Manchester (UK) Summer 2022 AT-LARGE Reading Group: What is society?

Opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, 2008.

“Society is a reality sui generis; it has its own characteristics that are either not found in the rest of the universe or are not found there in the same form."
"Society is a sui generis being with its own special nature, distinct from that of its members, and a personality of its own different from individual personalities."
— Emile Durkheim

Tuesdays, 18:00-20:00 GMT (UK time) ONLINE on ZOOM

Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/95543514692

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( • required / + recommended readings)

Required background reading:
• Chris Cutrone, "Back to Herbert Spencer! Industrial vs. militant society" (2016)

Recommended supplemental parallel reading:
+ Theodor W. Adorno, "Static and Dynamic as Sociological Categories" (1961)
+ Adorno, Introduction to Sociology (1962 lecture series)
+ Adorno, Philosophical Elements of a Theory of Society (1964 lecture series)
+ Adorno, Philosophy and Sociology (1960 lecture series)

Preliminary readings:
• Adorno, “Society” (1965)
• Benjamin Constant, "The liberty of the ancients compared with that of the moderns" (1819)

Charts of terms:
+ Capital in history timeline and chart of terms
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
+ Commodity form chart of terms
+ Reification chart of terms

Week 1: Tuesday 7th June, 2022

• Gillian Rose, Hegel Contra Sociology (1981/95) selections:
Preface for 1995 reprint
1. The Antinomies of Sociological Reason
7. With What Must the Science End?

Week 2: Tuesday 14th June, 2022

• Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905) (Giddens' introuction and the translator's preface are optional)

Week 3: Tuesday 21st June, 2022

• Auguste Comte, Introduction to Positive Philosophy (1830-42) selections:
I. The nature and importance of the positive philosophy
• Comte, The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte, Vol. III selections:
Book VI. Social Physics
   VII. pp. 1-11
   XI. pp. 199-216
   XII. pp. 277-344
• Comte, A General View of Positivism selections:
II. The Social Aspect of Positivism, pp. 63-78
VI. The Religion of Humanity, pp. 340-426

Week 4: Tuesday 28th June, 2022

+ Cutrone, "Back to Herbert Spencer! Industrial vs. militant society" (2016)
• Herbert Spencer, Principles of Sociology, Vol. I
Part I. The Data of Sociology
   I. Super Organic Evolution
   II. The Factors of Social Phenomena
   III. Original External Factors
   IV. Original Internal Factors
Part II. The Inductions of Sociology
   I. What Is a Society?
   II. A Society is an Organism
• Spencer, On Social Evolution
IV. Evolution in General
   15. Societal Typologies
   16. Militancy and Industrialism
V. The Analysis of Institutions
   18. Ceremonial Institutions
   19. Political Institutions
• Spencer, The Man Versus the State
VI. The Great Political Superstition

Week 5: Tuesday 5nd July, 2022

• Emile Durkheim, On Morality and Society selections:
II. Sociology and Social Action, Chapter 3: "The Principles of 1789 and Sociology" (1890)
• Durkheim, Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912) selections:
Introduction
• Durkheim, On Morality and Society selections:
V. Social Creativity, Chapters 11-12

Week 6: Tuesday 12th July, 2022

• Durkheim, On Morality and Society selections:
IV. The Learning of Morality, Chapter 10: "The Dualism of Human Nature and Its Social Conditions" (1914)
II. Sociology and Social Action, Chapter 4: "Individualism and the Intellectuals"
• Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society (1893) selections:
Introduction
• Durkheim, On Morality and Society selections:
III. The Evolution of Morality, Chapter 6: "Progressive Preponderance of Organic Solidarity"

Week 7: Tuesday 19th July, 2022

• Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society (1893) selections:
Selections TBA
• Durkheim, On Morality and Society selections:
III. The Evolution of Morality, Chapters 7-9
• Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society (1893) selections:
Preface to the Second Edition

Week 8: Tuesday 26th July, 2022

• Frankfurt School, Aspects of Sociology (1956) selections:
Preface by Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno
Chapters I-VI, XII
• Adorno, "Society" (1965)