London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Modules

158 Reading social science (half unit)

Prerequisite
None

Aims and objectives

Students are expected to undertake a great deal of independent reading during their studies and this unit prepares them for this work. This unit has two specific and related aims:

• to develop transferable skills for the close reading and comprehension of complex original material. This will give students confidence to recognise and understand important arguments and ideas.
  to give students a sound introduction to some of the key arguments that have shaped social scientific thought from its inception in the Enlightenment up to the present day

Through its detailed focus on primary texts, the unit will make complex material accessible and enable students to gain the confidence to read original material.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the unit and the readings indicated students should be able to:

• develop a critical approach to texts
• recognise, understand and explain an argument or idea
• compare and contrast arguments and ideas across a range of thinkers and writers, and be able to identify the broader context of these arguments
• read and analyse texts with confidence
• develop sustained arguments of their own.

Syllabus

The unit is structured round a series of short extracts from texts that are important within, or have shaped, the social scientific tradition. Key themes that the unit addresses through these texts are: subjectivity, selfhood and society, the ‘problem’ of order and social cohesion, social stratification and division, social change.

Students will be expected to familiarise themselves in depth with the extracts indicated and discussed in the subject guide. They will be encouraged to read, analyse, compare and make links between the readings indicated. They will be required to identify the arguments, problems and formulate their own ideas and arguments about what they read. Students will also be expected to familiarise themselves with some related secondary literature (indicated in the guide) in order to locate the arguments and ideas that they encounter in their historical and intellectual context.

Students will have a selection of at least five short texts which will be chosen for their importance in the development of social scientific thought.

Essential reading
The essential reading for this unit is the subject guide and reading pack provided.

The extracts for 2007-08 are from:

Thomas Hobbes Leviathan
Descartes Discourse on Method
Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations
Freud Civilisation and Its Discontents
Foucault Discipline and Punish

Assessment

This unit is assessed by a two hour unseen written examination.
All information in this document is subject to confirmation in the Programme Regulations for degrees and diplomas in Economics, Management, Finance and the Social Sciences that are
reviewed annually. Notice is also given in the Regulations of any units which are being phased out and students are advised to check unit availability.