2) the welfare state for corporations (tax expenditures and subsidies) and for the poor and elderly (Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid); (3) deindustrialization, the dual labor market, and union busting; (4) militarism, neocolonialism, and neoliberalism; (5) private and universal health care; (6) human rights, legal system, and the structures of political economy; (7) sexism, racism, and ageism; (8) postmodernism, relativism, and moral nihilism; (9) environmentalism and deep, social, and critical ecology; and (10) class, inequality, and political and economic democracy. Even with these many additions, sociology is still a distinctive form of social science because it remains fundamentally an ethical science of social justice. Methodologically, the next important question is the epistemological justification of the integration of empirical research and ethics, science and justice.

THE LECTURES PRESENTED IN THIS COURSE ARE ON DIGITAL AUDIO AND VIDEO DVD DISKS
AND HARD DRIVES IN THE KENYON COLLEGE LIBRARY ARCHIVES.