The Concept of Culture
Term:
Fall 2008
Subject Code:
GLIB
Course Number:
5104
The preoccupation of many social thinkers with the phenomenon of �culture�
long antedates J.G. Herder's remark that "nothing is more indeterminate
than this word." Still, a preoccupation with culture has been widely
shared ever since -- by historians, sociologists, and anthropologists.
This seminar is addressed to those who are interested in the history of
social thought, the sociology of knowledge, and studies of culture, and will
explore the main debates surrounding the idea of culture and its
development. Whether discussing the Greek notion of paidea, the
Romantic ideal of genius, or the historiographic essays of the Annales
historians of our own day, we shall trace the dynamics of two contrasting
approaches to culture: the broadly empirical and anthropological
approach, and the more narrowly normative and "humanistic" approach. The
readings -- some of them passionate critiques of culture -- include works
by Plato, Aristophanes, Vico, Rousseau, Herder, Goethe, Marx, Ferdinand
de Saussure, Sigmund Freud, Fernand Braudel, J. Heuzinga, Ernst
Cassirer, Mikhail Bakhtin, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Samuel Beckett.
< back
