Undergraduate Module Descriptor

SOC3119: Introduction to Critical Theory

This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.

Module Aims

The aims of this module are:

  • to introduce you to 20th century Critical Theory and its Freudo-Marxist concepts
  • to practise critical methods and critical reflection
  • to learn about philosophical examination of modern-day social changes and problems
  • to introduce you to 20th century philosophers who have been greatly influential on current social theoretical and political thought.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the theories and texts (readings) for the course
2. Demonstrable sound understanding of the methodological and conceptual problems of critiquing modernity
Discipline-Specific Skills3. Demonstrate critical understanding of the interrelation between epistemology, values, and material social conditions
4. Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of a specific current type of sociological and political analysis
Personal and Key Skills5. Demonstrate the ability to critically analyse texts with guidance, and discuss complex problems
6. Demonstrate the ability to write short, explanatory summaries of academic texts.
7. Demonstrate the ability to research independently and write a critical sociological essay on a course theme.

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

- Stephen Eric Bronner, ‘Critical Theory, A Very Short Introduction’ (2011), Oxford University Press

- Martin Jay, ‘The Dialectical Imagination, A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research, 1923-50’, (1973/1996), University of California Press

- Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer: ‘The Dialectic of Enlightenment’ (1944/2002) Stanford University Press

- Theodor W. Adorno: ‘Minima Moralia’ (2005), Verso

- Judith Butler: ‘Giving an Account of Oneself’ (2005), Fordham University Press

- Erich Fromm: ‘Escape from Freedom’ (2011), Ishi Press

- Herbert Marcuse on Ecology: The Journal of Socialist Ecology, pp. 29-49; @ https://www.marcuse.org/herbert/pubs/posthumous/79MarcuseEcologyCritiqueModernSociety1992CapNatSoc.pdf

- Jürgen Habermas: ‘The Discourse of Modernity’, (1990), MIT Press 

- Axel Honneth, ‘Disrespect. The Normative Foundations of Critical Theory’ (2007), Polity Press 

- Nancy Fraser 2014, Taling About Needs, Ethics Vol 99(2), pp. 291-313.

- Christian Fuchs 2017, Anxiety and Politics in the New Age of Authoritarian Capitalism, Triple C, pp. 637-650.