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History 348/ POSC 348
Political and Social Thought in the Machine Age
Tuesdays-Thursdays 4:30-5:45
Clark 110
Prof. M.R. Levin
213 Mather House
Phone: 368-2624, e-mail
mrl3@case.edu
Office Hours:
To be arranged
"Ideas..." wrote John Maynard Keynes, "when they are
right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is
commonly understood.... Practical men, who believe
themselves... exempt from any intellectual influences,
are usually the slaves of some defunct economist....The
power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared
with the gradual encroachment of ideas."
Industrialization has been a transatlantic phenomenon
that continues to alter the material lives, aspirations,
and values of millions of people. From the late
eighteenth century through today, technology has come to
stand at the heart of concerns about how to deal with
questions of production and consumption, of alienation,
social reform and control, the deteriorating
environment, and technological progress itself. It has
been seen as both a panacea and an uncontrollable
destructive force. This course explores the responses of
philosophers, economic theorists, culture critics,
public policy makers and urban planners to changes in
western society wrought by industrialization by focusing
on their concerns with technological change.
Class lectures and discussions will be based on assigned
readings and projects. Topics include: mechanization of
nature and society; Enlightenment views on science,
technology, and the individual; utopia and dystopia, the
idea of progress, built environments, development
theories, and technology in a dangerous world.
Course work in this class is intended to accomplish two
ends. First, to acquaint you with the ideas of a number
of influential writers engaged in shaping modern
industrial societies. Second, to engage you in
critically examining, discussing and writing about their
ideas in the context of the major themes of the course
with an eye to their continuing relevance in
contemporary society.
Course Work and Grading: The course is centered around
critical discussion of the assigned readings and films.
To guide and stimulate your thinking about this
material, students will write 4 ungraded two-page
responses to these assignments over the course of the
semester. Lectures will provide context and summarize
pertinent issues. There will be three short papers (6-7
pages) on subjects to be announced in class, and an oral
presentation and 15 page paper on a topic to be arranged
with the instructor.
Required texts:
1.Robert Heilbroner
The Worldly Philosopers, 7TH, REVISED ed.,
Simon & Schuster, July 1999, Paperback, 368pp
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Trade Paperbacks
Pub. Date: July 1999
Edition Desc: 7TH REV
ISBN: 068486214X
2. Terence Ball, Richard Dagger
Ideals and Ideologies: A Reader, Fifth Edition
Paperback: 442 pages
Publisher: Longman; 5th edition
ISBN: 0321159756
3.Le Corbusier
The City of tomorrow and its Planning
Price: $14.95
Format: Paperback, 10th ed., 302pp.
ISBN: 0486253325
Publisher: Dover Publications, Incorporated
Pub. Date: April 1987
Other: short selections from online texts or material on
course reserve in KSL.
Grading: three short papers 15% ea. X 3 45%
Final Project: presentation 20%
Written paper 20%
Classroom participation 15%
SCHEDULE AND READING ASSIGNMENTS
Readings are assigned to complement the lecture material
and to provide information for class discussions at each
class meeting. You are expected to keep up with the
assignments.
Jan 11: Introcution to Class. Nature comes down to
Earth. The Creation of the Public Sphere
Part I: The Mechanization of the World Picture:
society,human beings, nature
The end of the 18th century, saw industriousness move
front and center as a prime value in the eyes of a new
group of individuals, intellectuals committed to
promoting their ideas for building a modern society
based on scientifically organized production and
consumption. A mechanistic view of the world and of
human nature informed their ideas about how historical
change happened and could be managed in the future.
Jan. 18 Ideology, Machine Man and French Enlightenment:
Turgot, Condorcet, Sketch for an Historical Picture of
the Progress of the Human Mind
Readings:
Ball and Dagger, pp. xiii-10
La Mettrie, Machine Man, Beginning through “it is a
beautiful soul which dignifies the man endowed with it.”
Text beginning “But since all the faculties of the soul
depend to such a degree on the proper organization of
the brain” to “the faculty of motion, impenetrability,
extension, etc.”
http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/LaMettrie/Machine/
Heilbroner, pp. 13-41
Condorcet, selection “The Future of the Human Mind”
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/condorcet-progress.html
Turgot, article “Fairs”, at
http://tuna.uchicago.edu/forms_unrest/ENC.query.html
(you have to use the Case system)
Jan. 25. Adam Smith
Readings:
Heilbroner, 43-74
Smith: An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the
Wealth of Nations
Introduction and Plan of Work; Book I, through chpt.. 3;
chpt. 10 to beginning to “The difference between the
wages of skilled labour and those of common labour is
founded upon this principle.” ; Book V, Part Third, 1st
and 2nd paragraphs; Part IV “of the Expense if
supporting the Dignity of the Sovereign” and Conclusion
to the Chapter.
http://art-bin.com/art/oweal1a.html
Ball and Dagger, pp. 98-100
Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments
Part IV (On Utility) all; Part VI (On Virtue), Section
ii, Chpt. 3, para. 3.4-3.6.
