Perspectives on Modernity: Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Max Weber
This course was available in the past and may be presented again as part of the Master of Liberal Arts curriculum.
The course will delve into the ideas of Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Max Weber – three foundational thinkers in the social sciences. Their ideas have helped us define the modern predicament, and shape how we think about inequality, freedom, and work. Through their writings, we will trace the co-emergence of capitalism and a distinctly modern social and cognitive order. The course aims to demonstrate the historicity of various modern attitudes towards work, economy, and society, historicize the lived experience of modernity, and recover the utopian visions (as opposed to the now more commonly dystopian ones) associated with it. This is a seminar, and thus keeping up with the readings and actively participating in discussion are required.
- Fulfills the Core - Social Science requirement
About the Professor
Marco Garrido
Marco Garrido is an Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department at the University of Chicago. His primary research interest focuses on the relationship between the urban poor and middle class in Manila. More broadly, his research examines the relationship between urban structures and political dissensus, as well as the role that class plays in shaping urban spaces, social life, and politics.