ANSO 311(S) Modern Culture

Just as the "problem of meaning" in the modern world has for many years been a central intellectual concern in literature, philosophy, and theology, so has it been a major analytical focus in social scientific assessments of modern life. Unlike the former, sociological treatments of modernity and the problem of meaning are primarily concerned with providing systematic and objective diagnoses of the modern condition rather than with offering solutions. Working within a sociological paradigm, this class will explore how the modern processes of cultural and structural pluralization, rationalization, and the triumph of technology have undermined traditional sources of meaning; affected understandings of the self, community, and social relationships; and complicated the individual's quest to make meaningful sense of the world. Investigation into the effects of modernity on social arrangements and individual consciousness will include analysis of what new strategies, forms of discourse, and codes of moral understanding individuals are appealing to in the modern context in order to cope with or "face up to" the quandary of modernity. Finally, we will consider whether modern culture is itself evolving into a new epistemic order. Has ours become a postmodern culture? Or is it best characterized as the further advancement of modernity-what some call "high modern" culture? What further perplexities might so-called postmodern developments pose on individual and collective quests to make meaningful sense of the world? Format: seminar Requirements: class participation, midterm, research paper.

Hour:  NOLAN