History of sociological thought

Academic Year 2024/2025 - Teacher: Roberto VIGNERA

Expected Learning Outcomes

Having assumed the fundamental categories of sociological analysis through the Course of Institutions of Sociology, the program of History of Sociological Thinking will lead students along a learning path devoted to the conceptual and substantive articulations in which the contribution of classics to the profiling of the discipline has unfolded. Particular attention will be given to those authors, Talcott Parsons in the first place, who in classicism have looked to build the premise of contemporary sociological theory.

Course Structure

The course will be led through lectures, during which the topics included in the program will be presented and analyzed.

Required Prerequisites

A good knowledge of the topics included in the program of Institutions of Sociology is required.

Attendance of Lessons

Class attendance is not compulsory, according to what is foreseen by the didactic regulation. However, it is highly recommended for the insights it can guarantee.

Detailed Course Content

The questions of the classics about their present, the questions of contemporaries on their present: why we have to look at the history of sociological reflection;

Classicism and historicism: the contribution of the French tradition;

Anglo-Saxon organicism and its organic metaphors;

Olism and methodological individualism. Macro and micro sociological perspectives;

Sociology and Dialectal Materialism: Marx's Historicism;

Durkheimian sociology: theoretical and methodological implications;

Max Weber: the disenchantment of the modern world and sociology. The methodological essays and the comparative analysis of cultural civilizations;

The formal sociology of Simmel: beyond the contents of a discipline. How is society possible?

The criticism of historicism. Historicism and Utopianism;

Classicism and conceptual formalization.

The reinterpretation of classicism: the great theory. Parsons and the search for a unified theoretical paradigm;

Epigones and critics of classicity;

Merton: middle range theories;

Manifest functions and latent functions;

Unintended consequences of social action;

Social theory and social structure;

Sociology and everyday life: critical options to the great Parsonsian theory;

Symbolic interactionism and its theoretical-methodological implications;

From the science of behavior to the documentary approach on the attribution of meaning to the real world;

The role of reflective self-monitoring;

Goffman's dramaturgy;

The Frame Analysis;

Representations and values;

The role of ceremonial rules;

The ethnomethodological appendices;

Ethnomethods and ethnomethodological indifference;

Scientific rationality and common sense rationality;

The relevance of practical rationality.

Textbook Information

Text 1) - P. Jedlowski, Il mondo in questione. Introduzione alla storia del pensiero sociologico, Carocci, 2023;
Chapters: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, XI, XII.

Text 2) - G. Rocher, Talcott Parsons e la sociologia americana, Sansoni, (lecture notes provided by the teacher);

Text 3) - K. R. Popper, Historicism and Utopianism (lecture notes provided by the teacher).

Course Planning

	Subjects	Text References
1	The questions of the classics about their present, the questions of contemporaries about their present: why look at the history of sociological reflection; Pre-sociological sensitivity and social theory; Social Phenomena as Stochastic Entities: Sociology or Sociography? Classicism and historicism.	Text 1, chap. 1
2	Comte: Rational forecasting and human progress; From analytical to synthetic sciences; The primacy of organicism; Social statics: human nature, family, differentiation; Government.	Text 1, chap. 2
3	Comte: the social dynamics; The law of the three stages; Theological Stage: Fetishism, Polytheism, Monotheism; Metaphysical Stage: Speculation and utopia; The Positive stage: the primacy of reason.	Text 1, chap. 2
4	Anglo-Saxon organicism and its biological metaphors; Spencer: the evolutionary progression of biological and social life; Structures and functions; Differentiation and integration; Society and family: the fundamental dichotomy. Holism and methodological individualism.	Text 1, chap. 2
5	Sociology and dialectical materialism: Marx's historicism; History as a nomological structure and the culmination of the historical process; The fundamental socio-historical formations and the role of conflict; Classes and class conflict.	Text 1, chap. 3
6	The critique of political economy; Productive forces and production relations; The social division of labor; Plus work and plus value; The explosion of the contradictions of capitalist society and the end of history.	Text 1, chap. 3
7	Durkheimian sociology: theoretical and methodological implications; Durkheim: individuals and collectivity; Methodological holism and social reformism; The division of social labor.	Text 1, chap. 4
8	Durkheim: Social solidarity and its forms; Challenges to the collective consciousness; Deviance and anomie; The violence of individual claims;The suicide.	Text 1, chap. 4
9	The rules of the sociological method; The recurrence and uniformity of social events; The middle types and their relativistic profiling; Concomitances and laws; The elementary forms of religious life.	Text 1, chap. 4
10	Max Weber: The Disenchantment of the Modern World and Understanding Sociology; Methodological essays and comparative analysis of cultural civilizations; The complex relationship between politics and science: value judgment and relationship to values; The technical critique of values: value-neutrality and causal explanation.	Text 1, chap. 6
11	Idiographic and nomothetic sciences; Adequate and accidental cause; The functions of nomological knowledge in the sciences of culture: ideal-typical constructions.	Text 1, chap. 6
12	The role of understanding as a methodological discriminant; The rationalization and bureaucratization of social life; The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism.	Text 1, chap. 6
13	Simmel's formal sociology: beyond contents for a de-ostantivization of the discipline. How is society possible?	Text 1, chap. 5
14	Simmel: the only partially social nature of life; The reification and stabilization of social forms; The numerical importance of the social structures; Modernity and countability: the rewriting of the relationships between quality and quantity; The objectification of value: the virtues of monetary exchange and the dilemmas related to its extension.	Text 1, chap. 5
15	Simmel: psychological reductionism; Fashion, the metropolis and the life of the spirit; Conflict in modern culture; Imitative and teleological orientation.	Text 1, chap. 5
16	The critique of historicism. Historicism and utopianism; Classicism and conceptual formalization; The reinterpretation of classicism: the great theory; Parsons and the search for a unified theoretical paradigm; The structural elements, functions, processes.	Text 3; Text 1, chap. 11 Text 2
17	Action, interaction, double contingency; From cultural models to structural variables. The foundations of the social order: beyond utilitarianism and spontaneism; Internalization and institutionalization; From structure to functions: The AGIL model.	Text 1, chap. 11 Text 2
18	The cybernetic hierarchy and the processes of orderly transformation; The social system; Differentiation and integration; The critical remarks to the Grand Theory.	Text 1, chap. 11 Text 2
19	Epigones and critics of classicism; Merton: middle range theories; Manifest functions and latent functions; Unintended consequences of social action; Social theory and social structure.	Text 1, chap. 11
20	Goffman's dramaturgy; The Frame Analysis; Representations and values; The role of ceremonial rules; The ethnomethodological appendices; Ethnomethods and ethnomethodological indifference; Scientific rationality and common sense rationality; The relevance of practical rationality.	Text 1, chap. 12
21	Sociology and everyday life: critical options to the great Parsonsian theory; Symbolic interactionism and its theoretical-methodological implications; From the science of behavior to the documentary approach on the attribution of meaning to the real world; The role of reflective self-monitoring.	Text 1, chap. 12

