New Soc Sci Course to Supplement Lectures With Instructive Argument

Social Sciences 101, ideology and Value in Social Theory, which will be given for the first time next Spring, will have a format radically different from any other course offered at Harvard; in addition to lecturing, the members of the staff will argue specific issues.

Martin Peretz, instructor in Social Studies, who will teach the course, explained that "it will deal with the implicit assumptions, value orientations and ideological implications of some selected ways of thinking about society and history." The approach, he continued, will be similar to Social Studies 10 and will examine "the predispositions and uses of theory."

Peretz will be assisted by David Levey teaching fellow in Economics, who will share a substantial part of the lecturing. The plan, Peretz explained, is to structure into the course the notion that almost every assertion in the Social Sciences is contestable. By having two teachers at the podium arguing an issue on which they disagree, Peretz continued, students hopefully will be jarred out of the role of stenographer and become critics of social theory.

The course will concentrate on two intensive case studies: theories of power in America, taught by Peretz, and theories of the capitalist economy taught by Levey. There will probably be a number of sections concentrating on different aspects of these two fields so that students will be able to sign up for a topic which interests them. The sections, Peretz said, should be preparation for a long theorotical paper which will be due at the end of the term.

There will be no prerequisites for the course, but Peretz hopes enrollment can be kept to a modest figure. Soc. Sci. 101 will also be one of the new courses which; when taken in conjunction with a full year's course in History. Government, Social Relations, or Economics, will fulfill one half the Basic Requirement in Social Sciences.

Readings for the course will include works from Mannheim. Weber, Lipset, Riesman, C. Wright Mills, Marx, Keynes, Schumpeter and others.