ANSO 328-01, Social Conditions of the Self, Spring 2001

Abstract

The purpose of this course is to explore what is perhaps the most primary concern in sociology – sociality, the inherently social condition of human existence. To say that we are inherently social is to say that self understanding, and the understanding of any aspect of our existence, must address the implications of our social condition. In contemporary theoretical language this concern is addressed in terms of the concept of the “situated subject,” a subject or self that is unavoidably affected by the situations in which we are thrown and positioned. The situations or conditions that shape the self are historical, linguistic, cultural, and social. We will read a number of cross-cultural selections that illustrate the structural import of these conditions, thereby raising our own awareness of the conditions of our contemporary American existence.