1. Sociology 100 Introduction

2. ajgomez@ucsd.edu Office Hours: WF 11:00-Noon, SSB 467 Course website: adamgomez.wordpress.com/teaching/soci100

3. Grades Essay 1: 25% Essay 2: 30% Final exam: 35% – Sections are meant to facilitate both writing and the understanding of the texts through discussion, and attendance is mandatory. Section participation: 10% Papers must be submitted to turnitin.com All assignments must be completed in order to pass the class

4. Class Texts Alexis de Tocqueville – Democracy in America (Penguin) Robert C. Tucker, ed. – The Marx-Engels Reader (Norton)* Max Weber – The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Penguin) H.H. Gerth & C. Wright Mills, eds. – From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford) Émile Durkheim – Suicide (Free Press) *Texts from Marx & Engels can be also found online at marxists.org

5. This course provides a broad treatment of classic works of sociological theory and analysis. The course texts present sociological explanations of, among other things, the origins of the state, the relationship between the individual and the community, forms and locations of power, the social bases of democracy, the significance of cultural, religious, and non-material interests, and the problem of education and the shaping of self.

6. We will engage not only with the conclusions of these texts, but also their philosophical presuppositions.

7. What is sociology? Scientific Investigation of Society – Science – Society Analysis Criticism

8. What is sociology? Emphasis on temporal context – Where What surrounds the subject of investigation? What other factors are present? – When? What has come before? What developments are contemporary?

9. Core Issues Power Organization Belief The Self Teleology – Telos Ontology – Onto: Being, that which is

10. Subjects of Investigation Class Religion Family, Sexuality, & Gender Identity Politics, Government, & Law Technology & Medicine In-groups and out-groups

11. Big Questions What is the dynamic force or forces behind history? Why are given societies the way that they are? What will they be like? Do material conditions dominate and shape ideas, or is the reverse true? What is their relationship?