Learning Assessment

Learning Assessment Procedures

The examination will consist of a written test, with open questions, on the whole course . To answer the questions the student will have max 120 min available. That is, with N = number of questions asked, a necessary but not sufficient condition to pass the examination will be to answer N-1 questions. Naturally, the maximum score of the evaluation (30/30) will be acquired only respecting the necessary, but not sufficient, requirement to answer to the totality of the questions. The results of the test (student's registration number and grade) will be entered into the Studium platform (Documents section) as soon as possible, and in any case guaranteeing the margin of time of one week from the beginning of the following session. Within 3 (three) days of publication, the student must communicate to the teaching holder, through a certified entry channel (PEC, UNICT Portal, etc.) his / her decision to withdraw from the test. After this deadline, the examination will be recorded in the electronic report.

Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises

Pre-sociological sensitivity and social theory;

The affirmation of modernity and its characters;

From modernity to society: the questions of the classics about their present;

Integration and rationality (substantial and instrumental);

Social Phenomena as Stochastic Entities: Sociology or Sociography? Describe or explain?

Classicism and historicism;

Comte: from analytical to synthetic sciences; The primacy of organicism; Statics and social dynamics;

Spencerian organicism; Holism and methodological individualism;

Structures and functions; Differentiation and integration;

The normative regulation of action;

Society and family: the fundamental dichotomy;

Sociology and dialectical materialism: Marx's historicism; The culmination of the historical process;

The fundamental socio-historical formations and the role of conflict; History as a nomological structure;

Sociology and critique of political economy; Scientific socialism and moralizing socialism;

Durkheim: individuals and collectivity;

Methodological holism and social reformism;

The division of social labor; Social solidarity and its forms;

Challenges to the collective consciousness; Deviance and anomie;

The violence of individual claims; The Suicide;

The rules of the sociological method;

The recurrence and uniformity of social events; The middle types and their relativistic profiling;

Concomitances and laws;

The elementary forms of religious life;

Max Weber: the disenchantment of the modern world and comprising sociology;

The complex relationship between politics and science: value judgment and relationship to values;

The technical critique of values: value neutrality and causal explanation;

Idiographic and nomothetic sciences;

Adequate and accidental cause;

The functions of nomological knowledge in the sciences of culture: ideal-typical constructions;

The role of understanding as a methodological discriminant;

The rationalization and bureaucratization of social life;

The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism;

Simmel's formal sociology; Abstract forms from contents: the de-ostantivization of sociology;

The description of forms and their historical objectifications; How is society possible?

The only partially social nature of life;

The reification and stabilization of social forms; Between micro and macro analysis;

Psychological reductionism;

The numerical importance of the social structures;

Modernity and countability; The rewriting of the relationship between quality and quantity;

The objectification of value: the virtues of monetary exchange and the dilemmas related to its extension;

Fashion, the metropolis and the life of the spirit;

The reflections of the Simmelian formalism on the Cicago school, on symbolic interactionism, on network theory;

Critical end notes: Historicism and utopianism; Historical process and social change;

Classicism and conceptual formalization; The reinterpretation of classicism: the great Parsonsian theory;

The search for a unified theoretical paradigm;

The role of analytic realism as an epistemological option;

The intentional component of human action in the works of Weber, Durkheim, Marx, Pareto, Marshall;

Starting from the concept of action;

The structural elements, the functions, the processes;

Cultural models as structural elements of the action system;

The foundations of the social order: beyond utilitarianism and spontaneism;

Internalization and institutionalization;

From cultural models to structural variables;

From structure to functions;

The cybernetic hierarchy and the processes of orderly transformation;

Bringing men back?

Epigones and critics of the Parsonsian tradition;

The revival of the contrast between macro and micro sociology.

Degree Course in

Sociology and Social Work