Not offered in 2008
The subject examines Sigmund Freud's writings on civilization. It compares Freud's concern with the unconscious moorings of social order to Friedrich Nietzsche's genealogy of morals and to Max Weber's historical sociology of ethics and politics. Nietzsche, Freud, and Weber make up a grand trio of acerbic critics of the optimism characteristic of European society prior to World War One. Together, Freud's psychoanalysis and Weber's sociology can be seen as parallel roads out of Nietzsche's account of morality. We will trace these roads and ask whether Nietzsche, Freud and Weber remain significant as theorists of twenty-first century psyches, society and morality.
Oral seminar presentation (10 - 20 minutes) : 10%
Summary of oral
literature review (1000 -1,500 words) : 10%
Essay (5000 words) : 50%
Examination (2 hours) : 30%
One 2-hour seminar per week (26 hours per semester)