SOSA 3401

Towards the middle of the nineteenth century, a novel way of thinking about human existence began to emerge: that humans are social beings, their lives and thoughts bounded and patterned by their social environments. This approach formed the basis for a new discipline eventually named Sociology. This course focuses on the ideas of three of the main contributors to the new way of thinking, which remain especially relevant to the canon of sociological theory today: Marx, Durkheim, and Weber. The ways in which other early sociological theorists challenged and contributed to the canon will also be considered.