http://www.adamsmith.org/smith/tms/tms-index.htm
February 1: The Limits on Progress: Mechanics of
Population, and
The Utilitarians: Jeremy Bentham, Structuring
Humans/Harmonizing Social Relations
Readiings:
Heilbroner, pp. 75-104
Malthus, Essay on Population, Chapter 2
http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/malthus/popu.txt
Gunther Stent, Tragedy of the Commons
http://dieoff.org/page95.htm
Bentham, Panopticon,
http://cartome.org/panopticon2.htm Letters
I, II, VI, XX
Foucault, Panopticism, beginning to “it is in fact a
figure of political technology that may and must be
detached from any specific use,” and final paragraph.
http://foucault.info/documents/disciplineAndPunish/foucault.disciplineAndPunish.panOpticism.html
First short paper due
Part II: Inventing the Future
February 8. The Utopians; Marx
Ball and Dagger, pp. 189-202
Heilbroner, pp. 105-164
Marx, Communist Manifesto, selection in Ball and Dagger,
pp. 202-214
Marx, selections from Capital: I, 492-508, 544-547, 617
at:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/cw/volume35/index.htm
February 15.Theories of Evolution: Bellamy, Looking
Backward and Social Darwinism,, visiting lecturer
Reading:
Ball and Dagger, pp. 267-276 selection plus web text
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/BELLAMY/toc.html
Heilbroner, 170-212
Part III Modernity and Modernism:Technosocieties and
their problems
February 22 The Invention of Sociology, visiting
lecturer
International Expositions and Consumer Society
Readings:
Williams, Dream Worlds, Chapter 1 and Chpt. On Gabriel
Tarde
March 1: Second Short Paper due
presentations of second short paper
Mid-term grades March 7
spring break March 7-11
March 15: Urbanism, Urban planning and Systems Theory:
Readings:
TBA: the Musee Social: Henard, Burnham
Corbusier, City of the Future (all)
22 Film: Metropolis
24:, individual meetings to discuss final projects
March 29: Fascism: Hitler, Mussolini, Spier; Statist
economics: Keynes; Capitalism revived: Schumpeter
Readings:
Ball and Dagger , 287-326
Heilbroner, pp. 248-287; 288-310c
Schumpeter,
http://transcriptions.english.ucsb.edu/archive/courses/liu/english25/materials/schumpeter.html
Third short paper due
March 31: Film: The Matrix
Part IV Post-Modernism
April 5 : Environmentalists: the Greens and Web Ideology
Readings:
Ball and Dagger, pp. 405-440
Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web (NY:Harper Collins, 2000)
on reserve
pp. xii-38; 91-115
April 12: Development Theory, international finance,
invited speaker
Reading to be announced
19 Final Project Presentations
april 25 last day of class
april 26 27 reading days
April 29 Final Papers due in my office by 5:00 p.m.
Fial exams april 29-May 5
Final grades due May 7th
Key to web sites
@6. LaMettrie, Julien Offray de, Machine Man( L’homme
machine)
http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/LaMettrie/Machine/
@7. Encyclopedie—Turgot, article on “Fairs” (“Foires”)[There
is a web site for the Encyclopedie which requires an id
and pin via CWRU library. I believe once on the Case
system you can access it. Pls. Check.]
@8. Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments
http://www.adamsmith.org/smith/tms/tms-index.htm
@9. Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, e-book Netlibrary via
KSL
http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN.html
or
http://www.bibliomania.com/2/1/65/112/frameset.html
@Condorcet, Sketch for a History of the Progress of the
Human Mind
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/condorcet-progress.html
@Bentham, Utilitarianism and Panopticon
http://cartome.org/panopticon2.htm
@Michel Foucault, Panopticism,
http://foucault.info/documents/disciplineAndPunish/foucault.disciplineAndPunish.panOpticism.html
URL:
http://foucault.info/documents/disciplineAndPunish/foucault.disciplineAndPunish.panOpticism.html
@Michel Foucault, What is Enlightenment?,
http://foucault.info/documents/whatIsEnlightenment/foucault.whatIsEnlightenment.en.html
@Thomas Malthus, Essay on Population
http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/malthus/popu.txt
or
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/malthus/malthus.0.html
@or *Garrett Hardin, Tragedy of the Commons
http://dieoff.org/page95.htm
@5. Marx, Communist Manifesto,
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htm
@ Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward, e-book Netlibrary
via KSL
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/BELLAMY/toc.html
or
http://eserver.org/fiction/bellamy/contents.html
@Emile Durkheim, readings
http://durkheim.itgo.com/durkbooks.html
@Gabriel Tarde
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.denistouret.net/ideologues/Tarde.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3DGabriel%2BTarde%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D
@Shumpeter, Creative Destruction
http://transcriptions.english.ucsb.edu/archive/courses/liu/english25/materials/schumpeter.html
@Film: The Matrix ( video or dvd to borrow)
@Film: Metropolis (video or dvd to borrow)
@film: Le Corbusier, The City (KSL purchase or borrow?
On Line?)
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